top of page
2025 Official Selections
5683
01:30 mins
Dir. Brittany Benedict | Feature & Iowa Made
When workaholic ad executive Vanessa finds herself the focus of an impromptu intervention centered around her love life, or lack thereof, her friends stumble across a billboard promising the name of your "Tru Love" and they seize the opportunity. With her dating life stuck in a commercial break Vanessa now finds herself thrust into the dating scene at the hands of her best friends and has to choose to fight it or join in the endeavor. I mean, when 5683 spells love on the telephone keypad, what's the worst that can happen?
Abraham's Bridge
54 mins
Dir. Elinor Pierce | Documentary
Something is happening in the heartland: here, a mosque, synagogue, church, and interfaith center are connected by a circular wooden bridge, an organic donation garden, and a quietly disruptive vision. Can this new model of coexistence in the American Midwest bridge the rising currents of division?
American Clown
01:34 mins
Dir. Guilford Adams, Casey Pinkston | Documentary
As the American narrative towards clowns sours, a working clown goes on a journey of discovery to find hope for an ever changing profession.
An American Abroad
1 hr 45 mins
Dir. Marcia Kimpton | Feature
Marcia, a former late-night show starlet known for her eccentricity and unpredictability, embarks on a journey around the world, hosting a travel show. While the concept sounds promising, it’s a big demotion and lacks substance for her. Deep down though, she knows this is her only chance to show off her skills and get back to her dream job. Through the eyes and voice of her new boyfriend, Arnold, we witness a tumultuous and ever-evolving example of what it takes to find love in 2025. There is eccentric humor, grounded drama, and tons of the unexpected in this new partnership, as they travel from Amsterdam to Istanbul, through the islands of Greece, to French wine country, and Lisbon, Portugal to finally end up not only in Cape Town, South Africa but to remote safari locations in the African savannah. Their trip is a whirlwind of fun and chaos, filled with excitement and uncertainty, but will they find love, and will Marcia finally realize her lifelong calling?
An Untitled Love Story
15 mins
Dir. Devesh Desai | Student
A love story between 2 young adults, but only when something changes their lives forever can they resolve themselves.
Beyond The Stage
23 mins
Dir. Derek Snyder | Student
Step behind the scenes of an electrifying collaboration between Kaboom Studio Orchestra and Mourning [A] BLKstar, Cleveland’s acclaimed Afrofuturist soul collective! This documentary captures the creative journey of young artists working alongside industry professionals to produce a groundbreaking live performance and professional album. Witness the challenges, triumphs, and pure magic of bringing bold, genre-defying music to life.
California Highway 99
2 mins
Dir. Katie Ann Marks| Music Video
While Rose and Jen of The Softies have been on some adventures touring along California's Highway 99 back in the 90's, they've also known sadness and change. The visuals depict years of fun excursions adapted from stories told by the band members themselves, while their melancholy track represents the heartbreak. Shot using stop-motion paper puppets, follow Rose and Jen for their comeback as a group.
Chasing Tables
44 mins
Dir. Justin Bergh | Documentary
After training under two James Beard award-winning-chefs in some of the most acclaimed and important restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, Jordan Taylor, a Sioux Falls native, returned to his home state and opened a string of successful restaurants. His rise in the Sioux Falls culinary scene appears to be an unmitigated success. His story, however, is much more interesting than that.
Church Bell
3 mins
Dir. Naftali Beane Rutter | Music Video
A music video for Tongo Eisen-Martin, the Poet Laureate of San Francisco, and his band LOAN.
Codewords
3 mins
Dir. Meredith Esquivel | Short
A man relays a code word to a secret agent.
Companions
19 mins
Dir. Bobby Ayala Perez | Short
A senior citizen, Harold, finds himself alone for the first time in decades, and calls upon a social worker who suggests an unusual kind of companion… one that requires D-sized batteries.
Cornered
6 mins
Dir. Kristopher J. Gathercoal | Music Video
A relationship is strained due to a man's inability to let go of the past.
Country Couture
3 mins
Dir. Dustin J Robison | Music Video
Cali Tucker video
Death by Fruitcake
1 hr 28 mins
Dir. Max Allen Collins | Feature & Iowa Made
Local theater diva Vivian Borne and reluctant assistant Brandy set out to bag the bad actor who brought the curtain down on the soap-opera queen guest star of The Fruitcake That Saved Christmas. Fans of Knives Out and Murder She Wrote will find Death by Fruitcake a deliciously deadly – and sometimes daffy – holiday delight.
