Short Film Competition 4
Rating: Mature
Jury and Filmmakers in Attendance
Bytowne Cinema
Bytowne Cinema
Saturday, September 26, 11:00 am
Arts Court Theatre
Ball Face | Laurence Thérien | United Kingdom, Canada | Clay | Student Animation
Life throws curveballs whether you’re ready or not.
Laurence Thérien
Laurence Thérien is a Montréal-based artist, designer, and animator with a focus on materiality and claymation. She completed a Master’s in Animation at the Royal College of Art (2025), where she directed her graduate film Ball Face. Laurence has collaborated as a creative director with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Festival International du Film sur l’Art (FIFA). She is currently developing her next film with the NFB.
Praying Mantis | Joe Hsieh | Taiwan, Hong Kong | 2D Computer, Drawing on paper | Animated Short
A praying mantis mutant seduces and preys on men out of desperation to save her child.
Joe Hsieh
An independent Taiwan animation director whose works often explore the dark side of human nature and filled with horror and suspense.
Barber for the Queen ‘My Hang Up’ | Romy Côté | Canada | 3D Computer | Commissioned Animation
A jealous friend, feeling like a failure, drifts through surreal, shifting worlds that reflect his inner conflict.
Romy Côté
Romy Côté is a self-taught 3D artist and director based in Montreal. Her work unfolds through colorful, psychedelic worlds in which she explores deeply introspective themes such as identity, solitude, and relational dynamics, approached with a playful and naïve sensibility.
Specializing in music videos, she develops projects from concept to post-production, placing strong emphasis on art direction and visual storytelling.
In 2024, she won the award for Best Music Video at the GAMIQ, as well as Best Music Video at the Filministe Festival.
Five Orphans | Sarina Nihei | France, Japan, Germany | 2D Computer, Pencil on paper | Animated Short
Five orphans walk along a ditch in a society where protests against the government are on the rise.
Sarina Nihei
Sarina Nihei is a freelance animation director from Japan. Obsessed with Estonian animation, she decided to pursue a career in the field. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in London with an MA in animation. Her graduation film Small People with Hats won prizes at festivals around the world, including the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Holland Animation Film Festival, Animest, and
British Animation Awards. Specialising in a hand-drawn style, she makes surreal and enigmatic stories.
BLON ‘2025 Teaser’ | Nathan Jurevicius | Lithuania, Canada | 3D Computer | Commissioned Animation
Opening teaser for 2025 BLON Animation and Games Festival.
Nathan Jurevicius
Nathan Jurevicius is an Australian-Canadian known for his immersive worlds and unique characters. His most notable work, Scarygirl, spans figures, video games, and an animated film.
Since the early 2000s, he has worked as an editorial illustrator in London and freelanced for Hasbro in Rhode Island. In 2013, he became a professor at the Pictoplasma Academy in Berlin, where he co-teaches character design.
From 2018 to 2019, Jurevicius served as the Creative Director at Dark Slope, where he focused on creating virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. He is also known for the award-winning ‘PELEDA’ universe, which is part of his owl-centric Baltic mythology series.
Bootstrapping for the Boobied | Stella Chen | United States | 3D Computer | Student Animation
Maxed out, burnt out, and sex-starved, Amber Su falls under the spell of self-help guru Coco Ging.
Stella Chen
Stella Chen is a Chicago-based experimental 3D CGI animator exploring an erotic and anxious interior of queer embodiment. Her low-poly work contrasts the minimalism of its graphics with the messy excess of emotion it depicts, culminating in an embarrassing confessional of personal experience.
Chen earned her BFA in Film, Video, New Media, and Animation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her thesis film Bootstrapping for the Boobied has screened at the 2026 Slamdance Film Festival, the American Cinematheque, and internationally at the Asian Film Archive in Singapore.
The Stars Watch from Long Ago | Stacey Steers | United States | Cut-outs, Pencil on paper, Photocopies | Animated Short
A tiny farmhouse spins through the cosmos. Onboard is Lilian Gish: alone in the vastness.
Stacey Steers
Stacey Steers is known for her process-driven, labor-intensive animated films composed of thousands of handmade works on paper. Her recent work employs images appropriated from early cinematic sources, from which she constructs original, lyrical narratives.
Steers’ films have screened widely at venues including the Sundance Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, New Directors New Films (New York), IFFR Rotterdam, Locarno IFF, MoMA and the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC).
Stacey Steers is a recipient of major grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital and the American Film Institute. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She lives and works in Boulder, CO.