Each year Abertoir invites filmmakers from across the globe to submit short films for the Abertoir Short Film Competition. As always, the response has been phenomenal and it’s not possible to show all of the amazing entries.
There are two prizes on offer. The first being the Audience Award for Best Short Film, and the second is the Méliès d’argent awarded to the best European film.
As part of Abertor’s role in the Méliès International Festivals Federation, our short film competition will award a Short Film Méliès d’argent. This is an internationally recognised prize specific to the Federation and is a testimony to the talented filmmakers in Europe. The winner of our Short Film Méliès d’argent will go forward to the final lineup at Sitges for the prestigious Méliès d’or Award for the Best European Fantastic Short Film. All our European fictional short films are eligible.
Films are showing over tHREE sessions:
Part 1 (Fri 15th November 2024)
Bath Bomb, Collection Only, DAGON, Deliverance, Fisitor, Moon Alone, Outside Noise, Paspocalypse, The Gourd The Brad and The Ghostly, Wake
Part 2 (Sat 16th November 2024)
Crimson Harbor, Dark Mommy, Eldritch Karaoke, It Came From Inside!, Poppy’s Saturn, Strange Creatures, The Mannequin, The Visitor
Part 3 (Sunday 17th November 2024)
Affentanz – Hunter, Black Hole Barry, Dummy!, Henry’s Hand, Reel, Saint Maria’s Way, The Cost of Flesh, Thirsty Thursday, Triptych, VHX
Affentanz – Hunter
Dir. Cyprian Hercka,
Germany, 9mins, subtitled
The name of the song says it all: The hunter on the prowl. A deer in a scope. A finger on the trigger. But then – a crack. A smack from a faceless hooded figure. A knock out and darkness. From there everything will be different.
Bath Bomb
Dir. Colin G Cooper
Canada, 10mins
A possessive doctor prepares an ostensibly romantic bath for his narcissistic boyfriend, but after an accusation of infidelity, things take a deeply disturbing turn.
Black Hole Barry
Dir. Alejandro Alberola
UK, 9.5mins
Right before Scott’s boyfriend moves in with him, he decides to go on a series of hookups to get the most out of his last week living alone, a decision he’s going to regret forever.
Collection Only
Dir. Alun Rhys Morgan
UK, 12mins
Nye has dragged his estranged best mate Daf, to collect a free armchair from a fearsome old house. A chain of sinister events follow, as Daf and Nye grapple with their fractured friendship, while trying to make it out alive…with the chair.
Crimson Harbor
Dir. Victor Bonafonte
Spain 2024, 8mins
Hattie Duvall, a mysterious clairvoyant, is asked by the Crimson Harbor Police Department to help them solve a serial murder case that has shadowed the city for the past few months. Her interviewer, an experienced detective, is reluctant to Ms. Duvall’s unorthodox techniques, but both will be forced to cooperate and unravel the mystery surrounding these woods.
Dagon
Dir. Paolo Gaudio
Italy 2024, 6mins
In 1919 San Francisco, a man is standing on the ledge of a building ready to jump. Desperate, he relives in his memories the absurd and shocking episode that led him to the brink of suicide: the encounter with the monstrous and mythological Great Old One, DAGON.
Dark Mommy
Dir. Courtney Eck
USA 2023, 13mins
Ben is the only night shift 911 operator in a small town. His bubble of self-isolation is only ever punctured by drunks or prank calling kids, but tonight Dark Mommy has her own intentions for Ben…and the rest of the town.
Deliverance
Dir. Kaljeven Singh Lally
UK 2024, 9.5mins
A Sikh delivery driver is asked for help by a customer, a Priest.
Dummy!
Dir. Francesca Pazniokas
USA 2024, 13.5mins
An aspiring cabaret singer struggles to break free from her controlling mother — a ventriloquist dummy who was once a star herself. DUMMY! is a surreal technicolor melodrama about fearing you weren’t built for the world you’re meant to inhabit.
Eldritch Karaoke
Dir. Joe Loftus
Ireland 2024, 5mins
A young woman on the road to escape her past is hit by a car and descends into a chaotic musical after-life.
