Films from Around the World

27 November - 6 December berlinscifi.com facebook.com/berlinscifi twitter.com/BScifi/ 20

instagram.com/berlinscififilmfest

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Virtual Theatre at a

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xerb.tv/channel/berlinscififilmfest/virtual-events A

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International Online Film Festival

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20w w Sponsors of the BERLIN SCI-FI FILMFEST

redgiant.com newbluefx.com

borisfx.com babylonberlin.eu

Xerb.tv

autodcp.com

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INTRODUCTION

Greetings to you and welcome to Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest,

The current COVID-19 regulations have affected the leisure and entertainment industry, not only in German but around the world. What this means, is that the Babylon Cinema (our partners in creating Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest) have had to close and will probably not re-open until the New Year. We are optimistic that they will re-open and the festival once again will take place on the big screen next year.

The Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest will continue though with an online international virtual theatre experience via XERB.TV. It will take place from 27th November to 6th December we are offering a mouth-watering program of independent short and feature films from around the world. In fact, we have 110 films from 28 countries over 20 sessions. No need to be bored during the lockdown, that’s for sure!

For the 4th year, we have upgraded and tweaked our award once more. The winners, runner-ups and finalists will be announced on Sunday 29th November. We will add an extra program featuring them shortly after that.

Regards,

Anthony, Alex and Isabella Berlin Sci-fi Team

______2 Please Note: Films not in English will be accompanied by English subtitles.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Page Sponsors Information 1 Introduction 2 Festival at a Glance 3 The Virtual Theatre Program 4 01 The DACH Session 4 (Short films from Germany Austria and Switzerland) 02 Short Films (A selection of 8 shorts) 5 03 Short Films (A selection of 8 shorts) 6 04 Feature Film – Artist Depiction Two (Documentary) 7 05 Feature Film (plus support film) – Box Head Revolution (Experimental/Avantgarde) 7 06 Short Films – (A selection of 9 shorts) 8 07 Feature Film – Hawk & Rev Vampire Slayers (Horror/Comedy) 9 08 Short Films – (A selection of 10 shorts) 9 09 Short Films – (A selection of 7 shorts) 10 10 Short Films – (A selection of 9 shorts) 11 11 Feature Film – Christmas Cancellation (Comedy) 12 12 Feature Film – A Feral World (Apocalyptic Dystopian Drama) 13 13 Short Films – (A selection of 9 shorts) 13 14 Short Films – (A selection of 6 shorts) 14 15 Short Films – (A selection of 8 shorts) 15 16 Feature Film (plus support film) – A report on the party & the guests (Drama/Thriller) 17 17 Feature Film – Alien Outbreak (Horror/Invasion) 17 18 Short Films – (A selection of 8 shorts) 18 19 Short Films – (A selection of 5 shorts) 19 20 Short Films – (A selection of 6 shorts) 19 21 Blue Planet Sci-fi Festival Selection – (7 shorts from China) 20 Berlin Sci-fi Presents – Episodes 21 Festival Crew and Acknowledgements 23

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01 THE DACH SHORTS SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 01:43:53

01 Ground (Space Music Video) Switzerland 2019, 4:45min – Director: Nic Gyalson Finding one's way back home can be difficult sometimes...

02 Q: ghostly remote effect (AI Drama) DE 2019, 19:43min – Director: Marcus Hanisch In the future in a hi-tech-lab Scientist P is testing quantum-gynoid Q and sets off on a mission to an undiscovered nature. On the journey she discovers a ghostly remote effect between herself and the robot. Will she maintain in control, when nature starts changing?

03 CYCLE 2217 (Post apocalyptic Action) DE 2019, 18:01min – Director: Evgeny Kalachikhin, Ruben Dauenhauer European Premiere In the 23rd century, post-apocalyptic world all of the resources have become just as scare as empathy.

04 overview (Space Drama) DE 2020, 2:59min – Director: Alexander Rottmann An astronaut is sent into space for the first time, changing her perspective on our blue planet forever.

05 Where do they come from (Love Drama) Austria 2020, 20:00min – Director: Manuel Hüttner Lukas's simple, mundane life is turned upside down after meeting the girl of his dreams.

06 tx-reverse (Space Time Experimental) Austria 2019, 5:00min – Directors: Martin Reinhart, Virgil Widrich What happens in a cinema when you reverse space and time? Originally shot in 10K resolution and 360° at the legendary Babylon Berlin. Winner of 10 international awards!

07 The Ticket (Life and Death Drama) DE 2019, 12:33min – Director: Franz Ufer Thomas dies. But what he witnesses on the other side is under no circumstances what he expected. Suddenly he is sitting in a waiting room, like one in a registration office.

