West Chester International Short Film Festival Returns This Weekend After Two-Year Hiatus

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After a two-year hiatus, the West Chester International Short Film Festival will be held from April 22-24, offering attendees the opportunity to enjoy movies, build skills through free workshops, and expand their professional network. 

Here are five movies you won’t want to miss.

A Sister (Une Soeur): Released in October 2018 and inspired by true events, this 16-minute roller coaster of suspense follows a woman in a car as she makes a desperate phone call for help. The drama cleaned up at the 2018 Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, winning four awards, including Best Short Film and Audience Award. In 2020, it was also an Oscar nominee for live action short film.  

blackhole: As a black hole advances toward the Earth, four separate storylines intersect in the hours before it happens. The film’s website describes these seemingly disparate stories, all set against the backdrop of the Earth being about to be swallowed by a black hole: a group of friends goes out on a final hunting trip; a young couple welcomes their new baby into a dying world; a family tries to spend their final moments together; and a young woman finds herself spending them alone. 

It was inspired by the announcement that the first-ever image of a black hole had been captured on April 10, 2019 by a team of scientists led by 29-year-old computer scientist Katie Bouman.

Broken Orchestra: Best Documentary Nominee Charlie Tyrell explores the origins of Symphony for a Broken Orchestra, a music and art project created to raise awareness about the more than 1500 dilapidated musical instruments scattered throughout the Philadelphia public school system, the result of a loss of funding for music education programs that started back in 2007. In 2017, a group of educators, musicians, and volunteers banded together to find a way to get these instruments back in the hands of Philly students. 

The Tides That Bind: Philadelphia-based filmmaker Nick Natalicchio is up for Best PA Filmmaker this year with his directorial debut, showing the results of his 10 years of video production experience spanning multiple industries along with his current roles as instructor and producer in the Department of Cinema & Television at Drexel University. This film explores the work of Clint Buffington, renowned for his passion for messages in bottles. To date, Buffington has found more than 90 messages in bottles and tracked down quite a few senders, a process that requires some detective work. 

This Dark Thought: This seven-minute animated horror flick tells the story of a girl who is home alone stargazing while babysitting her new baby sister. Things change, however, as strange events start to occur and a dark impulse grows harder and harder to ignore. 

Director Kurtis Theorin is one part of Landenberg-based production company Something’s Awry Productions.

A veteran of the festival circuit for years, Theorin said the West Chester Film Festival is always near to his heart: “I can honestly say it’s one of those special film festivals that has an awesome selection of movies and really cares about highlighting the filmmakers they feature.” 

Tickets for the West Chester International Short Film Festival are available to purchase.

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