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2026 FESTIVAL GUIDE

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Animated SHORT

Have I Swallowed Your Dreams

6:04 minutes | 2024

A poetic conversation between an immigrant daughter and her mother about sacrifices and dreams.

​Director: Clara Chan

Writer: Clara Chan
Producer: Clara Chan
Key Cast: Catherine Ip

Key Cast: Clara Chan

Have I Swallowed Your Dreams >

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Animated SHORT

Retrieving Roadie

7:30 minutes | 2024

It’s just another dull business trip for a lonely pet food salesman until he rescues a dog who could change his life – if they survive a harrowing journey home.​

Director: Luke Stone

Producer: Luke Stone

Producer: Blake Larson

Producer: David Craig Williams

Writer: David Craig Williams

Story Art: Blake Larson

Key Cast: Erika Harlacher-Stone

Key Cast: Sarah Miller-Crews

Animators: Maxine Carey-Gorey, Jackie Gorman, Susie Chong

Sound Design: Isaac Caldas

Re-Recording Mixer: Ricardo Watson

Retrieving Roadie > 

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Animated SHORT

I HAVE BECOME

1:09 minutes | 2026

A paint-on-paint + risograph queer experimental animation about a transgender man's relationship with his body, younger self, and future self to show the grotesque beauty of tearing oneself apart to live truthfully.​

Director: Lee J Holoubek

Music Composer: Xenia Foxx

Music Performer: Xenia Foxx, Nathan Stopar, Kayla Hagan, Jax Sinclair, Indigo Kozak

Sound Designer: Evens Wong, Gelatin Kind

Re-Recording Mixer: Evens Wong

Animator: Lee J Holoubek

Creative Supervisor: Kora Kosicka

I Have Become >

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Animated SHORT

Pow!

8:16 minutes | 2025

A Native American kid scrambles to charge his dying video game console at a bustling intertribal powwow.​

Director: Joey Clift

Writer: Joey Clift

Executive Producers: Mik Moore, Harold Moss, Donick Cary, Joey Clift
Key Cast: Rainy Fields
Key Cast: Angela Startz
Key Cast: Jim Ruel
Key Cast: Joey Clift

Pow! >

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Animated SHORT

When We Meet

0:45 minutes | 2025

Love in wartime. Inspired by words attributed to Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Completed as part of “To Gaza with Love: A Global Anijam.”​

Animation: Jason Giglio 
Concept: Claire Patoine, Jason Giglio 
Sound Design: Claire Patoine, Jason Giglio 
Story: Claire Patoine, Jason Giglio 

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Animated SHORT

Sunspark

11 minutes | 2026

While scavenging for spare parts, a lonely robot discovers someone who desperately needs his help.​​

Director: Danny Bourque

Writer: Danny Bourque

Producer: Danny Bourque

Animator: Danny Bourque

Sunspark > 

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Animated SHORT

Once, a Second Time

7:30 minutes | 2025

Lump is a reclusive 20-something, trying to enjoy her fragile life with her lone friend, Jar. What little stability she has is shattered when her past finally catches up to her and she throws up a salmon in a dingy bar bathroom. To begin to thrive, she must decide if she can embrace vulnerability and open up not only to herself but to those who wish to help her.​

Director: Sarah Rae Franklin

Writer: Sarah Rae Franklin, Mary Leah McNassar

Key Cast: Yvette Kinyon 

Key Cast: Ollie Buerger

Music: Sarah Rae Franklin, The Eggboy

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Animated SHORT

The Epic of Enkidu

9:26 minutes | 2025

When the catastrophic king Gilgamesh meets the grass-fed Enkidu, things don't go according to the clay tablets. A fractured take on the cuneiform tale, featuring doom, despair, deception, and sheep.​

Director: Mike A Smith

Music: John Morgan Askew

Sound Design: Jason T Edwards

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Animated SHORT

The Bugs in My Beard

1:10 minutes | 2026

Inspired by true events.​

 

Writer, Illustrator, Animator, Narrator, Musician, Soundmaker: Michael Buchino

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Animated SHORT

You Play Too Much

13:07 minutes | 2025

Lil’ Robbie (Fred Armisen) , an elementary school kid growing up in 1980’s Philadelphia has to navigate being a nerdy outsider in a tough environment. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, You Play Too Much is a series of stop motion animated vignettes about friendship, bullies, and the rules of the schoolyard that felt like the law at the time. Fred Armisen narrates these coming of age stories based on the life of director Rob Shaw.​

Director: Rob Shaw

Writer: Rob Shaw

Key Cast: Fred Armisen

You Play Too Much >

haveiswallowedyourdreams
retrievingroadie
ihavebecome
pow
whenwemeet
sunspark
onceasecondtime
theepicofenkidu
thebugsinmybeard
youplaytoomuch

Copyright © 2026 Manzanita Film Festival LLC. All Rights Reserved. 

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