08 Peperit8 (Cloning Action) DE 2020, 20:52min – Director: Aaron J. J. Schmidt In an experiment for human cloning, Carmina's DNA is stolen to create a new generation of security clones that are supposed to rule the dystopian world.

______4 02 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:31:27

01 Nice Shoes (Comedy) (Music Video) USA 2017, 3:47min – Director: Jonathan Lawrence A sci-fi extravaganza that is as pointless as the lyrics. Over 40 classic movie references are featured in this epic music video.

02 Zealandia (Pandemic Drama) NZ 2020, 15:01min – Director: Bruno du Bois German Premiere In 2032, Zealandia has become the only virus free country left on earth but at a high cost to its population due to intrusive medical regulations. But, could the bag carried by a fearless woman be the downfall of this oppressive state?

03 Everyone Will Die ((Disaster Comedy) USA 2020, 7:07min – Director: Andrew Burn A dark comedy about a meteor disaster that is taking over the world, a couple bickers about whether the news is “real” and how they should proceed. Mia tries to hurry her stubborn boyfriend Ty out of their high-rise apartment while mass chaos, unbeknownst to them, burns the city around them.

04 Jeff Drives You (LGBT AI Drama) USA 2019, 16:46min – Director: Aidan Brezonick A lonely gay man falls in love with an artificially intelligent car over the course of a road trip.

05 Witcher - Mines of Eeclor (Fan Film) Finland 2020, 8:07min – Director: Mikko Löppönen Witcher in the North visits the ravaged town of Thoduras to help the locals battle a monster in the mines.

06 3:14PM (Time Drama) China 2020, 19:06min – Director: I Fu Chen An 11 year-old boy Yi lives with his mother in a static world where time perpetually stops at 3:14 p.m. Yi faces a conundrum. Shall he live alone in this static world, or shall he activate time and embark on an unknown journey?

07 Sah Mata (Life or Death Experimental) France 2020, 4:55min – Director: Thomas Gailhard In a futuristic white and empty styled environment, one man starts a chess game with another man under the sight of a mysterious referee lady.

08 Human Trash (Futuristic Drama) Spain 2020, 16:38min – Director: Aitor Almuedo Esteban A boy is thrown into a trash container from the future. In his frantic search for the exit, he runs into a mysterious man, who will make him doubt the origin of his own existence

______5 03 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:27:26

01 Falling by REZZ (feat. Underoath) (Sci-fi Horror Music Video) Canada 2019, 3:40min Director: Colin G Cooper Rezz embarks upon a search-and-rescue mission to save Underoath’s Aaron Gillespie from an unfriendly virtual world that taunts him with self-harm.

02 4D (Time and Space Drama) Japan 2019, 12:00min - Director: Adam Hayes 1898, Tokyo, Japan - A beautiful widow attends a moon-lit KUCHIYOSE ceremony on the anniversary of her deceased husband’s death. Time and space blur as they are re-united for one single moment in time.

03 Living Things (Pandemic Drama) UK 2020, 12:12min – Director: Tom Cozens *With David Gaysi (Cloud Atlas and Interstellar) When a pandemic leaves a traumatized man isolated, he chooses to face deadly storms and the demons of his past in order to find other life.

04 2019 Golden Bell Award (futuristic Animation) Taiwan 2019, 3:45min – Director: Outerspace Leo A "TV man" fighting against the villain, who represents the harsh environment of TV program production in Taiwan.

05 Tacit Blue (Drama Animation) China 2019, 9:14min – Director: Wenkai Duan Carl goes to a deserted site to rescue his daughter who was kidnapped. But his enemy transformed Carl's daughter and turned her into a killing machine, she pointed the gun at Carl…

06 Raze of the Cyborg (Sex Slavery Action) Taiwan 2020, 25:00min – Director: Young Lee German premiere In the violent underworld of a future Asian city, a group of cyborg criminals abduct women to sell into sex slavery.

07 GOD: The Performance Review (Comedy) Australia 2019, 8:00min – Director: Victoria Carwin It's one millennium since God's last Performance Review Meeting with Senior Management and they're not impressed with what has been happening on that tiny blue planet called Earth - God’s needs to act quickly if he wants to avoid redundancy.

08 You will never be back (Drama/Horror) Spain 2020, 13:35min – Director: Mónica Mateo Ana and David say goodbye like any other day. The young lady has plans, but she won't be late. However, something extraordinary happens; something that alters her reality and changes everything completely.

______6 04 FEATURE FILM – ARTIST DEPICTION SERIES TWO

Artist Depiction Series Two (Documentary) USA 2020, 83 mins Director: Brett Ryan Bonowicz

Artist Depiction is an intimate and immersive documentary series examining the lives and techniques of space artists.