Divide
9 mins
Dir. Jeanette Buck | Short
Two estranged siblings of opposing political persuasions clean out their mother's home after her death. They feel closer until a fight over the inheritance of a sentimental souvenir triggers their unresolved childhood issues and illuminates the political divide between them. Maybe the divide is too big to cross.
Down Safe
8 mins
Dir. Fédor Benton | Student
When 10-year-old Fédor discovers a locked safe buried in his backyard, his world transforms into a thrilling quest to uncover its secrets.
Downtown Art Dreams
4 mins
Dir. Big Swede, Tim Hogarth | Music Video
Artist / Music Producer / Composer / DJ / Multi-Instrumentalist Big Swede creates ‘Downtown Art Dreams’: a song / video that features art, music and scenery of Downtown Los Angeles. It showcases the amazing creative energy of the melting pot that is Downtown Los Angeles.
It features a song written and produced by Big Swede and spoken word from longtime residents and legendary artists/painters Gronk and Tanner Goldbeck, together with world top harmonica player Jimmy Z (Eurythmics) and edited by Tim Hogarth (Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Mariah’s World)
Echoes in the Dark
16 mins
Dir. Victor San Martin-Diaz | Student
Unique, mysterious, but misunderstood; a species that does so much for us, and their real value is now coming out of the dark. Echoes in the Dark (2024) uncovers the impact of an unsuspecting, yet wildly rejected creature: bats. The documentary is a fully student-produced project from the University of Florida, led by a team in their early 20s.
Garden of Des Moines
16 mins
Dir. Teri Underhill | Short, Documentary, Iowa
Garden of Des Moines is an intimate interview-style short film that follows drag performers in Iowa as they navigate the challenges of being queer in a conservative state. Through personal stories, the film explores the difficulties they face, from political pushback to societal pressures, while highlighting the joy, resilience, and freedom they find in drag. Set against Iowa's landscape, the film captures the vibrant, defiant beauty of queer expression flourishing in unexpected places
God damnit!
25 mins
Dir. Yann Cado, Julien Ordan | Short
Too lazy to create the Universe on his own, God gathers his Archangels in his workshop for a brainstorming session.
Goodbye
9 mins
Dir. Luke J Bell | Local
James makes his way through a beautiful park full of memories to say goodbye.
Here With You
14 mins
Dir. Grace Maddox | Student
While visiting his wife with dementia in the hospital, Thomas comes to the realization that she may never recognize him again. As he grapples with this reality, his wife's doctor inspires him to find a new way to say goodbye.
Homeward Dawn
20 mins
Dir. Alysha Daniele Haran | Short
A long night in jail leads to a catharsis and a new day for a veteran trying to outrun his painful past.
I am Gitxstan
1 hr 4 mins
Dir. Hossein Martin Fazeli | Documentary
"I Am Gitxsan" follows Phoenix Apperloo, a recent high school graduate reconnecting with his Indigenous heritage in Hazelton, British Columbia, Canada. Inspired by encounters with residential school survivors, he writes a heartfelt letter to Prime Minister Trudeau about the injustices faced by his people.
I Voted
1 hr 40 mins
Dir. Tyler Mann | Feature
A polling location goes under lockdown during a tense presidential election, forever changing the lives of a group of strangers as they inevitably do what most do not recommend...talk politics.
Iowa’s Dirty Secret: The True Cost of Burning Coal
30 mins
Dir. John Klein & Stephen Kniss | Feature
Iowa’s Dirty Secret: The True Cost of Burning Coal is a short film that examines the cost of coal through first-hand accounts shared by families who live near the coal plants, doctors who have seen the health impacts of coal pollution, and the advocates fighting for something better.
Lady Revel -
Millennial Dirtbag
4 mins
Dir. Wesley Rebarcak | Music Video
Land of the Mustaches
1 hr 28 mins
Dir. Leon Joosen | Feature
Land of the Mustaches is an autobiographical story of a young girl growing up in the Displaced Persons refugee camps with her mother and grandmother after World War Two left them starving and stateless, and her father's disappearance into Stalin's notorious Gulag labor camps in Siberia with only what he was wearing the day he was abducted—two hard paths that parallel each other until they finally merge into one story: The ultimate celebration of resilience and the human spirit.
