What if your best friend came in the mail in a box? What if artificial intelligence could create a more perfect version of you? And what could go wrong when technology starts to understand what we want too well? iShorts returns to Future Gate with a selection of short sci-fi films that serve up the future in small but well-concentrated doses. Robots, artificial intelligence, strange technologies, dark humor and worlds just a few steps away from ours await you. Because sometimes you don't need two hours for good sci-fi. All you need is one great idea.
My only friend is Beans the robot
Director: Anika Kan Grevstad | Producers: Chris Bauer, Anika Kan Grevstad, Corrina Leatherwood, Skye Mahaffie | Cast: Danielle Young, AB Allen, Jasmin Carina | Year of production: 2026 | Length: 13 min | feature film
Ruby's lonely daily routine is disrupted by an unexpected friendship - with a mail-order robot.
Lord of all future space and time
Director: Chris Paul Russell | Producers: Dana Guerin, Joy Sirott Hurwitz, Cindi Rice, Karl Stelter | Cast: Roy Williams Jr., Mark Benninghoffen, Ray Buffer | Year of production: 2025 | Length: 26 min | Feature film | USA
The Master of All Future Space and Time begins as a classic revenge western, only to be swept away into a whirlwind of sci-fi absurdity. With its strong narrative commentary, dark humor, and frenetic pace, it recalls the early Coen brothers and a world somewhere between The Mob and Amelia. A sweeping tale packed into a short format, it effortlessly tackles surprisingly big themes – time, loss, love, and the meaning of life.
Distribution
director: Danny Pineros | producer: Mateo Vergara | cast: Natalie Polisson, JC Smith, Robin Zamora | year of production: 2024 | length: 8 min | feature film | USA
A couple witnesses a paranormal phenomenon that separates them into two different dimensions.
Planet
Director: Jason Carman | Producers: Maxie Harrington, Jason Carman, Jim O'Shaughnessy | Cast: Stephen R. Miller, Alexander Platt, Ian S. Peterson | Year of production: 2025 | Length: 38 min | Feature film | USA
Planet tells the story of a man who decides to realize a seemingly impossible dream: to build an artificial planet from the ground up.
A perfectly perfect person
director: Paul Trillo | producers: Justin Lacob, Bryn Mooser, Poppy, Edward Saatchi | cast: Ryan Barrier, Jack Mayer, Poppy | year of production: 2024 | length: 18 min | feature film
Under the pressure of fame and the expectations of her fans, pop star Poppy hands over control to Aura - an AI copy of herself trained on her own content. When Aura begins to dictate her every word and step, Poppy must fight to regain control of her life.
FUTURE GATE SCI-FI FILM FESTIVAL
OLOMOUC, Telegraph, from Monday 19 to Wednesday 21 October 2026
In its 12 years of existence, it has attracted tens of thousands of fans of sci-fi films, science and technology. The 13th edition of the festival will take place in the fall in Prague, Brno and other cities throughout the Czech Republic. What does Future Gate bring? Unique program: It offers premieres of new films, cult sci-fi classics, documentaries, series marathons, student and short films.
The theme of the 13th year of the festival will be geopolitics and resources in the future.
The planet is running out of energy, resources are disappearing, the climate is collapsing, and with it the political balance. Future conflicts will be over solar grids, asteroid mining, and control of data resources. Energy is no longer natural, it is strategic, artificial, alien. Resources no longer lie beneath our feet, but circle overhead, hidden in algorithms or scattered in the fabric of reality. Data is the new source of real power. It is not just about technology, it is a test of humanity, it is about the direction we will take as a civilization. We will find inspiration again in movies.
Program subject to change.