05 FEATURE FILM – BOX HEAD REVOLUTION plus Support

Box head Revolution (Retro 70’s Experimental) USA 2016, 79 mins Director: Mark Christensen

On an unknown planet in an uncertain time, a two-tiered society has taken shape. The ruling class lives above ground and wear masks on their faces, while the working class labors below the surface of the planet.

PLUS SUPPORT

The EIA Welcomes You! (Animation) USA 2015, 3:33min Made by Jamie Gower

This is an important message for would-be conquerors of our planet from the Earth Invasion Authority. Sometimes the best defense is a good bureaucracy.

______7 06 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:24:31

01 PROJECT-19 (COVID Drama) USA 2020, 3:30min – Director: Randy Scott Slavi PROJECT-19 is a sci-fi short film about a 6 year old engineering genius who puts her skills to work to solve her biggest issue with COVID-19. The film was shot using all five family members a multi-generational quarantine in New York.

02 Echo (Social Drama) Spain 2019, 14:00min – Director: Aitor de Miguel In 1977, the Voyager probe leaves for the galaxy with a message in Spanish recorded in the RNE (Spanish National Radio Studio). Almost 50 years later and sick with Alzheimer's, Carmen is facing being transferred from her home in her town to a residence in the city.

03 Fly Home (Fantasy Comedy) UK 2020, 3:11min – Director: Joshua M Kerr A fly that has miraculously appeared onboard pesters a lonely man working on a deep space transmission station.

04 VECT0R (Experimental) Denmark 2020, 14:50min – Director: Jan Sørup Russian Hacker Maria Vakhrushev hacks into a secret government virus laboratory. But someone - or something - already knows she's coming, and soon she receives a mysterious USB glass stick. As she plugs in the USB stick, the glass breaks and Maria blacks out. She wakes up to a dead world and begins her Odyssey home in a quest for discovery for the truth about what happened to her and the world.

05 God Glitch (Drama) Netherlands 2019, 7:58min - Director: Gideon van Eeden In a future where entire human lives are expressed in algorithms, a couple must say their final goodbyes in a digital afterlife.

06 You Wouldn't Understand (Comedy) USA 2019, 10:19min – Director: Trish Harnetiaux German Premiere An idyllic picnic of one is upended after the arrival of a stranger.

07 Roy (Robot Drama) USA 2020, 7:56min – Director: Joseph Fifelski Roy is a robot mechanic holed away in a rundown barn, living in a world of rustic antiques melded with futuristic sensibilities. He is forgotten by society until someone opens the door into .the barn.

08 Living in Crime Alley (Fan Film) UK 2019, 8:35min – Director: Rob Ayling A single father struggles to bring up his child, a huge fan of the dark knight, in downtown Gotham, known to citizens as Crime Alley.

09 Those Beautiful Moments (Drama) Russian Fed 2019, 14:12min – Director: Vasily Chuprina German Premiere "Those beautiful moments" tells the story of a scientist on the search for eternal beauty and life.”

______8 07 FEATURE FILM – HAWK & REV: VAMPIRE SLAYERS

Hawk and Rev: Vampire Slayers (Horror) USA 2019, 84 mins Director: Ryan Barton-Grimley

German Premiere

Philip “HAWK” Hawkins doesn’t just dream about killing vampires… He eats, sleeps, drinks and freakin’ breaths it! After getting kicked out the Army for staking a fellow soldier with a blunt two by four, Hawk almost dies of boredom working as a night security guard at a deserted office park in his hometown of Santa Muerte, California. Just when it looks like all Hawk’s options in life have expired, a filthy-ass blood-sucking vampires appear!

08 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:33:20

01 INHUMAN LOVE (Climate Change Music Video) Taiwan 2019, 6:00min – Director: Adam Hayes This story is a jarring metaphor about saving our vulnerable planet, before we run out of time.

02 Ungbi and non-human friends (Drama) Korea 2020, 17:35min – Director: Damin KIM German Premiere Ungbi, in need of a playmate, and an unidentified creature covered in black fur. The relationship between these two, who were 'human' and 'non-human animal', gradually reverses.

03 Across the Bridge (Animation) Canada 2020, 5:06min – Director: Alisha Steinberger, Chao Goody Wu Two siblings who have grown apart, bond again through an epic video game battle, bridging the gap in their relationship!

04 Roughneck (Military Drama) USA 2019, 14:12min – Director: Andrew Hardaway German premiere Roughneck is a mind-bending exploration of memory and consciousness. In the near future, mankind lives in a world where advanced technology removes negative emotions from the human experience and replaces them with a vision of a perfect human existence. But when a decorated soldier loses his wife, he finds himself experiencing something that shouldn’t be possible... pain. After he can no longer hide his grief from the world, he is targeted as a dangerous outlier, who may hold the fate of society in his hands.