Margot on a Run
20 mins
Dir. Andrew Sindt | Short
A shy runner encounters his old crush and they begin a not-so-innocent relationship running together.
Moonglow
13 mins
Dir. Sky Cole | Student
In 2006, Heather's quiet life is disrupted when her teenage daughter's crush makes a move on the wrong girl.
Ms. Rossi 3: Ms. Rossi Meets the Mob
20 mins
Dir. Pat Battistini | Short
While traveling for work, Ms. Rossi gets picked up by the wrong driver at the airport.
No One Died: The
Wing Bowl Story
1 hr 30 mins
Dir. Pat Taggart | Documentary
No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story is a hilarious look back on the greatest radio promotion of all time, often referred to as a bacchanal. This 26 year long controversial chicken wing eating contest was never really about chicken. It was a mix of competition, pageantry and debauchery that gave an opportunity for the average person to become a celebrity for a day in front of a capacity crowd.
OUTRO
17 mins
Dir. Wes Worthing | Iowa
Just minutes before going on-air, a retiring radio DJ has an unexpected conversation that will inspire the tone of his last show.
Paw Paw & Dayja
60 mins
Dir. Gregory Alan Williams | Feature
Paw Paw & Dayja follows the adventures of a Bigfoot obsessed ten-year old who, with the help of her widowed grandfather, learns that each of us sees the world a little differently and that everyone’s view has value.
Peace and Serenity
11 mins
Dir. Triston Kollister | Student
Peace and Serenity is a short film wrapped in chaos, memory, and that raw ache of trying too hard to hold something together that’s already cracked.It follows Serenity, a young woman orchestrating a surprise birthday party for her dad. But this isn’t just about balloons and cake... it’s a desperate attempt to reclaim some version of peace in a house full of ghosts, tension, and people who’ve drifted. Between missing tape, broken cookies, and a shattered mug from childhood, things start spiraling. Fast. Then her estranged older brother Jay shows up. Maybe real, maybe not... and the whole film shifts. Their quiet conversation on the driveway isn’t just a reunion; it’s a reckoning. About their father, their past, and what it means to still show up for people, even after you’ve let them down. Peace and Serenity isn’t about forgiveness, it’s about showing up anyway.
Pieowa: A Piece of America
1 hr 16 mins
Dir. Beth M. Howard | Iowa Made
PIEOWA is about pie and the outsized role it plays in Iowa's—and America's—culture, and the ways this humble pastry can unite us.
Pie is not only an iconic American dessert, it is a nonpartisan symbol kindness, comfort, generosity, unity, and love—all the things we need more of right now. To convey how something as simple as a homemade pie can make the world a better place, filmmaker, author, and piemaker Beth M. Howard aims her lens at her native Iowa, where pie is woven into the state’s cultural fabric from church fundraisers to nostalgic diners, farmers markets, myriad pie shops, international flavors, Iowa State Fair competitions, and the next generation of piemakers
PURRICANE!
12 mins
Dir. Brett Schnacky | Short
In this purrfectly hilarious disaster comedy, chaos ensues when a massive hurricane merges with a group of experimental cats, creating an unprecedented natural disaster—a PURRICANE! Reporter Simon Clawsenhauser is whisker-deep in the feline frenzy, capturing the unfolding chaos. As the storm claws its way across the planet, Dr. Peter Pussywillow and his team of scientists scramble to devise a purrposterous scheme to tame the tempest and save the world. "PURRICANE!" is a heartwarming and hilarious adventure, full of over-the-top visual effects, taking you on a hiss-terical ride you won’t soon furget.
Real Fake War
15 mins
Dir. Tommy Dilger | Documentary
Real Fake War is a deeply personal documentary that tells the story of Travis “TJ” Truax, a Marine Corps combat veteran struggling to cope with PTSD through war reenacting.
As a troubled teen, Travis “TJ” Truax joined the marines to find a sense of purpose, but he wasn’t prepared for what he would experience overseas. Upon returning to the states and leaving the marine corps years later, his teenage hobby of war reenacting took on a new, deeper meaning. For TJ, reenacting and his deployment to Afghanistan blend together as he navigates his life after the end of 20 years of war in the middle east, the onset of PTSD, and the loss of his friends to suicide.
