20th SAN FRANCISCO SHORT FILM FESTIVAL:
Opening Night Program
Channel Bibi
When a lonely Punjabi grandmother becomes an internet sensation on YouTube, she questions if her new online fans can replace her distant and seldom-visiting family.
CHANNEL BIBI, a narrative short, explores generational trauma in a fantastical world of Hashtags, Followers, and Influencer-Status.
Evil, I
A gifted Haitian girl has one night to discover the key to her psychic powers and decide once and for all what it means to be: good or evil.
Forgotten Flavors
Our ancestors knew every edible plant, every healing herb—knowledge we've almost entirely lost. Forager Pascal Baudar moves through Southern California's woodlands and desert with ancestral eyes, gathering what most would overlook. He teaches others to awaken senses dulled by modern life—to taste, smell, and touch their way back to an ancient knowing. He forages wild plants for food and fermentation, hand-harvests clay to craft vessels, creating an extraordinary feast that exists nowhere else. This intimate portrait reveals what we gain when we slow down enough to remember who we once were.
Pine Cones on Divisadero
I head back to Divisadero Street, my old neighborhood, to investigate a lingering mystery: What’s the deal with all these pine cones?
Syncing Sinking
A secluded session between a therapist and an at-risk patient.
Unbreaking
An otherworldly child finds healing and a new best friend through the Japanese art of Kintsugi.
After witnessing the tragic death of their father, 10-year-old Ollie Holmes, a non-binary neurodivergent child, experiences an Autistic shutdown, withdrawing into an interior world.
Ollie deploys sensory armor—ski goggles, mittens, a tutu—shielding themself from a world that no longer feels safe. Their mother, Siobhan, desperate to help them heal, turns to a therapist who introduces them to Jeremy, a patient and kind ceramicist whose work in the Japanese art of Kintsugi—repairing broken pottery with gold—offers a quiet but powerful path toward healing.
As Ollie begins working with Jeremy, the broken pieces of their grief and trauma slowly start to mend. What begins as silent observation transforms into connection, and Ollie’s first spoken words in months mark a turning point in both their recovery and the relationship with their mother.
At its heart, Unbreaking is the story of a mother's love for her child—an unbreakable bond—and a tender and visually rich short film about trauma, resilience, and the transformative power of art to reconnect us—not just with others, but with ourselves.
Everything's Fine
An economically insecure millennial's desperation leads to a secret life of crime.
The San Francisco International Festival of Short Films was launched in 2006. Since then SF Shorts has showcased incredible engaging independent films that are quick to make a statement, tell a story or express an idea. Recently this festival merged with the 28 year old San Francisco IndieFest, combining SF Shorts' curatorial vision with SF IndieFest's festival presentation expertise. This combined event now presents one week of the the best short films from around the world at an historic San Francisco art house theater.