Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival NOW SOLD OUT ENCORE SCREENING JUST ADDED for January 30, 2011

SEATTLE— Due to popular demand, Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum (EMP|SFM), in partnership with Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), has added an encore screening to the sixth-annual Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival (SFFSFF). SFFSFF brings together industry professionals from both the filmmaking and science fiction and fantasy genres to encourage and support new, creative additions to science fiction and fantasy cinema. The encore presentation will feature the Jury Award winners, Audience Award winners, and Curator's choices from the 2011 Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Film Festival.

Event Details:
WHAT: SFFSFF Encore Screening
WHEN: Sunday, January 30 at Noon
WHERE: SIFF Cinema at the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall
321 Mercer Street, Seattle Center
TICKETS: $9
WEBSITE: http://www.empsfm.org/filmfestival
MORE INFO: Tickets are available on siff.net. For additional info, please call 206.464.5830. From a field of more than 100 films from all over the world, 20 entries were selected for inclusion in the festival. The January 30th encore screening will include 10 out of the 20 original films selected for the festival. All films were required to be no longer than 15 minutes in length, and produced after January 2006. Entries included animated or live-action films in science fiction (examples: futuristic stories, space adventure, technological speculation, social experiments, utopia and dystopia) and fantasy (examples: sword and sorcery, folklore, urban fantasy, magic, mythic adventure).

This year’s judges include science fiction notables and award-winning film professionals - filmmakers Barbara Brown, Ben Kasulke, Howard McCain and Bragi Schut, Jr., and writers Annalee Newitz, Lindy West and Daniel Wilson. The judges will award Grand Prize, Second Place, Third Place and the Douglas Trumbull Award for Best Special Effects. The audience will determine the Audience Favorite Award during the festival.

The mission and objective of the Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival is to promote and encourage an awareness, appreciation and understanding of the art of science fiction and fantasy cinema. Its mandate is to create a forum for creative artistry in science fiction and fantasy film and recognize the most outstanding short films produced.

The Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival is generously sponsored by Cinerama Theatre, Vulcan Inc. and NORWESCON.

Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival 2011
FILMS: For more information, including film stills and director bios, please visit www.empsfm.org/filmfestival
Please note: The January 30th encore screening will include 10 of the 20 films below.

ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD – World Premiere Director: Gavin Fox & Jason Fox Country: UK Year: 2010 Running Time: 7 minutes Bill likes it in his shed. It’s his little sanctuary; the place where he goes to escape his wife, the world and hard work. But one lazy Sunday, when he finally bothers to fix an old video player, he chances upon a discovery that could change not just his day, but the entire course of history.

COCKPIT: THE RULE OF ENGAGEMENT Director: Jesse Griffith Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 12 minutes In the year 2103, mankind is at war with the Tarceds, an alien race that can control minds. Our brave men and women of the U.E.S. Navy hold the enemy at the outer edge of the galaxy. But when a pilot returns mysteriously from a bombing run without his wingman, suspicious of his affliction arise. The Captain of a Star Carrier must decide whether to let him land and risk exposing his carrier to alien control, or succumb to the will of the cold Government Agent and let him die in space.

DENMARK – Seattle Premiere! Director: Daniel Fickle Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 6 minutes Pily is a lovable crustacean of mixed origin who struggles to escape his underwater home when it becomes threatened by pollution.

EMMA – Seattle Premiere! Director: David Beglin Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 7 minutes In 2172, only 50,423 humans have survived a cataclysmic impact from an asteroid. Those left have split up to explore space in hopes of finding the next Earth. Now a Captain, Christian Steel, struggles between his duties as the leader and his own desire to join his lost family. As his sense of reality slips away, the crew looks to him for leadership through these near impossible times.

HECTOR CORP. Director: Gary Lee Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 10 minutes A thriller about a company, Hector Corporation, that must take extreme measures to manage their employees with unexpected executioners. Our righteous hero, Victor, takes us through his experience and shows how justice prevails in the end.

JUAN CON MIEDO – Seattle Premiere! Director: Daniel Romero Country: Spain Year: 2010 Running Time: 11 minutes During the holidays at his grandparent’s village, John meets Mary, a mysterious girl who tells the terrifying legend surrounding the peasant’s old house. John, unlike the character in the tale, is fearful. Mary is not.

KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES! – Seattle Premiere! Director: Robert Dastoli, James Dastoli Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 5 minutes People of Earth attention! Will you be prepared when the invasion comes? Out of the saucer ship will come an evil force that seeks to replace our freedoms with a barbaric way of life. Through artistic projections and live action dramatizations, this 1950’s style civil defense film encapsulates the mid-20th century Communist paranoia. Is it fantastic imagination or terrifying truth of the future? This film will have you watching the skies!

