LOS ANGELES, CA — Alongside Placebo, directed by Kai Undrell (UK) and named Best Short of the Season, the October 2026 edition of IndieX Film Fest recognizes two projects with the Award of Excellence (Special Jury Mention): Sticks & Holler by Willie C. Simmons (USA) and The Unfortunate Side Effects of Drinking with a Crippling Want by Steven Soria (USA). The jury also honors Signal by Riley Vitale (USA) with Best Student Short (Special Jury Award).
From the desperate schemes of friends in a struggling Appalachian town to the imagined future of two strangers at a party and an astronaut’s encounter with a reality-altering transmission, these works explore the distance between the lives we inhabit and those we long for. Through darkly comic ensemble storytelling, an expressive portrait of attraction, and ambitious science fiction, October’s honorees demonstrate distinctive artistic voices and accomplished cinematic craft.
Awards of Excellence (Special Jury Mention)
Sticks & Holler – Willie C. Simmons (USA)
American filmmaker Willie C. Simmons explores grief, loyalty, and the elusive promise of escape in Sticks & Holler, a 29-minute Appalachian crime dramedy and television pilot. Written and directed by Simmons, who also stars as Teddy, the project follows a young man whose mounting debts and increasingly desperate decisions pull him deeper into the circumstances he hopes to leave behind.
Set in the mid-2000s, the story unfolds in a small Appalachian town where crime has become part of everyday survival. Grieving his mother’s death and facing pressure from a drug dealer, Teddy turns to his hitman uncle, Donald, for help. With his reckless friends Ryan and Kev drawn into the scheme, his attempt to solve one problem sets off a chain of increasingly dangerous complications.
The criminal predicament provides the framework for a more personal examination of belonging and entrapment. Teddy’s relationships offer familiarity and loyalty, but they also reinforce the patterns that limit his future. Dark humor emerges from misguided plans and escalating consequences, while grief and economic desperation give the story its emotional stakes.
For Simmons, the project draws on his own Southern upbringing and a desire to challenge dismissive portrayals of the region. And places the narrative against the erosion of opportunity in small Appalachian communities, shaped by poverty and the opioid crisis. At its heart are the young people who imagined leaving but remained, caught between attachment to home and the search for a different life.
Based in North Carolina, Simmons works across directing, producing, acting, and photography, with a background spanning narrative film, documentary, and branded storytelling. His experience also includes cinematography, post-production, and color grading. Sticks & Holler brings these interests together in a project he developed as creator and showrunner, with the pilot intended to introduce a planned eight-episode series.
The ensemble features Gunner Willis (The Bondsman, Vice Principals), William McKinney (Will Trent, George & Tammy, Red Right Hand), Nat Taylor, and Chase Bridges. Co-produced by Stoop Kids and Benco Productions, the pilot features cinematography by Travis Karr, whose location work included an old diner in Statesville, North Carolina, and Carolina Speedway. These settings contribute to the production’s regional identity and the world being established for the series.
IndieX Film Fest Jury Verdict: Sticks & Holler presents a compelling foundation for episodic storytelling through its combination of dark comedy, crime, and emotionally grounded conflict. Teddy’s predicament connects the immediate pressures of debt and survival with broader questions about family influence, personal responsibility, and the possibility of change. The project’s regional specificity and interconnected ensemble give its world scope beyond the central criminal scheme. By placing the desire for a better life at the heart of its Appalachian setting, Simmons develops a story whose tensions can sustain further exploration while giving the pilot a clear emotional focus.
The Unfortunate Side Effects of Drinking with a Crippling Want – Steven Soria (USA)
Filipino-American filmmaker Steven Soria explores longing and the anxiety of attraction in The Unfortunate Side Effects of Drinking with a Crippling Want, an 11-minute queer romantic drama. Written and directed by Soria, the film follows two strangers who imagine their lives together upon seeing each other for the first time at a party.
Rachel Leyco stars as Franklynn opposite Yssamei as Zee, with Matt Groove appearing as William. Their encounter opens onto a possible shared future, revealing how quickly desire can generate expectations, fears, and emotional attachments before two people truly know one another.
Soria gives this experience a compelling cinematic form through fast-paced, fragmented storytelling. Fleeting impressions and imagined moments create a rhythm that moves between anticipation and uncertainty, drawing viewers into the characters’ inner worlds. The film’s expressive language gives emotional depth to its brief timeframe, capturing the intensity of feelings that develop far more quickly than the relationship itself.