05 Bodyhackers (Comedy) USA 2019, 7:25min – Director: Dale Metz, TL Westgate German premiere A father/daughter camping trip takes a turn for the worse!

______9 06 Alice 404 (Experimental) UK 2019, 8:00min – Director: Kate Graham German premiere In the near future, a teenager uses an app to play back her memories, ignoring the call and texts of concerned friends.

07 LOOP (Drama) Canada 2020, 13:05min – Director: Stuart Langfield A short sci-fi film set in the middle of the 21st century, that centres around reclusive, retired tech company CEO David Hinton's attempts to teach AI how to experience and process true human emotions.

08 HOOD: A Star Wars Story (Fan Film) USA 2019, 6:17min – Director: Damon Wellner This is a comedic tragic back-story of one of the Star Wars universe's favorite background character.

09 Instant Doctor (Action) USA 2020, 6:40min – Director: Youth and Diogo Gameiro What will the future of healthcare hold? Will algorithms eclipse doctors entirely? We hope not. Instant doctor is a short film to show appreciation for doctors and healthcare human workers everywhere.

10 The Game (Drama) Australia 2020, 9:00 – Director: Campbell J Smith Two men are locked in a room and only one can leave alive. Both signed up to be here as they both feel that they have nothing left to lose.

09 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:30:01

01 Employee 515 (Drama) Canada 2020, 6:00min – Director: Zikang Chen Employee 515 lives and works at his office adhering to the same routine everyday.

02 If you love her, let her go (Comedy) France 2020, 6:17min – Director: Ilan Zerrouki You should never go into space without letting your partner know.

03 Skywatch (Action) USA 2019, 10:00min – Director: Colin Levy When two outcast teens hack into a ubiquitous drone delivery system to pull a prank on their neighbor, they accidentally crash-land a dangerous prototype – and find themselves entangled in a life-and-death conspiracy.

______10 04 Epirenov. (Animation) Argentina 2019, 15:00min – Director: Alejandro Ariel Martin Epirenov is the last inhabitant on Earth. He monotonously walks around the empty desert in search of pieces necessary to build a partner. In one of his usual tours he discovers an artifact that will change his world.

05 G A B R I E L (Drama) Spain 2020, 19:58min – Director: Pierfrancesco Artini German Premiere Agatha is struck by her husband's death. She feels old and lonely, yet she starts to experience unexpected sexual desires that would lead her to buy the ultimate version of a male sex robot, Gabriel. Will she find happiness?

06 Exhibit Man (Comedy) Canada 2019, 28:00min – Director: Trevor Mirosh A police forensic photographer known as the exhibit man discovers an alien has infected some town folk.

07 No Boundary (Drama) Canada 2020, 4:46min – Director: Tom Belding After drifting off course for weeks, an astronaut receives a final radio transmission before being pulled towards a black hole.

10 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:29:49

01 Polybius (Drama) USA 2019, 1:30min – Director: Sharon Everitt Based on the cult urban legend, a bizarre video game takes over players brains.

02 Antumbra (Drama) USA 2020, 5:24min – Director: Boris Schaarschmidt Major Remy Barnes is the first astronaut to make contact with extraterrestrials on board of an unidentified flying object in orbit around earth. “Hello – anyone home?”

03 The Speed of Time (Comedy) USA 2020, 12:55min – Director: William J. Stribling Future cop Johnny Killfire must go back in time and team up with his former self in order to stop the TimeBorgs from getting their hands on an app that could break the space-time continuum by delivering pizzas into the past...before they were even ordered.

04 The Harbour (Drama) UK 2020, 14:30min – Director: Sam Ainsworth With Richard Henderson - Charlie Field - James Dreyfus A couple go on a virtual real estate viewing for their dream house, only to find out not everything is as it first seems.

05 The Other Wayne (Fan Film) USA 2020, 7:11min – Director: John-Paul Nickel European Premiere Years ago, Bruce Wayne had a brother who helped him create his iconic crime fighting suit. But why has no one ever heard of this brother? What happened to the other Wayne?

______11 06 The Prospector (Drama) USA 2020, 13:58min – Director: Wade Chitwood European Premiere A lone man searches for his place in the Universe.

07 SENTIENCE (Drama) France 2019, 18:20min – Director: Guillaume Bierry An old lady and a robot, both frustrated of their physical conditions, choose to switch their bodies.

08 Backwards (Drama) UK 2019, 9:25min – Director: Marco Augelli In a world where people walk Backwards, Minus needs to control his instinct of walking forward in order to climb the corporate ladder and be a successful citizen and son.

