Started a full decade ago, Fantasia’s now-annual BORN OF WOMAN short film block showcases some of the best genre films coming out of the fest, regardless of length or the gender of the filmmakers. It continues to be a sad state that gender parity in filmmaking remains more of a dream than a reality, which means that giving women filmmakers a dedicated spotlight remains necessary. This year’s block of nine short films from across the globe ranged across genres and tones, but carried the commonality of being really freaking good.
Starting the block was the surreal and perception-warping ULTRAVIOLET DAMAGE by Pola Rader. Through the experience of a family watching television together, memory and vision mingle with dreams and nightmares, and the family’s experience is blinked in and out of what they know as reality. ULTRAVIOLET DAMAGE contains some incredible visuals within the confines of this living room.
In Sam Mandich’s ANGELS, an all too common and terrifying incident plays out in the most casual way. As two teen girls are going out one night to a party, a strange man on their bus first appears to be harmless. As the girls discover their assessment of him is wrong, they have to use their smarts and speed to stay safe. Though there is action within ANGELS, the overwhelming feeling of dread and the weight of distrust stifle the atmosphere within an inch of its life.
SAM by Catharina Schürenberg is less universally relatable, but that does not hold it back from feeling brutally possible. In it, a young woman posts a video online talking about the boyfriend she was recently ghosted by. She also happens to be a student who supports herself by being a professional cuddler. Exploring a variety of types of vulnerability and intimacy, SAM shot a shiver down my spine and has been with me ever since the screening. Schürenberg manages to deftly craft an atmosphere that lets itself be funny and light without getting dark when everything hits the fan.
With everything going on in the US, Ran Jing’s IMPRINT feels more like a certainty than a fictional dystopia. Shot starkly, with bleak and sterile imagery, the short film creates a near-future world where the bourgeois are afforded genetic opportunities that go beyond what is naturally inherited, and the physical cost is paid by lower classes (because of course it is). If Gattaca was the story of getting your child into a competitive preschool, it would be IMPRINT.
Pivoting into genuinely disgusting and sexually accepting is Liv Mershon’s STRANGE EGG. When a teen and her mom move to a farmhouse, more changes are coming to them than just geographic. As the daughter starts to discover herself, things get weird. Sticky, oozy, slimy weird. Borrowing the same attitude towards sex and fluids as Sugar Rot, Mershon’s film announces its arrival rather than asking to be let in.
BREEDER from filmmaker Sapphire Sandalo is a creature entry with a taste of folklore from the Philippines. A woman is just living her life and enjoying her wine, trying to not engage with persistent harassment from her mother to give her grandchildren. In her home, a tikbalang appears and is legitimately terrifying. With the head of a horse skull, hooves and a towering stature, this creature frightens the woman terribly. Playing with mythological creatures and modern pressures, BREEDER still has some fun with the premise and keeps it playful.
Luciana Malavasi’s THE NEW FLESH plays its cards close to its chest. A woman wrapped in nothing but plastic sheeting is terrified and at a location that is completely foreign to her. She does not know what is happening or who the old woman is who appears to be her assigned caretaker. As the details roll out, the film shapes into a question of the cycle of trauma and trust. The acting is exceptional in THE NEW FLESH as is the observational camera style.
Leaning into the tall tale that gingers have no souls, REDNECK from Alexandria Basso shows the world exactly what should make that more ominous than merely a schoolyard taunt. Starring sister Annalise Basso (The Life of Chuck, Oculus), the film posits that redheaded clans live in exile from other souled humans and that they hunt these brunettes and blondes to claim their souls—proudly violent and a repossession by carrot tops of their own narrative. The large cast of actors with shocks of red hair is a sight, and REDNECK has a bit of fun telling their side of the story.
Finally, BORN OF WOMAN 2026 ended with FINGERBANG, which is an accurate description of the animated incidents within. A busy body woman encounters a lone, animate finger on her commute. Think of the Addams’s Thing, only as a single digit. She is intrigued and enamored. And yes, true to the title of the film, they bang. The animation progresses from dreamlike to nightmarish as the finger changes and the woman loses herself to it. FINGERBANG is the type of animated short where you can hardly believe what you are seeing, but you are quite thrilled that it does, in fact, exist.