In an joint statement, the filmmakers describe a commitment to portraying two fully realized Filipina women. Cultural identity forms part of a broader tapestry of personality, experience, and desire. Their approach makes room for Filipino and Filipino-American stories centered on the everyday complexities of love and vulnerability, extending the possibilities of representation through an intimate slice of life.
Born, raised, and based in Los Angeles, Soria works across directing, cinematography, and photography. His background includes music videos for artists such as Veruca Salt, King Fantastic, Steady Holiday, and Stephen Bradley of No Doubt, alongside narrative shorts. His collaboration with producer and cinematographer Shea William Vanderpoort reaches back to their teenage years, when they were already making movies together.
Leyco, who also produces the film, is a queer Filipina-American filmmaker, writer, and actress. Her screen credits include Bel-Air, Atypical, and Chicago Fire. Yssamei, a Los Angeles-born actress and AMDA acting graduate, brings credits including Hawkeye, Black Adam, and St. Denis Medical.
Produced by Leyco, Vanderpoort, and Alpha Faye, the short brings together a creative team with experience across independent film and television. Vanderpoort’s directing credits include Harlem, First Wives Club, and Saturdays.
IndieX Film Fest Jury Verdict: The Unfortunate Side Effects of Drinking with a Crippling Want distinguishes itself through the confidence and sophistication of its cinematic execution. Its fragmented structure remains emotionally coherent, balancing narrative momentum with an intimate understanding of the vulnerability beneath romantic projection. Soria transforms a simple meeting into a rich exploration of imagined intimacy. The result is a formally distinctive and deeply felt work, demonstrating how much a short film can communicate through rhythm, association, and the expressive possibilities of cinematic storytelling.
Best Student Short (Special Jury Award)
Signal – Riley Vitale (USA)
San Francisco-based student filmmaker Riley Vitale combines ambitious science-fiction filmmaking with an intimate exploration of grief in Signal, a 15-minute short following two astronauts on a rescue mission who intercept a mysterious transmission from Neptune. As the signal begins to alter Christopher Anderson’s perception of reality, the mission becomes a confrontation with the seductive possibilities of illusion.
Written and directed by Vitale, the film stars Jordan Covington, alongside Micah Ochs and Diego Chavez. Its deep-space setting provides the framework for a deeply personal question: what might persuade someone to abandon reality, particularly when an illusion offers the chance to reconnect with a person they have lost?
Vitale identifies Homer’s The Odyssey and The Matrix as key inspirations. Like the sirens’ song, the transmission promises something irresistible while concealing its danger. The question of whether a convincing illusion might be preferable to an unwelcome truth gives the science-fiction premise its emotional stakes. Drawing on his own experience of loss, Vitale explores the point at which escape becomes surrender, with consequences for those who remain around us.
The film’s technical accomplishment is central to its impact. Its spaceship interior establishes a convincing physical environment for the unfolding psychological uncertainty, grounding the speculative premise in a tangible world. The sophistication of the cinematic execution allows the production’s ambition and emotional focus to work together throughout its compact runtime.
Creating that environment required considerable preparation. According to Vitale, the team spent months collecting pieces of technology and assembling the spaceship set, knowing they would have only two days on the soundstage to film inside it. Working with a very small student budget, the production relied on detailed planning and resourcefulness to realize a setting that many initially doubted would be possible.
A student at San Francisco State University, Vitale also serves as editor and produces the film with Matt Dresden and Noa Elkayam. Cinematography is by Max Hurley and Garrett Fernandes-McDade, with an original score by Stephen Oneto. Several members of the team, including lead actor Covington, previously collaborated on Vitale’s science-fiction feature Into the Night (2025), which follows an ex-couple helping a college student return home after the sun fades out.
At Indie Short Fest’s September 2026 edition, Signal received Best Student Short, Best Student Male Director, and a Best Short of the Season runner-up distinction, alongside nominations for cinematography, editing, and ensemble cast.
IndieX Film Fest Jury Verdict: Signal distinguishes itself through its assured direction, technical sophistication, and convincing realization of an ambitious science-fiction setting. The production design, cinematography, and editing demonstrate a command of cinematic craft that gives credibility to the world and supports the protagonist’s increasingly uncertain experience. Vitale connects that achievement to a recognizable emotional conflict: the temptation to exchange painful truth for comforting illusion. The result is an accomplished student film whose scale of imagination is matched by the care and confidence of its execution.
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