09 Back Off You (Experimental) Denmark 2020, 6:36min – Director: Linnea Fabricius & Lovechild A school boy is mysteriously sucked into a world where supernatural things happen. He discovers that he has the magical power to control lights but soon realizes that this power does much more than just turn lights on and off.

11 FEATURE FILM – A CHRISTMAS CANCELLATION

A Christmas Cancellation (Comedy) USA 2020, 92 mins Director: Justin Timpane

Fictional characters in a popular sitcom discover they are not real. Now the show, and their existence, is coming to an end... unless they can stop it.

______12 12 FEATURE FILM – A FERAL WORLD

A Feral World (Dystopian Drama) USA 2019, 104 mins Director: David Liban

An orphaned boy in a post- apocalyptic world meets a woman who is trying to find her lost daughter. Their journey together leads them face-to- face with a despot who may have the daughter held captive.

13 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:29:50

01 Ben, Frankly (Comedy) DE 2020, 8:45min – Director: Ahmed Tan *With Connor Trenner & Robert Picardo German Premiere Harrison, a college professor, loves history and today he gets the chance to pitch his film idea: “The life of Benjamin Franklin” to a producer. Caesar, the producer, however is not impressed. He points out giant plot holes and is about to lose faith when Harrison comes up with the idea that keeps him in the room and gets them both bitten by the movie making bug.

02 Star Wars: Origins (Action Adventure Fan Film) UK 2019, 20:00min – Director: Phil Hawkins Two archaeologists make an amazing discovery that has the power to unite the World during a critical moment in history - if they're not silenced first.

03 Life Support (VR Assisted Suicide Drama) USA 2020, 8:18min – Director: Shayan Ebrahim In the near future, coma patients will be able to choose their own fate thanks to advancements in brain scanning and virtual reality. An insurance agent with little regard for human life must come to terms with the gravity of her job and what it means to have empathy.

04 Davida Olen by DREZDEN (Music Video) Belarus 2020, 4:01min – Director: Vladimir Nefedov This is a futuristic journey through parallel worlds. Is there a chance to return to the starting point? Fictional reality, aliens and cartoon characters, as well as references to the Hollywood films of the 60 to 90s take this story to another level.

05 Oxygen (Survival Animation) Belgium 2020, 10:32min – Director: Rocky Grispen and Violette Belzer On a far away planet, home to Bobtors, an astronaut-doctor suffers from a lack of oxygen. To survive she has to pay the highest price as a human and as a doctor...

06 End Point (Time Travel Action) UK 2019, 6:00min – Director: Rafael Cortes Fighter pilot Avner travels back in time to prevent the assassination of his wife Eva but they become trapped in a causal loop. Since Artificial Intelligence became sentient, ______13 androids have controlled the time continuum, preventing humans from travelling through time. Eva is targeted because the AI knows that she has discovered the truth about their agenda. Avner faces a choice to either let Eva go or save her life by taking her place.

07 (Dys)Functional (Robot Drama) Poland 2020, 12:41min – Director: Adam Nowak In the near future humanism is lost to a longing for profit. People lose their jobs and are replaced by intelligent robots – androids. Frustrated official – Adrian - is sent to a modern robot called Eva, who stopped appearing at her workplace. Adrian’s job is to find the fault and fix it. This meeting is a chance for both of them to think about their lives and the decisions they have made.

08 Three Pills (Drama) Finland 2020, 2:33min – Director: Christian Wenger In the year 2050, the system provides three pills to every elderly person, to be taken on their 70th birthday.

09 FREYA (Drama) Canada 2020, 17:00min – Director: Camille Hollett-French German premiere Jade is a happy professional who enjoys her friendship with FREYA - her Federally Regulated Enquiry and Yield Assistant. But when her smart-toilet tells Jade she is pregnant from a one-night stand, her world is thrown into chaos.

14 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:24:33

01 CLEA (Space Action) France 2020, 10:55min – Director: Philippe ROBERT In the future, Jess works aboard a spacecraft that fly around the earth. He destroys all the space junk, cleaning the space. He communicates by video with his wife Cléa who remained on earth. Geek, the on-board computer keeps him company. All this goes well until some debris strikes his ship.

02 Requiem (Cloning Drama) Canada 2019, 13:56 – Director: Liam Winckel When Amber catches her husband sneaking around and her son avoids conversation with her, Amber grows suspicious that an affair is being hidden. Amber investigates and discovers the disturbing truth: her tragic death months’ prior and current existence in an artificial body.

______14 03 Dead End (Post-Apocalyptic Animation) Israel 2019, 4:00min – Director: Nir Berger The year is 2020 and Jerusalem has been decimated by a nuclear war. Bickering teenage siblings Yarden and Kineret travel what remains of the city in search of their little brother who went missing in the aftermath of the bombing. In their travels they encounter various survivors of what was once Israel, only to find that very little had actually changed.

