Films

What if your best friend arrived in a cardboard box? What if artificial intelligence could create a better version of you? And what could go wrong when technology starts to understand our desires a little too well? iShorts returns to Future Gate with a selection of short sci-fi films that serve up the future in small but highly concentrated doses. Expect robots, artificial intelligence, strange technologies, dark humour, and worlds only a few steps removed from our own. Because sometimes you don’t need two hours for great sci-fi. All it takes is one brilliant idea.

Selected films

My Only Friend Is a Robot Named Beans

Director: Anika Kan Grevstad | Producers: Chris Bauer, Anika Kan Grevstad, Corrina Leatherwood, Skye Mahaffie | Cast: Danielle Young, A.B. Allen, Jasmin Carina | 2026 | 13 min

Ruby finds her lonesome routines disrupted when she makes an unlikely new friend: a mail-order robot.

The Lord of All Future Space & Time

Director: Chris Paul Russell | Producers: Dana Guerin, Joy Sirott Hurwitz, Cindi Rice, Karl Stelter | Cast: Roy Williams Jr., Mark Benninghoffen, Ray Buffer | 2025 | 26 min | USA

The Lord of All Future Space and Time is a classic western tale of revenge interrupted by sci-fi hijinks. Purposefully and joyfully heavy on narration – in the style of early Coen Brothers or somewhere between Goodfellas and Amelie – it’s a tall tale in a short film, a fast-paced comedy asking the big questions about time, grief, love and the meaning of life itself.

Bisected

Director: Danny Pineros | Producer: Mateo Vergara | Cast: Natalie Polisson, J.C. Smith, Robin Zamora | 2024 | 8 min | USA

A couple witnesses a paranormal event that separates them into two distinct dimensions.

Planet

Director: Jason Carman | Producers: Maxie Harrington, Jason Carman, Jim O’Shaughnessy | Cast: Stephen R. Miller, Alexander Platt, Ian S. Peterson | 2025 | 38 min | USA

Planet tells the story of a man who dreams of building an artificial planet from the ground up, asking the question, “Is the sacrifice required to create something truly great worth it in the end?”

The Most Perfect Perfect Person

Director: Paul Trillo | Producers: Justin Lacob, Bryn Mooser, Poppy, Edward Saatchi | Cast: Ryan Barrier, Jack Mayer, Poppy | 2024 | 18 min 

Under the pressures of fame and parasocial demands, pop star Poppy relinquishes control to Aura, an AI clone trained on her past content. As Aura begins dictating her every word and action, Poppy battles to reclaim her autonomy.

The Student sci-fi film competition has become an integral part of the Future Gate programme. It gives young filmmakers a platform to showcase their work and introduce it to a wider audience. This year, once again, the competition will present a selection of the best films created by emerging directors from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Films in Competition

Core Memory

director Illia Mashkin, 2026, 11 min., UTB Zlín

The line between memory and simulation blurs in this psychological sci-fi drama about guilt that refuses to be silenced. Accompanied by cold artificial intelligence, Felix journeys into his own subconscious to close the chapter on his deceased mother. Instead of redemption, however, something much darker awaits him. The film explores whether it is possible to rewrite the past or whether our traumas will ultimately consume us – even with the help of cutting‑edge technology.

I’m looking for Mr. Laser

director Laura Boráros, 2026, 7 min., FAMU

What would you do if you came across a video that defies the laws of physics, yet seems convincing in some way? A short story about following in the footsteps of someone who may or may not exist, mapping the maze of imagination and illusions created by the mysterious Mr. Laser.

The kitchen

director Valér Futej, 2026, 14 min., FAMU

The static environment of the kitchen will be disrupted by the arrival of a young woman: a new cook, with her efforts to adapt to the strictly defined working conditions and fit into the settled routine. When she realises that the mechanism is starting to put high pressure on her and destroy her individuality, it will be too late to free herself from the system she has become a part of. Through its manipulation of colour, formalism, and visual concept, The Kitchen is a stylised allegory of conformity and the replaceability of the individual in today’s consumer society.

Quantum jump

director Šimon Meszáros, 2026, 11 min., FAMU

After falling in love with death, a man sets out on a surreal journey to escape the life – and the role – that should have defined him. As the world crumbles into fading echoes of meaning, he discovers renewal within the ruins of the universal self.

The Collectors

director Jiří Arbter, 2026, 10 min., Slezská univerzita Opava

They met at an antique shop. A love of collecting brought them together; envy tore them apart. Now they’re competing for the best collection in the entire basement. Who will emerge victorious from this battle of madness, frantic cleaning, and bloodshed? And who will pay for it with their life? The hunt is just beginning…

The shelter

director Viktorie Novotná, 2026, 10 min., FAMU

A young woman wakes up in a room she can’t leave. The windows are boarded up, and the door is chained shut. The last thing she remembers is a party. But she isn’t alone in the room. A stranger tells her that the end of the world has begun outside. The question is whether she believes him and stays, or tries to escape despite his warnings.

Truth, love, lizards

director Pavel Plesník, 2026, 15 min., Akademie Michael

Lizard enthusiast Erik falls for Emma, a pet shop worker. But when he finally asks her out, their date spirals into a bizarre confrontation with cosmic conspiracy theorists who insist Erik and Emma are not ordinary humans at all, but lizard creatures in disguise.

The Disappearance of Mitchell Johnson

director Kacper Senkowski, 2026, 10 min., UMPRUM

Mitchell Johnson, the biggest pop star of the computer world, disappears without a trace. Twenty years later, his biggest fan, Detective Bobo, is still trying to solve the mystery of Johnson’s disappearance. One day, he receives a phone call that may help him finally solve the case.