Lee Way Lan is an American actor, filmmaker and musician, known for South Park: Band in China (2019), Legion: Chapter 22 (2019), and Younger: Tattoo You (2016). He was also known as the violinist & rapper in the Chinese pop group ‘Cool Silly’. He was born in Queens, New York, and grew up in Southern California. He studied acting at the Anthony Abeson Acting School in New York City, and is a diversity scholarship recipient at the Groundlings School in Los Angeles.

Director Statement

“THE HIKE” is a story of CHARLES, a Chinese immigrant living in Southern California, who finds a dead body with a bag full of cash on his usual hiking trail. In a surprising turn of luck, he finds himself with an opportunity to rid all his financial problems, and ultimately, gain the respect of his wife who is frustrated with his inability to bring money home. But everything changes when a young, bright, private investigator come seeking the lost bag of cash. 


In the background of the story, the film also touches on the effect of financial corruption associated by the booming Chinese economy in American real estate and the effect of bride purchasing caused by China’s one-child policy.


I believe this film will bring light and attention to how USA will view China’s growing competitive economy in the future – and also realizing the catastrophic damage to a victim of the current bride buying economy that still eerily thrives as an industry in NorthEast China.

THE HIKE is a story of Charles, a Chinese immigrant, who finds a dead body with a bag full of cash on his usual hiking trail. In a surprising turn of luck, he finds himself with an opportunity to rid of all his financial problems. But everything changes when a young, bright, private investigator come seeking the lost bag of cash.

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Coming from a theater background as a writer/director, Matt switched to film-making in 2016. This is his second short film he has directed. He co-wrote a feature length sci-fi crime thriller which just completed principle photography in early March 2020. Matt recently received funding for his third short film, “The Visitor,” which he wrote and will direct. It is slated to begin filming fall of 2020.

Director Statement

Most of the winemakers I know aren’t snooty yuppies with sweaters tied around their shoulders, sipping their new vintage while giving a self-indulgent tour of their facilities to equally snobbish wine enthusiasts. The winemakers I know are working class folks, who bottle wine for hours while blasting punk rock, and reward a hard day’s work with a cold beer.

I wanted this short to take a look at the hard and often lonely life of a winemaker. Successfully breaking into the wine culture is expensive, labor intensive and full of challenges that are mostly stacked against the winemaker. One of those biggest obstacles is the critic and the foodie wine snob.

This short film is a portrait of an unstable man whom on the brink of losing everything shows his true, ugly nature tucked behind the mirage of the prestigious winemaker. It is about a broken man that would do anything for a taste of success.

We wanted “Full Bodied” to not only tell our story, but also give the audience glimpse into the wine making process and the facilities it all happens in. We were so fortunate to shoot at such a beautiful and fascinating space.

Our DP, Robert Cernuda, did a wonderful job capturing those great images of the winery. Greta Link, our composer and my wife, brought it all together with her haunting and atmospheric soundtrack.

I thank everyone who had a hand in this film.

Directed by Matt Bayer
The story of a struggling wine maker who is desperate to keep his business from going under.

Project Links

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***Selected for the Thriller Suspense Festival.***

While home alone, Sara gets a familiar but unwelcome guest who threatens to destroy what she loves most.

Review “Just watched it!  HOLY CREEPY!!!  Scared the F out of me!  Very well done!  Your twins did an amazing acting job (and I see the resemblance to you…love the chin dimples like me and my daughter have too)  The editing, along with the chilling music, really added to the suspense and anticipation that something was always about to happen, and leaving you on the edge of your seat.  And you also did a great job of letting the images tell the story, not needing a big script.  Excellent job my friend!  Enter that baby into some festivals.” – My friend Michael K:)

Passionné dès son plus jeune âge par le son et l’image, Roland a réalisé des films publicitaires, des clips vidéo et de nombreux courts-métrages. L’un d’eux, “Cramps“, a remporté le prix du public au Festival Fantastique de Manchester.

En parallèle, il a écrit deux séries télévisées, “Chess Kids“ et “Damon“, pour le marché américain, puis proposé également des scénarii pour le cinéma et la télévision.

Afin d’ajouter une corde à son arc, alliant écriture et direction artistique pour Polygone Games,
il a participé à la réalisation de deux jeux vidéo, “Medal Quest“ et “Waves of Death“.

Il écrit un premier roman intitulé “La mort dans l’âme“ qui a reçu de très bonnes critiques.

Début janvier 2021, il écrit et réalise “De brume et de sang”, un thriller avec Marie Le Cam, Laurent Maurel et Laetitia Rosier.