04 Dark Lights (Thriller) UK 2019, 10:30min – Director: Borja Torres After years of research, Alexandra and Samantha finally have the chance to experiment on the first sample of Dark Matter ever acquired. With only six months to complete their experiment; Alexandra and Sam's friendship, and possibly their lives, are put to the test, as Alexandra's ambition will drive the project to the edge.

05 Galileo's Doorway (Experimental) Canada 2020, 7:07min – Director: Robert Waldeck Galileo’s Doorway is a cerebral journey looking at the interconnection of space, nature and the universe. At the story’s core is a mysterious space traveler who finds his way to Earth and interacts with the forest in the darkness of night. Although the space traveler’s exact intentions are unclear, there is a symbiotic relationship between his cosmic light suit and an illuminating life force in the forest.

06 Bunker or Tales I Heard When The World Fell (Suspense) Portugal 2020, 38:05 Director: João Estrada German Premiere. In a world polluted by atomic radiation, five survivors find shelter in an underground bunker. The sudden discovery of a rare and miraculous medicine will become a source of quarrel within the group.

15 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:24:08

01 The Light Thief (Supernatural Drama) Spain 2015, 19:00min – Director: Eva Daoud When the essence of Love is snatched from someone and locked away in a vessel with no name, what happens to those persons and how do they change? How can the broken hearted souls break that curse and recover from their pain? Can they regain their spark by overcoming dark supernatural forces?

02 The Bare Lands 1 - The Needle (Sureal Experimental) Sweden 2020, 3:18min – Director: Peter Sundqvist World Premiere börjåoła (The Bare Lands) is a journey through a world where nothing grows anymore. The first part is about the star lighting beast, dårgnå:łen (The Nail), who took its shape from the spruce needle.

______15 03 Nocturne (Thriller) Italy 2018, 17:00min – Director: Luigi Caporilli Razza German Premiere When a scientific commission confirms the imminent catastrophe depicted by an ancient prophecy, a young reporter is sent to investigate the truth beneath these forgotten superstitions.

04 Pluto (Romantic Alien Comedy) Canada 2020, 14:54min – Director: Larke Miller A young widow, struggling to keep her organic walnut farm alive, resorts to hiring an "alien." Little does she know, this charming stranger is actually a reptilian shape-shifter from Pluto.

05 God Glitch (Digital Drama) Netherlands 2019, 7:58min – Director: Gideon van Eeden German premiere In a future where entire human lives are expressed in algorithms, a couple must say their final goodbyes in a digital afterlife.

06 The Only Thing That Exists Is The Dot (Dystopian Drama) UK 2019, 6:26min Director: Philip Clyde-Smith German premiere The dot leads Man B from his dystopia to a forgotten forest where Cosmic Charlie presents him with an utterly surreal conception of truth, imparting a brief glimpse of that which lies beyond the senses.

07 One Minute to Midnight (Social Drama) USA 2020, 6:53min – Director: James Brammer A scientist creates a powerful weapons energy source, more powerful than he knows.

08 PLANT (Climate Drama) Italy 2020, 16:37 - Director: Carlos Milite In a near future humanity has been forced to flee the Earth, a planet now uninhabitable due to wars and climatic turmoil. On the space station Explorer 7, Karen is now ready to deploy on the planet to complete an important mission.

______16 16 FEATURE FILM – A REPORT ON THE PARTY & THE GUESTS

(Drama Thriller) Denmark 2019, 79 mins Director: Søren Peter Langkjær Bojsen

Europe, 2028. A humanlike creature washes ashore, carrying with him a motionless body he calls his mother. He is on a mission of some kind, reporting on the dwindling human activity in an increasingly automated world.

PLUS SUPPORT

01 Even The Rats (Experimental) UK 2020, 6:00min Director: Mike Hay

A skull-like artifact is discovered by an alien civilization in another time, in the outer reaches of space. Is it a weapon or is it something else?

17 FEATURE FILM – ALIEN OUTBREAK

Alien Outbreak (Alien Horror) UK 2019, 84min Director: Neil Rowe

A small rural community comes under siege by an alien presence and mass suicide panic spreads. Officers Zoe and Patrick try to save them from extinction.

______17 18 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:24:38

01 Space Probe Passenger (Documentary) Poland 2019, 15:00min – Director: Dominika Ożarowska A forgotten space probe learns to write meaningful poetry while drifting away from its home planet. Humans on Earth conduct research in order to understand it. As the experiment continues, they get to know themselves better.

02 I/O (Robot Drama) USA 2019, 5:33min – Director: Carl Hansen A man struggles to reveal to his girlfriend that he's been dating her through his robot.

