The ninth edition of the Moebius Film Festival, Creative Artists Agency’s annual screening series showcasing diverse graduate student filmmakers, is set to feature, for the first time, films from international schools.
CAA Moebius, to run May 30 to 31 this year, will screen the usual live-action and animated short films directed by Los Angeles-based graduate student filmmakers from the American Film Institute Conservatory, the School of Film/Video at CalArts and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
But film students from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin and the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, along with New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, will also join this year’s program. In all, 10 short films — including live-action, animated and foreign language entries — will unspool during the two-day showcase.
Those include Phoebe Jane Hart’s animated short Bug Diner, which is set in an eatery run by a surprisingly attractive mole and which won the short film jury award at Sundance. The 2024 programming line-up also includes We Met at Camp from MC Plaschke; How to Skin a Cheetah, directed by Meghan O’Shaughnessy; Xinhao Lu’s sport dramatic short Deep Into The Forest; and Jason Adam Maselle’s Punter, set in Johannesburg’s gambling world.
Also part of CAA’s Moebius festival are Nicholas Finegan’s Some Kind of Paradise; Kieran Barker’s Escape Artist; Xiaohui and His Cows, by director Xinying Lao; Lisa Ott’s Dragfox; and Fishmonger, from Neil Ferron. CAA Moebius alumni include Palm Springs director Max Barbakow, Dinner Is Served helmer Hao Zheng and Geechee director Dubois Ashong.
CAA Moebius was launched by CAA motion picture agents Christina Chou, Zach Kaplan, Pete Stein and Lingie Park. “Each year, Moebius serves as a platform to amplify new voices in filmmaking from around the world. We are excited to welcome our new international partners, further enriching the diverse tapestry of stories that define the spirit of the festival,” Chou, Kaplan and Stein said in a joint statement.