Red, Green, and Gold
12 mins
Dir. Neal Simmons | Music Video
Red, Green, and Gold - Music Video
by Mad Delirious
Running Towards the Fire - A War Correspondent's Story
56 mins
Dir. Barney McCoy | Documentary
"Running Towards the Fire - A War Correspondent's Story" captures the pivotal roles war correspondents played during the Allied forces’ 1944 D-Day invasion of Europe and the subsequent defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers in 1945.
The war correspondents were unsung heroes who risked their lives informing the world with firsthand accounts of the bravery and sacrifice of American and Allied forces.
Single Use
5 mins
Dir. Jonney Zomberg | Student
In the polluted world of the far future, a scavengers tries to survive.
Soil & Soul: Farming in the Sangamon River Valley
43 mins
Dir. Rich Saal | Documentary
Generations of farmers have sown and reaped a livelihood in the Sangamon River Valley, nearly 5,500 square miles of land in central Illinois, and home to some of the richest soil in the world.
These are the stories of the men and women rooted there, bonded to the land for generations.
Stone Garden
15 mins
Dir. Alysha Daniele Haran | Short
After running away from home, a young boy happens upon a mysterious stone garden. Through the help of the enigmatic Stone Witch, caretaker of the garden, he learns a painful lesson about regret, sacrifice and ultimately what it means to love and be loved.
Tapp'd
25 mins
Dir. Matthew Scott Wolff, Jacob Boeke | Short
Katherine Odette has created a new smartphone app that will allow her to teleport anywhere in the world and she can’t wait to show her brother Owen. Katherine and Owen begin to travel the world but the TAPP’D app soon malfunctions separating the duo. Owen finds himself being randomly teleported into locations and situations that are uncomfortable and dangerous. It’s up to Katherine to find and save her brother.
The Cargo
14 mins
Dir. Chris Edgar | Short
When a shipwrecked Soviet prisoner washes up on the beach of Hokkaido, Japan in 1939 and is taken in by a Japanese fisherman, they overcome their sharp cultural differences to forge an unlikely friendship.
Things We Say
12 mins
Dir. Rachel Klewicki, Tasia Alexandria | Short
A deceased artist's muse and estranged daughter must work together to execute her will, but old hurts get in the way when tempers fly and their car breaks down, leaving them stranded together in the middle of nowhere.
Truth Detector: Regifted
9 mins
Dir. William Reliford | Animation
The family is visiting grandpa for Christmas. But there is one gift that keeps on giving.
Turn Four
41 mins
Dir. Joshua Tigges Tigges | Student
UNEarthing The CO2 Pipeline
54 mins
Dir. Rebecca Terrell | Documentary
Imagine waking up to the nightmare of seeing your family’s farm - land you’ve nurtured for generations - torn apart by strangers drilling test wells without your consent. This shocking reality is unfolding across the Midwest, as powerful corporations exploit eminent domain to seize land for unregulated and hazardous CO2 pipelines.
What Makes Us Girls
15 mins
Dir. Ria May | Student
What Makes Us Girls follows 17-year-old Arlo as she comes of age, struggling to act as a role model to little sister Millie while rebelling against the pair’s boy crazy mom.
When Life Gives You A Lawnmower
5 mins
Dir. Moon Abbott | Short
Things go awry as 1950s couple Dick and Brenda prepare for company. Enter Dick, a blatant misogynist with a superiority complex who just can't get his lawnmower started. Next, his wife Brenda, an innocent housewife who only wants her yard looking as best it can for company arriving soon. Then, a terrible accident ensues and Dick gets exactly what's coming to him.
Windyville
19 mins
Dir. Dusty Dale Barker | Short
Windyville has a secret shared among its residents which defines their existence but disappears when people depart from the town. The truth about Windyville remains forgotten by all outsiders who leave its borders because the townspeople eventually gave up trying to share their story with the world.
During her cross-country road trip, journalist Ruth accidentally finds herself in Windyville and uncovers what the town keeps hidden. She remains steadfast while previous visitors allowed the secret to fade away. As she fights to hold onto what she’s discovered, one question remains: Will she succeed in being the first to break free from the town's secret or will she succumb to forgetting as others have?
Zastava Brothers
22 mins
Dir. Pep Stojanovic | Documentary
Zastava Brothers is a documentary about the cars of former Yugoslavia and a group of immigrants now living in America who transcend their different backgrounds to form a bond over their love for those cars. As night falls on their first ever Sunday drive, they must spring to action when one of the cars begins to smoke.
bottom of page