03 Memory Loop (Action) China 2019, 10:50min – Director: Cui Qi When waking up, Fang Wei found that he was trapped into a strange room and a woman came and saved him. However, he had an odd feeling that he had already seen all of these scenes before. A strange person seemed to kill them all.

04 River Psychological Thriller) USA 2020,16:19min – Director: Emily Skye After vanishing for over a week during a hike. River tries to put the pieces together, teetering on the brink of insanity while questioning what's real vs a dream.

05 The Escort (Dystopian Drama) UK 2019, 5:56min – Director: Ava Bounds In a landscape where global warming is having severe detrimental effects around the world, a man is returning to his daughter with her medicine undetected until he meets a companion on his journey with disastrous consequences. Written and Directed by Ava Bounds, 13 years of age.

06 Polvotron 500 (VR Comedy) Spain 2019, 11:00min – Director: Silvia Conesa 2065. Charly, homeless and habitually sleeping in an old holographic booth, the POLVOTRÓN 500, One night he accidentally activated the resident sexual hologram, not knowing that it is a new model with improved quantum intelligence.

07 Two ((work in Progress) (AI Drama) UK 2020, 5:00min – Director: Sam Ainsworth Set in an alternative reality where people have eye implants that produce an augmented filter over their daily lives. After suffering from a recurring glitch, a young couple, summon a mysterious clinician to their home in search of a solution to their problems.

08 Tender is the Kiss (Drama) USA 2020, 15:00min – Director: Longwei Deng Will he find the mysterious woman who might be the only one to prove his innocence?

______18 19 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:23:54

01 BeeMe (Social Documentary) USA 2019, 37:00min Director: Niccolo Pescetelli, Michael Perryman BeeMe was a global social experiment that took place on Halloween night 2018. Thousands of online participants remotely controlled a human person freely moving on the MIT campus. This film documents the creation and aftermath of this unique event.

02 White Room (AI Drama) NZ 2019, 14:26min – Director: Brad Gibb David is awoken by an unsettling sound and is further shocked when he realizes he is surrounded by a void of infinite, empty white space. He soon encounters an A.I. who makes him relive memories of a woman he met. As David progresses through his memories, he discovers that this woman is in fact his late wife. In a fit of grief following her death, he rashly enters his unfinished program in an effort to bring her back.

03 Spin Cycle (Comedy) Mexico 2019, 5:30min – Director: Diego Garibay Wendler European Premiere An obsessive guy faces one of the most mysterious enigmas in life: where do missing socks go? The answer is more complex than he imagined.

04 Jump (Time Travel Comedy) Australia 2018, 11:58min – Director: Josh Mawer George is all elbows when it comes to talking to Amy. But his time-traveling dating coach knows that persistence makes perfect...probably.

05 Goodnight, Stargazer (Space Drama) UK 2020, 15:00min – Director: Adriano Rudiman A couple of astronauts are on their way home after a long journey. As they encounter damage to their ship and they run out of oxygen, one of them is going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

20 SHORT FILM SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 1:23:36

01 Rubber and Glue (Near Future Experimental) USA 2020, 13:43min – Director Cat Dale European Premiere When Faye develops an autoimmune disease triggered emotion, she must undergo treatment to rid herself of the thing that makes us most human. Empathy.

02 Call the Sandman (Romantic Drama) USA 2019, 13:30min – Director: Lou Blackmon A mysterious company claims to have the technology to create alternate realities or dreams by scanning peoples' memories. The opportunity to reconnect with each other is a temptation the two old lovers haven't felt in years.

______19 03 Here's Your Change (Comedy) USA 2019, 12:16min – Director: Brian Nowak Chuck, an Average-Joe in the near future, navigates his way through the mundane struggles of a typical day, working to pay for the expenses of the times with the new currency - body parts.

04 The Red Ball (Drama) Finland 2020, 4:10min – Director Jussi Rautaniemi A 6-year-old boy plays alone, waiting for his father. He talks to his father through a walkie talkie, but gets no answer. Something is not right. The world is about to end.

05 The Camera (Mystery) Spain 2020, 19:57min – Director: Jorge Guimerá European Premiere Tom inherits an old video camera from his father. He will discover that this camera records a parallel reality in which he falls in love with a girl he does not know. Tom will be drawn to and trapped by this unreal life on record. Will he escape the curse of the camera?

06 Paralels (Thriller) Spain 2019, 20:00min – Director: David Hebrero Lobelo Olivia is sure that after waking up a couple of days ago, the reality she lives in has slightly changed inexplicably. Determined to find answers, she tracks down a veteran paranormal documentarian that decides to help her.

