4 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
A four-minute English sci-fi thriller in which an office worker's daily routine slowly becomes something unsettling.
Sci-fi short films
65 Sci-fi short films in the cafe, running 4 to 36 minutes. Many are thought-provoking or suspenseful. They span 11 languages. Each is a complete standalone short film, chosen by the cafe and played through its original video provider.
20 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
A selfish executive is trapped in a restroom time loop and has to face other versions of himself to get out. Twenty minutes of clever, funny sci-fi.
16 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller · Action · Fantasy
A rescue mission crosses into the spirit world. Try Kodama for an action-fantasy short about a samurai SWAT officer fighting to bring his father home.
16 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller · Drama
An English sci-fi thriller: two estranged brothers caught in a repeating chain of events try to stop a tragedy. Fifteen tense, emotional minutes.
17 min · English · Drama · Science fiction
During a lethal epidemic, a quarantined father faces an impossible choice when his daughter falls ill. A sixteen-minute English sci-fi drama that lands close to home.
36 min · English · Science fiction
Jason Carman's ambitious sci-fi for DUST, set in the year 2730: a scientist proposes building an artificial habitable planet. Thirty-six minutes in the project's final century.
12 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
Mark Slutsky's English sci-fi for DUST: a struggling lawyer wakes in a doorless room, chosen to negotiate for the whole human race. Eleven tense minutes.
18 min · English · Science fiction · Horror · Thriller
A missing body leads a physician to a secret experiment on the edge of life and death. A seventeen-minute English sci-fi horror.
7 min · English · Science fiction · Drama
A grieving mother brings home a synthetic child to fill the silence, unaware of the robot's hidden purpose. A seven-minute English sci-fi drama.
23 min · Dutch · Science fiction · Comedy · Drama
Victoria Warmerdam's Oscar-winning Dutch comedy-drama: a woman keeps failing CAPTCHA tests at work and starts to wonder whether she's human. Twenty-two sharp, unsettling minutes.
7 min · English · Science fiction
David Lea's sci-fi for DUST: every Sunday an old man and his dog walk to the Cornish clifftops, but this time they're not alone. Six quiet, wondrous minutes.
15 min · English · Science fiction · Romance · Drama
Space becomes the setting for a search for connection after loss. Try this if you like science fiction that makes room for memory and love.
22 min · Hindi · Science fiction · Drama
A robot built to serve begins to question the people around him. Try Anukul for a Hindi science-fiction short about consciousness, power and the ethics of creating an obedient helper.
15 min · English · Science fiction
One astronaut, one experimental spacecraft, and the possibility of going too far. Try this if space exploration leaves you wondering what might lie beyond the next leap.
32 min · English · Science fiction · Drama
A thirty-one-minute English sci-fi drama: an interplanetary hauler trying to provide for his daughter is forced to face his past and some hard choices.
13 min · English · Science fiction
Karl Redgen's English sci-fi for DUST: two explorers crash-land on an alien-infested planet, and when one is infected the other faces an impossible choice.
17 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
Nguyen-Anh Nguyen's sci-fi thriller for DUST: two astronauts wake adrift in space and return to their ship to learn why the mission failed.
20 min · English · Science fiction
Andrew Zane Allen and Gavin Bradley's sci-fi for DUST: a prospector strikes a rare deposit in a wasteland, while the creature he enslaves to process it begins to resist.
25 min · English · Science fiction · Fantasy · Drama
An English sci-fi fantasy: a teenager believes a mysterious plant can save his dying brother, while a government agency wants it destroyed. Twenty-five adventurous minutes.
20 min · Russian · Science fiction · Action
A nineteen-minute AI-created science-fiction adventure written and directed by NOAH, made for the Higgsfield film festival, with Russian dialogue.
27 min · Tamil · Thriller · Science fiction
Haresh SelvaKumar's Tamil tech thriller: engineers build an astrology app that starts predicting their own deaths. Twenty-six minutes on fate, code and whether a forecast can be outrun.
12 min · No dialogue · Animation · Science fiction · Drama
A wordless animation: a delivery robot crosses an abandoned world and forms an unexpected bond with a dog. Twelve minutes of quiet wonder.
19 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
Two isolated brothers barely surviving after a mysterious attack meet a stranger who threatens their fragile world. A nineteen-minute English sci-fi thriller.
9 min · English · Science fiction · Fantasy · Comedy
A burglary sends Dave on a search that takes an unexpected turn through time and space. Try this for a little everyday trouble with a science-fiction twist.
5 min · No dialogue · Animation · Fantasy · Science fiction
In this breathtaking science fiction spectacle, a strange mechanical device lands on a desolate world and uses the planet to undergo a startling transformation, that has profound implications for an entire galaxy.
12 min · Malayalam · Horror · Science fiction
Two policemen arrive at an abandoned house in Kerala with orders to close a reopened case: a young woman found dead there in 2022, to be filed as a routine suicide before her family's questions and the court can push further. An old caretaker leaves them food and a single warning not to light a particular lamp. Ignoring it traps them in a night that will not end, in this restrained, single-location supernatural time-loop horror.
29 min · Malayalam · Science fiction
For a Malayalam science-fiction short, try Alien Brihaspati from writer-director Harinarayanan, featuring Snigdha Maria, A V Anoop and Ishak Musafir.
17 min · English · Science fiction · Comedy
Two farmers get a visitor from beyond their familiar world. Try this sci-fi comedy for a small-town routine disrupted by something extraordinary.
8 min · No dialogue · Animation · Science fiction
One astronaut reaches out across the distance. Watch for a wordless animation about loneliness and our need for contact.
11 min · English · Animation · Science fiction
A surreal, deliberately open-ended story about trust and the worlds people construct for one another.
31 min · Malayalam · Science fiction · Thriller · Drama
How much of ourselves do we hand over to technology? Try ESC for a confined psychological science-fiction story about identity and digital dependence.
22 min · English · Science fiction · Action
Calvin Sander Romeyn's English sci-fi for DUST: in a walled nuclear exclusion zone, a young woman and her decommissioned military droid plan their escape. Twenty-two minutes of retro-future action.
5 min · English · Science fiction
Try a brief science-fiction short about the weight we carry inside. A pick for viewers interested in emotional ideas told through futuristic imagery.
11 min · English · Science fiction · Romance · Comedy
Dating is complicated enough without a visitor from the future. Try this for a playful collision between romance and time travel.
6 min · English · Animation · Science fiction
A traveller searches across space and time for the origins of the universe and life, arriving alone at a difficult realisation as the cosmos ages.
21 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
A routine repair turns into a family rescue in space. Try Icarus for a science-fiction short that puts a mother and son's bond under pressure.
20 min · English · Science fiction · Comedy
Justin Kruse's English sci-fi comedy: Reaper Rick, a paranoid veteran living off the grid, has the strangest day of his life when something arrives. Twenty minutes for conspiracy fans.
12 min · English · Science fiction · Comedy · Drama
A recliner that turns back time sounds convenient—until ordinary responsibilities catch up. A pick for science fiction that begins right at home.
15 min · Hindi · Science fiction · Drama
Sudeesh Kanaujia's Hindi sci-fi drama asks what happens when humans start behaving like gods: generators, operators and destroyers. A fifteen-minute think piece rather than a spectacle.
22 min · English · Animation · Science fiction
Two girls find a way to keep moving through a broken world. A pick for an animated train journey through post-apocalyptic days.
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English sci-fi short films · Drama short films · Comedy short films · Romantic short films · Thriller short films · Animated short films · All guides