Philip K. Dick European Sci-Fi Film Festival Announces Events in France and Poland

Phillip K. Dick was one of the most influential Science Fiction writers to ever wield a pen. It’s no surprise then that a number of his name has become legendary. Just a couple of the legendary films based off his work include Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), and  Minority Report (2002).

A science fiction festival in his honor has been running for several years now, and the European division has just recently announced events in Poland and France.The festival runs its first Eurppean event in Lille, France on October 24, 2015 at the famous L’Hybride theater for the Death in Life and the Rise of the Machine block of 14 award-winning short films. The festival then travels to Łódź, Poland for a landmark Halloween event on October 31, 2015. Screening at the mesmerizing Kino Tatry theater, a 15-hour marathon of 38 films will run from 1pm-4amDate: October 24, 2015. An extensive list of the films featured follow:

• Location: L’Hybride (18 Rue Gosselet 59000, Lille, France)
  Start Time: 8:30pm (14 total films)
• On/Off (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Thierry Lorenzi
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 13 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: Obsessed by a mysterious voice message, astronaut
  Meredith (Carole Brana) will face its paradoxical condition in order
  to stay connected to humanity.
• O. (2014)
  ⁃ Director: July Allard
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 15 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: The Parker family lives through different
  universes and in each of these space-times their life is subject to
  radical changes. An infinite number of choices and events are possible
  and everything can happen according to their actions.
• Seule (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Didier Philippe
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 10 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: Claire (Anne Voutey) lives alone with fear of the
  outside world stopping her from going out and letting people in. One
  day, she discovers evidence that a man lives in her home.
• Umbra (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Bryn Tilly
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 6 min, Australia
  ⁃ Synopsis: A mortal (Charlotte Antonievich) is seduced by a
  vampire (Fraser Gray) and transmogrified into an immortal, her final
  hours engulfed in a tenebrous fever dream as she slips across the
  boundaries of life and death.
• Knock (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Nikolas Long
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 10 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: The last man on Earth (Robert Buckland) sat alone
  in a room. Then, there was a knock on the door.
• Kerion (2014; Trailer)
  ⁃ Director: Glenn Ellis
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 2 min, Australia
  ⁃ Synopsis: We sent a message into space….We got a message
  back.
• Avant (2015)
  ⁃ Director: Arthur Tabuteau
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 14 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: In a world turn to ashes by a war without mercy
  against mankind and machines, there is a little boy (Yanis Richard)
  trying to survive. Although the threat of robots are everywhere he is
  forced to leave in search of food. Despite his efforts to hide he ends
  up getting caught and while all seems lost the reaction of the robot
  takes an unexpected turn.
• Lapse of Time (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Céline Tricart
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 15 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: On a winter afternoon, in the course of a hide and
  seek game, a kid (Simon Delagnes) finds shelter in the most unlikely
  of places: the huge astronomic-tuned clock of the city’s cathedral.
  Sneaking his way through, he accidentally gets his jacket stuck into
  the mechanism blocking the entire system…and of time itself.
• Désaffection (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Thomas Charles
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 18 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: Specialists team of doctors (Jeanne Carnec, Thomas
  Debaene, Léo Hardt) places in quarantine a patient (Hervé Degunst)
  affected by a disease supposed to have disappeared: Love. Facing the
  threat, they proceed to a serial of tests on the patient to elaborate
  a vaccine.
• Vomica (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Andy Green
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 15 min, UK
  ⁃ Synopsis: A British Commando raid finds an ancient evil in
  the crypts and tunnels of Occupied France. Mixing action with a sense
  of creeping horror; an homage to the great American writer H.P.
  Lovecraft.
• Gear (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Kevin R. Adams, Joe Ksander
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: A young girl (Charlotte Alexis White) flees the
  city with the help of her only ally — an old broken down
  construction robot.
• The Fischer Case (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Etienne Gravrand
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 22 min, Canada
  ⁃ Synopsis: Whilst being interrogated by police, a man (Karl
  Graboshas) with no particular story slowly but surely discovers an
  inextricable world of crime and madness.
• Voice Over (2011)
  ⁃ Director: Martín Rosete
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 10 min, Spain
  ⁃ Synopsis: Three extreme situations are actually the same.
• Replika (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Luc Walpoth
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 26 min, France/Switzerland
  ⁃ Synopsis: As she is forced to terminate her only daughter, a
  dysfunctional 13- year-old android, a loving mother tries to convince
  her husband to adopt a human kid. But in a materialistic and
  functional world, safety takes precedence over emotions.

On October 31, the festival will hold a 15-hour Halloween Marathon
Screening of 1 feature and 37 short films. Each award-winning film
behold stunning productions of rich and breathtaking storytelling and are among the science fiction genre’s most faithful contributions.
The screening will also hold panels with special guests.