Actuellement, il travaille sur les scénarii de nombreux projets de téléfilms et de séries TV ainsi que sur la réalisation de son premier long-métrage intitulé “A bras le corps”.

A famous novelist, winner of a prestigious prize, meets a journalist.
Wanting to find out more about his personality, the journalist asks him about his latest books and where he gets his inspiration.
As the time passes, the author starts to doubt the real intentions of the interviewer.
The meeting quickly goes downhill, revealing the scars of a tragedy that happened four years ago…

Project Links

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Best FEATURE Film Winner Showcase:

THE RUNNER, 102 minutes, USA, Thriller
Directed by Michelle Danner

WATCH the Audience FEEDBACK Video:

After Miranda (Elisabeth Rohm) calls the cops on her son Aiden (Edouard Philipponnat) and he gets arrested for drug possession, he is given a terrible choice by Detective Wall (played by Cameron Douglas): either go to jail or become an informant and bring down a dangerous Drug King Pin, Local Legend (Eric Balfour).

Aiden falls into a downward spiral, mourning his love Layla (Kerri Medders) and dragging down his best friend Blake (Nadji Jeter) and his girlfriend Liz (Jessica Amlee).

Wealthy but compassionate, hopeful but damaged, drug-addicted but still somehow able to run a four-minute mile on the high school track team, Aiden Albers is about to discover what it means to have to choose from a set of impossible outcomes. He wakes one morning to find his mother has brought the cops to scare some sense into him, to finally force him into a rehab that sticks. But hard-assed veteran Detective Wall doesn’t take to Aiden’s rich kid antics and busts him for cocaine instead. After hours left strung out and sweating in holding, Wall paints Aiden a bleak picture, gives him a choice: cooperate or do ten years in prison.

Three months later, Aiden’s a reluctant confidential informant, blackmailed into wearing a wire and helping Wall hit possession quotas, spiraling even deeper into his addictions. But when his best friend Blake finally agrees to connect Aiden with the local drug kingpin, Aiden’s uneasy truce with Wall cracks, and escape, prison, or death become the only options. The turning point hits with the power of a car crash, at the last mansion party Aiden will ever throw.

Over a nightmare twenty-four hours, Aiden must either confront his predicament, his addictions, and his haunted past, die in the process, or execute his plan and run. But there may not be a future to run towards.

Director Statement

Late at night, I saw a news report on Police enforcement forcing kids to go undercover wearing wires and using them as sacrificial lambs. Lives were at stake and no one was reigning anyone in.  I started to cry, then I wrote a treatment about a kid falling through the cracks, needing someone to step in and recognize the signs before it was too late. The Runner is a movie about how kids can get trapped into doing the unthinkable. I was inspired to tell a story about a kid that could be saved. 

News & Reviews

• “PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER “THE RUNNER” BY MICHELLE DANNER”Beverly Hills Magazinehttps://www.beverlyhillsmagazine.com/psychological-thriller-the-runner-by-michelle-danner/
• “Film director Michelle Danner has launched production on “The Runner,” a drama written by Jason Chase Tyrrell”FilmFestival.comhttps://www.filmfestivals.com/blog/editor/film_director_michelle_da

Showcase of the best THRILLER & HORROR SHORT FILMS in the world today.

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:
Best Thriller Film: GESTIRN
Best Horror Film: DREAMER’S JOURNEY
Best Performances: LEAD ME HOME
Best Cinematography: MARY

Theme of night: Life

NOTE: Festival took place during the COVID-19 virus lockdown so all screenings were held in private.

Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Videos:

MARY, 8min., Costa Rica, Thriller

GESTIRN, 12min., Switzerland, Thriller

LEAD ME HOME, 21min., France, Thriller

DREAMER’S JOURNEY, 18min., Canada, Horror

The beginning of a (temporary) new era.

See you at the festivals. Whenever that happens!

– Matthew Toffolo

Julien Hosmalin is a French director and screenwriter.
Just before his cinema degree, he was noticed with his first project « Thalis » which won the « Prix de la Ville de Nice ».
At the end of his studies in 2008, Julien worked as a cameraman for the TV channels Al-Jazeera and El-Arabya. With a journalist, he has covered many geopolitical topics between Europe and Middle East.
In 2011, he started directing music videos. Today, all of his music videos cumulate over 500 million views on YouTube.
Since 2015, he has directed several short films, including « Magic World », which won several awards including « Les Films du Monde » de Montréal.
In March 2016, he signed the writing of his first feature film « Ferris Wheel », as well as a second screenplay, based on the eponymous novel from Henri Loevenbruck, « Nous rêvions juste de liberté ».
At the end of 2019, he directed his last short film « Lead Me Home ».