The Cambria Film Festival, running February 5-9, has given SLO Review the opportunity to preview many of the more than 80 full-length and short films that make up its 2025 program schedule. All-access passes, live screening only passes, and passes to view films virtually after the festival are available now.
Four short films that made the cut to be included in the Cambria Film Festival all revolve around some fascinating title characters.
Linda
Number one red flag when meeting a person: when someone tells you who they are rather than simply being themselves, proceed with caution.
From Linda’s opening line, Linda (Janice Connolly) declares, “I’m an open book, mate. And I say things. People don’t believe me, but they’re true.”
This is during a job interview at the end of which she’s hired to work in a UK post office. Everything she sees and hears provokes a memory of a grand event or accomplishment in her own life, much to the consternation of her co-workers and possibly the film audience as well.
Thanks to director Joe Lycett, the eight-minute film’s pace is nicely done through quick scene changes and communication through looks and gestures.
Listening to Linda, though, is a bit like spending time with that person we’ve all met who, no matter what we share, are reminded of themselves.
In this case, Linda, it seems, heaps lie upon lie.
Or maybe she’s telling the truth.
You have to watch to find out.
Tina
Tina, directed by Laura Sweeney and written by Sheri Davenport, portrays the meeting of two adults who although now in their late 20s knew each other in their youth.
Facing some confusion in who they are to each other, they must reconcile how they’ve changed and to decide if they’re to move forward together or apart.
There’s a tenderness to the awkward crossroads where they find themselves while they sit across from each other at a New York diner. The uncertainty of their relationship is at once relatable, heartbreaking, and hopeful. It’s impossible to take a side as the pair struggles to make sense of their new reality.
We’re faced with the question of whether it’s easier to believe a lie than the truth. And once the truth is presented to us, do we fight it? Run the other way to make it possible to maintain our version of reality?
Or maybe a new contact is made.
This sweet, 16-minute parable is modern and beautiful. If you make the time to see it, you’ll be glad you did.
Audrey
When Meredith’s brother Connor brings his new girlfriend Audrey over for dinner, Audrey is seen as something odd, unexpected. Meredith and her wife, Rex, play along with the situation, hearts pounding, while they figure out what to do next.
Connor’s own heart is aching from a recent loss, and what he sees in Audrey is love and comfort. His sister and her wife, Rex, question his sanity.
Meredith goes in hard with wonderful comedic timing blended with convincing fear and concern for her brother.
Rex’s role is established as she diffuses wine in the film’s opening scene, and that continues when she attempts to diffuse the tension growing between Meredith and her brother.
In its mere 16 minutes, the story takes hold of you, urging you to consider what you would do, how you would behave in this seemingly impossible situation. The audience is a willing participant.
The question that director Julianna Robinson and her cast (Abby Eiland, Greg Smith, Alina Phelan, Sara Patterson) seem to be asking is, what is reality? Whose perception is correct? Does it matter?
Does the chaos that follows Connor’s arrival result from one warped reality or the other?
Finally, in a flash, Meredith and Rex see Audrey through Connor’s eyes, through their feelings for Connor.
And reality bends. Your thoughts about this short film will continue indefinitely.
Bernice
Burglar Bernice (Madeleine Wighton, also co-directing with Tony Gardiner) convinces us—and her so-called victims—that it’s possible to be kind and encouraging even when breaking and entering into private homes in the dead of night as families sleep.
Wighton plays Bernice as utterly engaging through a large repertoire of facial expressions that warm the heart. Though she does speak, she has a Chaplainesque quality to her physical comedy, conveying the story well even when no words are spoken.
Clad in pink, riding a pink bicycle, she leaves behind pink sticky notes to encourage strangers, telling them to “Fart out loud at work” and asking, “How will you use your gifts to love others today?” One such note leads to her own true love.
As an audience member, you will likely wish loving notes stuck to your bathroom mirror will be waiting for you when you return home. This charmingly goofy 12-minute short will put a spring in your step.
This is one to see.
Screenings of Linda (run time 8 minutes), part of the “In Retrospect” Shorts Program sponsored by San Simeon Lodge, are at 4 p.m. on Thursday, February 6 and at 4 p.m. on Friday, February 7.
Screenings of Tina (run time 15 minutes), part of the “More Than Meets the Eye” Shorts Program sponsored by The Bluebird Inn, are at 4 p.m. on Thursday, February 6 and at 1 p.m. on Friday, February 7.
Screenings of Audrey (run time 16 minutes), part of the “Complexities of Love” Shorts Program sponsored by Dennis Frahmann and Robert Tieman, are at 1 p.m. on Friday, February 7 and at 10 a.m. on Sunday, February 9.
Screenings of Bernice (run time 12 minutes), part of the “Growing Pains” Shorts Program sponsored by Judy & Ed Stokely, are at 1 p.m. on Thursday, February 6 and at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 8.