21 BLUE PLANT SESSION – RUNNING TIME: 2:01:14 柏林科幻电影节献上蓝星球科幻电影节短片集锦

Held in Nanjing annually, the Blue Planet Science Fiction Film Festival is an all- encompassing cultural event to promote sci-fi filmmaking and a platform for film professionals and fans, scientists and tech enthusiasts to share their ideas and inspiration.

The Blue Planet Science Fiction Festival brings to you seven short films with a Chinese direction and production background. It also includes one film produced in cooperation with the Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest. We hope that the passion for sci-fi films and innovation can bring our worlds closer and we can meet you at the Blue Planet soon in the future.

The second Blue Planet Sci-Fi Film Festival will be held on December 1-6, 2020. In light of the difficult times our world is going through, the theme of this year’s festival will be ‘empathy.’ “Amidst this global crisis, it is more important than ever for people around the world to transcend barriers and engage with each other.”

FACEBOOK: BluePlanetSF

Thanks to Wang Weii for assistance in making this program

______20 01 Cupcake - Director: Zhang Dawei (USA/China) 35:23min 02 Recluse - Director: Ou Dingding (China) 07:09min 03 Basement Millionaire - Director: Zha Shan (China) 16:30min 04 16 - Director: Xin Chengjiang (China) 10:00min 05 Through the Fog - Director: Peng Xiangjun / Luan Luyang (China/Germany) 18:52min 06 Isabella - Director: Wei Qihong (US/China) 13:30min 07 THE CHEF - Director: Yuan Gen (US/China) 19:50min

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BERLIN SCI-FI PRESENTS…

Was a series of three 1-hour programs created as a countdown to the festival. After many requests we are including them in the full festival. We hope you enjoy them.

EPISODE 1 – WELCOME TO THE FUTURE

This was the 1st in the series looking backwards and forwards at the Berlin Sci-fi Festival. It features an inspiring selection of original science-fiction shorts. Plus Q&As, interviews and film introductions from filmmakers featured.

Program includes:

BEN, FRANKLY Teaser (2020-DE-Comedy) With Conner Trenner & Robert Picardo SLICE OF LIFE (2019-CROATIA-Action) High concept no CGI RIVER Teaser (2020-USA-Drama) Directed/Written by Emily Skye. MARIA FERNANDEZ IN TIME (2017-SPAIN-Comedy) Time travel Groundhog Day. PERTURBATOR by VENGER (2018-USA-Music Video) High-Tech 80's Dark Synth.

EPISODE 2 – WELCOME TO THE FUTURE

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having a remarkable impact on science, technology and people’s lives. So how does it help us now, and what might it mean for our imminent futures? This was the 2nd in the series and featuring some thought-provoking films on the subject of AI that has been presented at the Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest.

Dr Isabella Hermann introduces the program and holds a series of Q&As with the film directors. All films have been produced by Germany directors.

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Program includes:

PETS (2018) by David Schuster GALLERY OF LOST TRADES (2017) by Willi Kubica APPLICANT 377592 (2019) by Enya Burger ECONTROL (2020) by Beyer, Schiller, Blüggel, Siller, Mumme

EPISODE 3 – 2020

The 3rd and final in a series looked forward to the Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest 2020. It featured an inspiring selection of original science-fiction shorts. Not only that there are Q&As, interviews and film introductions from filmmakers.

Program includes:

OLFACTORY BY CHRIS PIAZZA (2017 Berlin Sci-fi Drama Winner) THROUGH FIRE SHE CALLS by Jason Georgiades (2018 Berlin Sci-fi Action Winner) SUNDAYS by Mischa Rozema (2019 Berlin Sci-fi VFX Winner) Sundays

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Each year we develop and progress, learn and rely on some really great people. Without their hard work, wisdom and insight, we’d be lost. Thank you all that are named and those who are not.

Chris Westby – Awards Designer and 3D creator Timothy Grossman & Roberta Bianchini plus team at the Babylon Cinema

Our Jury: Rene von Bodisco Rick McLeod Iwan Romanow Judith Mercer Marcus Hanisch Florian Kaposi

Brian Quandt at autoDCP Eric Sauer at autoDCP Eric Streeper at Xerb.TV Gerrit Leibal at Supergeek

Our Awards Sponsors: NewBlue FX software (newbluefx.com) BorisFX Software (borisfx.com) Red Giant Software (redgiant.com)

And, last but not least, a hearty thanks to our volunteers over the years and of course the wonderful filmmakers who make the festival what it is. We salute every one of you.

Anthony Straeger – Alex Pfander – Dr Isabella Hermann Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest Directors ______

Full details about all things science fiction can be found on the website @ www.berlinscifi.com

Social Media Facebook: @berlinscifi Instagram: @berlin.scifi.filmfest Twitter: @BScifi

______23 27 November 2- 6 Dece0mber 20

International Online Film Festival