KING ETERNAL Director: Ori Guendelman Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 15 minutes On their rite of passage journey, life-long friends Chu’a and Kele set off into the forest unaware of an ancient being that awaits them in the dark.

SPARK – Seattle Premiere! Director: Bridget Palardy Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 5 minutes Spark is set in a future where fire is banned, clean air is precious, and an over-protective society fears the natural disasters of the past. Young ‘Very,’ is the quiet, new girl in an unfriendly classroom teeming with technology, hormones and cruelty. When a false fire alarm is triggered, she is unexpectedly swept up in a rebellious crime and thrust into an outsider culture. Only with her new accomplices does she discover friendship and a more organic connection to the planet, fire and her past.

THE ASTRONOMER’S SUN Director: Simon Cartwright, Jessica Cope Country: UK Year: 2010 Running Time: 6 minutes A young man, accompanied by his mysterious mechanical bear, visits an abandoned observatory to confront memories of his past and follow his Father on a journey into the unknown. A magical journey about relationships and what it is to be human.

LIFELINE Director: Andres Salaff Country: USA Year: 2009 Running Time: 6 minutes Lifeline is the tale of a brilliant scientist who travels through various dimensions and worlds in search of his lost love.

LOCAL UNIT Director: Tad Ermitano Country: Philippines Year: 2006 Running Time: 9 minutes In 2072, Silicon computers have been superseded by neuroprocessors—cloned brains sustained in nutrient fluids. As is usual in the Philippines, black markets have cropped up, trafficking in bootleg alternatives to the branded units. The street has evolved terminologies to distinguish the various grades of merchandise, but the words hide uncomfortable truths behind the product origins.

PROJECT PANACEA – Seattle Premiere! Director: Daniel Jourdan Country: Canada Year: 2010 Running Time: 8 minutes A young scientist has discovered a revolutionary disease treatment. Nobody believes him. He will see it through…Filmed alone in a basement.

SCHIZOFREDRIC – Seattle Premiere! Director: Andy Poyiadgi Country: UK Year: 2009 Running Time: 15 minutes Fredric has lost the fire in his belly and wants it back. After signing up for an unorthodox self-improvement program, Fredric is trapped outside of his own life, while a new, improved version takes over.

SUPER SCIENCE – Seattle Premiere! Director: Joel MacKenzie Country: Canada Year: 2009 Running Time: 8 minutes Super Science is a wild comedy about Eugene who is trying to attend a party and finish his science fair experiment on time. Since this task is not humanly possible, Eugene enlists the help of a non-human friend.

THE NECRONOMICON Director: Joseph Nanni Country: Canada Year: 2009 Running Time: 2 minutes Do you want to be a nicer person? Are you looking for inspiration to do good things? Well keep looking. But if you’re into opening up terrifying vistas of reality then the Esoteric Order of the Old Ones and Cthulhu Cultists want to help. The Necronomicon is a short and biting spoof of faith-based commercial advertising and accepted religious dogma.

TELEVISNU Director: Prithi Gowda Country: India Year: 2010 Running Time: 12 minutes A surreal tale of a young Indian woman who works at a call center. Her computer breaks down and in an attempt to fix it, she falls into a magical, mythical web of electronic wires where memories, secrets, and hidden desires reveal themselves.

THE WONDER HOSPITAL Director: Beomsik Shimbe Shim Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 12 minutes The Wonder Hospital, a 3D and puppet-animated film, is a surreal journey of oddity and empty illusion. In a mysterious hospital, modification of physical beauty is not what you would expect. A girl’s desire for superficial beauty leads her to chase after the luring ‘After’ images on a path of advertisements throughout the hospital. But in the end, she finds something unimaginable and irreversible.

TUB Director: Bobby Miller Country: USA Year: 2009 Running Time: 12 minutes It’s just your typical short film about a guy who can’t commit to his girlfriend…And accidentally impregnates his bath tub.

ZERO Director: Christopher Kezelos Country: Australia Year: 2009 Running Time: 13 minutes In a world that judges people by their number, Zero faces constant prejudice and persecution. He walks a lonely path until a chance encounter changes his life forever: he meets a female zero. Together they prove that through determination, courage, and love, nothing can be truly something.

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ABOUT EMP|SFM Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to the exploration of creativity and innovation in music, science fiction and popular culture. EMP|SFM combines interpretative, interactive exhibitions with state-of-the-art technologies, and educational programming to offer visitors of all ages a first-hand, multi-dimensional experience of the creative and artistic process.