FILMFESTIVALS.TV
SPOTIGHT
Each month, the FilmFestivals.tv team selects ten outstanding independent films to feature in the Spotlight Top 10.
These films are presented in no particular order and represent some of our favorite discoveries from recent festival screenings and submissions.
Watch the trailers, discover new filmmakers, and follow the creators behind the films that caught our attention this month.
The Lord of All Future Space & Time
Directed by Chris Paul Russell
@chrispaulrussell
When a duffle bag explodes into existence over the Nevada desert, Dyson Wheeler — set to be hanged — seizes his chance at escape, killing his captor with the shovel he was just using to dig his own grave.
Free to carry on living, Wheeler sets out to avenge the death of his beloved wife Rachel, and in the process, create our particular pocket of space-time, The Future That Matters To Us.
The Lord of All Future Space & Time is a classic western tale of revenge interrupted by sci-fi insanity. It's a tall tale in a short film, a fast-paced comedy asking the big questions about time, grief, love, and the meaning of life itself.
I Wanted To Hear Your Voice
Directed by James Pellerito
@jamespellerito
After eight years of caring for his mother with severe dementia, a son struggles through their daily care routine. Recorded voicemails serve to show the progression of the disease, underscoring the frustration, isolation and burnout that comes with intensive caregiving.
Repercussion(s)
Directed by Kelsey Nerrie
@manuscriptable
The unsolved disappearance of his daughter prompts a grieving father to take matters into his own hands, giving rise to myriad consequences.
Double Delivery
Directed by Imani Vaughn-Jones
@imanivaughnjones
The Nelson sisters are throwing a baby shower, and things take a hilarious turn for the worse when the man delivering their food happens to be their long-lost deadbeat dad.
Lockdown
Directed by Melanie van Betten Jeffcoat
@lockdown_film
Inspired by real events, Lockdown follows a mother who arrives to pick up her daughter from school and suddenly finds herself trapped in a terrifying fight for survival. Without relying on graphic violence, the film creates tension through uncertainty, fear, and emotional realism, capturing the psychological impact of school violence with restraint and humanity.
Tick
Directed by Sam Permar
@tick.shortfilm
A couple tries to conceive a child on Martha's Vineyard, but their idyllic vacation unravels when strange rashes begin to appear on their bodies.
Knifeman
Directed by MP Hayes
@missilerangeproductions
Mild-mannered IRS Agent Horatio Hunt must suit up and become a hero to save his city from a sinister sorceress. A dark and twisted horror take on classic tokusatsu media like Ultraman and Power Rangers, exploring the nature of perspective when it comes to justice, and the implicit undercurrent of fascism that runs through the idea of the superhero. Everyone lives in their own movie, and two perspectives, two genres, are set to collide, yielding naught but absolute terror. Part Kaiju homage, part serial killer procedural, part bone-chilling analog horror, all wrapped up in one bloody package. Do Not Look Away.
Message to Jacob
A devout father records a message for his missing son. Over the course of his message, he reveals how faith, fear, and grief can curdle into violence.
Directed by Thomas Kennedy Pope
@thomaskpope
Waiting for the End of the World
A quiet mosaic of small-town America, tracing the subtle fractures in everyday life.
Directed by Jeffrey Hoyt
Pyre
Directed by Dylan Miller
In a remote 17th-century village, a widowed mother accused of witchcraft is interrogated by a charming but ruthless inquisitor, forcing an impossible choice to save her daughter.