Fisitor
Dir. Llŷr Titus
UK 2024, 15mins, subtitled
Stalked by grief for his husband and a nightmarish creature from Welsh folklore, Ioan must do his best to survive Christmas Eve.
Henry’s Hand
Dir. Laura Gilda Maiullari, Lilith Eva Föhn, Oleksandra Gorshevikova
Switzerland 2024, 4.5mins
Henry, Fish and Cat run the most successful Lemon business in Syracuse. The Vulture, a jealous mafia boss, is after their recipe for success: the Superlemon. To blackmail Henry, Vulture kidnaps Cat, and things soon start to escalate.
It Came From Inside
Dir. Jackson Rees, Aura Sandoval
USA 2024, 12mins
On Halloween night, an aloof young couple find a corpse, a cassette tape, and a mysterious transmission device. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by the mystery of their discovery. Who — or what — is the device designed to summon?
Moon Alone
Dir. Heejin Kang
Canada 2024, 3mins
Every night, an angel awaits her divine orders alone. When a list of departed souls appears in the sky, she journeys to meet them, guiding them toward their heavenly destination.
Outside Noise
Dir. Ethan Evans
UK 2024, 8mins
An overwhelmed woman listens to a sleep ambience app to unwind before bed, but when the sounds eerily begin to blend with reality, she suspects it has conjured something frightening into her room…
Paspocalypse
Dir. Jasper ten Hoor, Ivan Hidayat
Netherlands 2024, 6mins, subtitled
During an evening shift in an empty office building, a young cleaning lady experiences the fright of her life.
Poppy’s Saturn
Dir. Nicole Tegelaar
Belgium 2023, 14.5mins, subtitled
When nightclub singer Poppy is confronted by a black-eyed man she is overcome by fear. The event triggers a buried sexual trauma that she has to overcome in a kaleidoscopic world of glitter, music and blood.
Réel
Dir. Rodrigue Huart
France 2024, 4mins, subtitled
1857. Coutances. Two farmer girls find a smartphone in their field.
Saint Maria’s Way
Dir. Chris Turner
UK 2024, 6.5mins
Carolyn never intended to walk home alone at night. When police emergency services receive her call reporting a man following her, they try to help. But between the glitching phone signal and her evasive answers, she proves difficult to track down.
Strange Creatures
Dir. Nicholas Payne Santos
USA 2023, 6.5mins
Desperate to see her brother again, a young woman visits the site of his death.
The Cost of Flesh
Dir. Tomas Palombi
France 2023, 10mins, subtitled
Alice is a totally paralyzed teenager who can only communicate through the movements of her eyes. Her brother and sister try an obscure method to free her from the evil that hinders her…
The Gourd, The Brad and The Ghostly
Dir. Jillian Terwedo-Malsbury
USA 2023, 9.5mins
After causing a tragic accident on Halloween night, Brad is haunted by his guilty conscience as he takes the elevator down to the scene of the crime. Is he heading to the lobby… or straight to hell?
The Mannequin
Dir. Emelie Dahlskog
Sweden 2023, 14mins
An aspiring seamstress thinks she can solve all her creative problems by creating a mannequin. But after some strange events she suspects that the mannequin has aspirations of its own.
The Visitor
Dir. Tony Morales
Spain 2024, 10mins, subtitled
Alone in her home overnight, a young influencer’s solitude is interrupted by an unexpected visitor.
Thirsty Thursday
Dir. Jeff Oliver
USA 2024, 15mins
When a sacred ritual is interrupted by a clueless frat boy, a coven of Black witches are forced to teach a deadly lesson about consent.
Triptych
Dir. Sophia Ray
UK 2024, 14.5mins
A high-end art dealer is haunted by a mysterious force from her past that threatens to destroy everything she’s built.
VHX
Dir. Alisa Stern, Scott Ampleford,
USA 2024, 5mins
A collection of home movies languish on a shelf, longing to be watched again. Little do they know, there’s a fate far worse than being forgotten. VHX is a stop motion animated short made with real vintage VHS tapes.
Wake
Dir. Sean Carter
USA 2023, 12.5mins
With a hurricane raging outside their hospital, two nurses have one last job before evacuating: stow the “dead-on-arrival” corpse of a young girl in the downstairs morgue before the building floods. But the corpse quickly reveals itself to be more than it seems.