LOS ANGELES, CA — Artichoke, directed by Amir Moini (USA), has been named Best Short of the Season (Special Jury Award) at the August 2026 edition of IndieX Film Fest. The 14-minute horror fantasy earns the festival’s highest distinction for the season and advances to consideration for the IndieX Annual Awards 2027.

An Escape Through Another Reality

Held captive, Cynara discovers a phoropter—an instrument ordinarily used to test eyesight—that opens a portal to another world. The possibility of escape draws her into a terrifying pursuit across realities. When she finally faces her oppressor, known as The Man, survival demands a choice about what she is willing to destroy.

The premise gives Artichoke its central tension: a device that changes how Cynara sees also changes what she can confront. The shifting worlds serve the film’s deeper questions about captivity, control, and the uncertain boundary between an external threat and an internal one.

For Moini, the story began with a painful personal reckoning. While grieving the end of a friendship that had lasted more than 30 years, he found himself questioning his own part in the relationship. Those doubts became the emotional foundation for a film in which the identity of the oppressor remains open to interpretation. The Man may be another person, Moini explains, or a reflection of addiction, shame, grief, and self-sabotage.

That openness is essential to the film’s design. Artichoke invites viewers to bring their own experiences to Cynara’s struggle, finding different meanings in the same unsettling journey.

Giallo Style, Practical Effects

A longtime admirer of Italian giallo cinema, Moini conceived Artichoke as a tribute to its expressive colors, heightened imagery, and visceral suspense. The film was executive produced and narrated by Anna Lou Castoldi, granddaughter of filmmaker Dario Argento. Its connection to that tradition is personal as well as cinematic, but Moini wanted the project to find a visual identity of its own.

The production relies on physical filmmaking to build its fever-dream world. According to Moini, the gore, crash effects, fire, and stop-motion work were created practically, without AI. Those choices give the film’s surreal imagery a tangible dimension, keeping Cynara’s ordeal rooted in something she—and the audience—can feel.

Alyson Gorske plays Cynara opposite Thomas Dekker as The Man, with Castoldi providing the narration. Adam Van Dyke wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Bria O’Brien. An IndieX alumnus, Van Dyke won Best LGBTQ Short at the 2026 IndieX Annual Awards for his film In The Valley. Behind the camera, Jeremy Hill served as director of photography, Katya Richardson composed the score, Payton Jane led production design, and Shonnard Hedges edited the film. Costume design is by Luis G. Reyes, with special-effects makeup and prosthetics by Kelton Ching and special effects by Gus Miranda.

Artichoke was filmed in Castroville, California, a location closely associated with the vegetable that gives the film its title.

Behind the Camera

Amir Moini is a Boston-born horror writer and director whose work combines stylized genre storytelling with personal themes. After seven years leading video editorial work at Netflix, he directed the short Slashr, which premiered at Screamfest in 2023 and went on to screen at more than 25 festivals in 12 countries.

Moini has also participated in Ryan Murphy’s HALF Initiative directors program and directed an episode of Sub/liminalfor Nebula. Beyond his own productions, he has served on festival juries, including FilmQuest and Queer Screams Film Festival, and joined the board of Outfest.

A Surreal Story of Survival

Through Cynara’s passage between worlds, Artichoke turns a flight from danger into a more troubling question: what must someone recognize, and what might they have to let go of, to become free? Its giallo influences and practical effects give that question a vivid horror vocabulary, while Moini’s personal connection to the material leaves room for viewers to see their own struggles in the story.

As Best Short of the Season, Artichoke receives IndieX Film Fest’s monthly prize package from FilmVault and Dehancer, with professional services and tools valued at more than USD $1,000. The film also qualifies for consideration for the IndieX Annual Awards 2027 and Live Showcase.

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