15-Hour Halloween Marathon Screening
Date: October 31, 2015
Location: Kino Tatry (Sienkiewicza 40, Łódź, Poland)
Run Time: 1pm-4am (38 total films)

• Nightmare Code (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Mark Netter
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 90 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: After a programmer working on a top secret
  surveillance program snaps in a murderous rage, a notorious code
  wizard with problems of his own moves into the startup offices to
  figure out what went wrong and deliver the final product. But the
  deeper he delves into the code, the more the code takes on a
  malevolent life of its own.
• Iron Cloud (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Nikodem Wojciechowski
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 42 min; Poland
  ⁃ Synopsis: Two brothers living in the eastern totalitarian
  country escape to an unnamed, free, technologically advanced
  neighboring country but heir new home, apparently a perfect place to
  live, will soon turn out to be only a new version of prison people
  build for one another.
• The Heat (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Bartosz Kruhlik
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 24 min; Poland
  ⁃ Synopsis: 1. Coal or wood afire to redness, 2. High air
  temperature, 3. Vehemence of feelings.
• Hidden (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Michal Barylski and Dominik L. Marzec
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 23 min; Poland
  ⁃ Synopsis: The strange telepathic signal is coming from an
  old, desolated factory complex somewhere in Russia. Two TV
  correspondents investigating the situation quickly find themselves
  between the odd powers affecting their minds and the Russian army
  trying to quarantine the place to take control of the situation.
• Paranoia (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Błażej Kujaw
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 19 min; Poland
  ⁃ Synopsis: Magda (Magdalena Mielcarz) is a woman who want to
  change her life but her decisions provokes that her life rotates
  upside down.
• The Big Leap (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Kristoffer Rus
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 13 min Poland/Sweden
  ⁃ Synopsis: Three people meet at the top of a skyscraper to
  commit suicide due to a major financial crisis. The conflict quickly
  deepens when they discover that they all represent a different
  conviction about the hereafter. The only way to find out who’s right
  is to take The Big Leap.
• The Future Perfect (2015)
  ⁃ Director: Nick Citton
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 11 min, Canada
  ⁃ Synopsis: Somewhere between then and now, a time traveler
  defies his orders, and compromises a future he cannot un-learn. Stars
  Zachary Quinto (Heroes, Star Trek) and Robert Baker (Texas Rising, Mad
  Men).
• On/Off (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Thierry Lorenzi
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 13 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: Obsessed by a mysterious voice message, astronaut
  Meredith (Carole Brana) will face its paradoxical condition in order
  to stay connected to humanity.
• Visions (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Gene Blalock
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: The best way to keep a secret is to pretend there
  isn’t one.
• Seule (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Didier Philippe
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 10 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: Claire (Anne Voutey) lives alone with fear of the
  outside world stopping her from going out and letting people in. One
  day, she discovers evidence that a man lives in her home.
• Umbra (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Bryn Tilly
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 6 min, Australia
  ⁃ Synopsis: A mortal (Charlotte Antonievich) is seduced by a
  vampire (Fraser Gray) and transmogrified into an immortal, her final
  hours engulfed in a tenebrous fever dream as she slips across the
  boundaries of life and death.
• Knock (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Nikolas Long
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 10 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: The last man on Earth (Robert Buckland) sat alone
  in a room. Then, there was a knock on the door.
• Kerion (2014; Trailer)
  ⁃ Director: Glenn Ellis
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 2 min, Australia
  ⁃ Synopsis: We sent a message into space….We got a message
  back.
• I Wish My Life (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Joachim Huveneers
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 15 min, Belgium
  ⁃ Synopsis: A beautiful young lady lives together with an old
  man. Weekly, her progress is monitored by two mysterious men.
• Lapse of Time (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Céline Tricart
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 15 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: On a winter afternoon, in the course of a hide and
  seek game, a kid (Simon Delagnes) finds shelter in the most unlikely
  of places: the huge astronomic-tuned clock of the city’s cathedral.
  Sneaking his way through, he accidentally gets his jacket stuck into
  the mechanism blocking the entire system…and of time itself.
• Désaffection (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Thomas Charles
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 18 min, France
  ⁃ Synopsis: Specialists team of doctors (Jeanne Carnec, Thomas
  Debaene, Léo Hardt) places in quarantine a patient (Hervé Degunst)
  affected by a disease supposed to have disappeared: Love. Facing the
  threat, they proceed to a serial of tests on the patient to elaborate
  a vaccine.
• Vomica (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Andy Green
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 15 min, UK
  ⁃ Synopsis: A British Commando raid finds an ancient evil in
  the crypts and tunnels of Occupied France. Mixing action with a sense
  of creeping horror; an homage to the great American writer H.P.
  Lovecraft.
• Gear (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Kevin R. Adams, Joe Ksander
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: A young girl (Charlotte Alexis White) flees the
  city with the help of her only ally — an old broken down
  construction robot.
• The Fischer Case (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Etienne Gravrand
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 22 min, Canada
