Nickel Film Festival: LOVE, ALMOST

Shorts films on love and loss

 

Second Place

Dir: Andrea Dunne · 15 min · NL

During a stormy game night, a lonely romantic (Percy Hynes White) mistakes closeness for possibility — until his friend's boyfriend arrives and breaks the mood open. A bittersweet local comedy about polyamory, self-deception, and the painful gap between wanting love and understanding it.

 

Sawdust

Dir: Ashley Neary · 9 min · NL

After a wrong turn strands them in an empty industrial lot, two friends turn on each other before admitting what has been building between them. A locally-made coming-of-age drama that finds its emotional core in the pressure of miscommunication, fear, and unspoken care.

 

Casi Septiembre

Dir: Lucía G. Romero, Lucía G. Romero · 30 min · Spain

At a camping resort where summer routines repeat year-round, a young woman's crush on a tourist from Madrid forces her to confront her fear of abandonment. Selected for the 2025 Berlinale Shorts competition, this Spanish drama captures longing with warmth, patience, and a keen eye for the boredom and beauty of coastal life.

 

My Plastic Mother

Dir: Amar Haikal · 19 min · Indonesia

At a landfill threatened by rain and heavy machinery, a boy named Eki searches the waste for something to connect him to his dead mother. A powerful Indonesian drama about grief, memory, and the determination of a child clinging to what remains. Grand Jury Prize winner at Flickerfest and qualified for the 2027 Oscars race.

 

Julian and the Wind

Dir: Connor Jessup · 15 min · Canada

At a boys' boarding school, a night of sleepwalking and gale-force wind draws two roommates into a more intimate reckoning with fear, shame, and desire. Actor-turned-director Connor Jessup crafts a delicate queer drama that finds romance in vulnerability.