  ⁃ Synopsis: Whilst being interrogated by police, a man (Karl
  Graboshas) with no particular story slowly but surely discovers an
  inextricable world of crime and madness.
• Voice Over (2011)
  ⁃ Director: Martín Rosete
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 10 min, Spain
  ⁃ Synopsis: Three extreme situations are actually the same.
• Days Without Incident (2012)
  ⁃ Director: Theresa Latzko
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 3 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: Two scientists find that saving the planet is a
  surprisingly dull occupation.
• Exit (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Michel Goossens
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 16 min, Spain/Netherlands
  ⁃ Synopsis: A woman awakes in an unfamiliar space with a man
  sitting beside her bed. He explains her that she has passed away and
  will now have to let go of her earthly identity to move on.
• Similo (2014)
  ⁃ Director: MacGregor and Bruno Zacarías
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 20 min, Spain
  ⁃ Synopsis: In 2065, the entire planet is hit by the effects
  of climate change. One of the few places that remain habitable is
  Antarctica.
• No Mires Ahí (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Daniel Romero
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 15 min, Spain
  ⁃ Synopsis: Marta (Sandra Blázquez) returns to her mom’s
  house to spend some days with her little sister in Madrid. The
  girl’s strange behavior and the latent memory of a sad event will
  lead Marta to suspect that the house hosts an unsettling presence.
• Sujeto Darwin (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Fernandez Sanchez
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 21 min, Spain
  ⁃ Synopsis: After regaining consciousness a man wakes up in a
  mass grave full of corpses just about to become “arisen.”
• Renacimiento (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Antonio Souto Fraguas
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 5 min, Spain
  ⁃ Synopsis: Ramon faces a tragedy in his relationship and
  audio record from a dead man will give him some clues of what really
  happened.
• Martian American (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Lee Citron
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 21 min, USA/Mexico
  ⁃ Synopsis: A lonely Martian travels to Los Angeles to start a
  new life and make new friends but when faced with adversity, culture
  shock, and self doubt he struggles to find the courage to stay.
• Albino (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Federico Telerman
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 14 min, Argentina
  ⁃ Synopsis: In a society where albino people are persecuted
  because of the characteristics of their blood, a group of rebels will
  rise in arms.
• Turn On (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Mat Owen
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 14 min, UK
  ⁃ Synopsis: A diligent android repair man responds to an
  emergency call-out, but when he discovers that the android has been
  exploited he is faced with an impossible moral dilemma.
• Room 731 (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Young Min Kim
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 16 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: An amnesiac girl wakes up in what appears to be an
  abandoned jail where she is haunted by spirits who want to torture
  her.
• Vimana (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Faroukh Virani
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 17 min, USA/India
  ⁃ Synopsis: Two Indian astronauts must cope with the death of
  their captain on a one-way voyage to the nearest Earth-like
  sanctuary.
• The Disappeared (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Aldo Romero
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 12 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: A private investigator uncovers the existence of
  the apparitions of people reported missing called, “The
  Disappeared” and begins to see “visions” of the enigmatic beings
  as he discovers the focus of his new clients interest involves alien
  technology.
• The Atom Bomb (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Vanessa Gould
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: After helping to usher in the nuclear era, a
  female physicist flees to China to live out her days on a Maoist
  farm.
• Artificio Conceal (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Ayoub Qanir
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 18 min, USA/UK
  ⁃ Synopsis: A victim of a simulated reality is left without
  identity.
• Ignorenatus Alius (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Alessandro Bricoli
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 24 min, USA
  ⁃ Synopsis: In 2039, mankind is on the brink of true
  interstellar travel and about to spread its reach further than it ever
  has before. Living in seclusion deep in mountains, a husband takes
  care of his terminally ill wife, holding onto the last shreds of a
  dying love. Something unseen and unknowable festers inside her mind.
• Nigredo (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Kristen Swinkels
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 7 min, Canada
  ⁃ Synopsis: Beth attempts suicide only to find herself in a
  hallucinatory world, first confronting her own shadowy side in Umbra.
  She must overcome Umbra and face the painful memory of her mother’s
  death in order to escape from the depths of her subconscious.
• Escapement (2014)
  ⁃ Director: Anthony Willis
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 21 min, UK
  ⁃ Synopsis: Tom is watching TV whilst filling-in a crossword.
  His wife Helen is also watching whilst she does some knitting. Tom
  realises that the TV is repeating. Except Helen does not seem to be
  noticing. Well, she’s not really paying attention. Based on a 1956
  short story written by J. G. Ballard.
• Sleepworking (2013)
  ⁃ Director: Gavin Williams
  ⁃ Run Time/Country: 16 min, UK
  ⁃ Synopsis: In the near future, a young woman becomes a
  “sleepworker”: her body is programmed to do menial labour while
  she is asleep. However, she starts to suffer disturbing side effects
  and embarks upon a dangerous journey to uncover what sleepworkers are
  really being made to do while unconscious.

So if you have an ample amount of frequent flyer miles and a desire to see some quality Sci-Fi, head on over to Poland.

Jeff is a writer for The Blood Shed and eats, drinks, and bleeds horror. You can help him surport his first book here