Top Indie Sci-Fi Films From the 2017 Philip K. Dick Film Festival

This post was originally published on Outer Places.

If you're a fan of indie sci-fi like District 9 or Ex Machina, you should be bookmarking the winners of this year's Philip K. Dick Sci-Fi Film Festival, which recently announced its top 15 films. The Festival presented over 100 films, exclusive premieres, and virtual reality demonstrations, and took place from May 25th-30th, 2017. The lineup was a mix of science fiction, horror, virtual reality, and fantasy, all united by the vision and work of Philip K. Dick.

"The awards were presented to features, shorts, and documentaries based on originality, brevity, depth of research and attention to craft," said Daniel Abella, the founder and director of the festival. "The sheer variety of these films made our fifth anniversary film festival a success."

You can see the full list on their website, but here are some of the ones we're most excited about!

Director: Bruce Wemple

Synopsis: A young insomniac's black-market sleep aid sends his mind time traveling into the future where he is the suspect in the disappearance of a girl he hasn't met yet.

Director: Renchao Wang

Synopsis: A girl comes to a lonely island to save the world in less than 24 hours as men in black chase her. What does she bring with her and how can she save mankind from the supernova explosion?

Director: Ricardo Fernández Jiménez

Synopsis: A man whose consciousness has the ability to live in two parallel worlds simultaneously must help a dangerous gangster to win a bet. But everything changes when he meets a woman.

Director: Pierre Zandrowicz

Synopsis: In early 2005, David Hanson, an American robotics expert, is developing his first android human. His name is Phil, a copy of the famous science fiction author Philip K. Dick. In a few weeks, Phil becomes famous on the internet and is presented in several conferences around the world. In late 2005, the head of the android disappeared during a flight on America West Airlines between Dallas and Las Vegas. Through the memories of the android and those of the author, the film offers an interpretation of Phil's life.

Philip K. Dick film festival — Still from Peter.
Photo Credit: Jane Topping

Director: Jane Topping

Synopsis: Peter seeks to reframe Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner, long considered a classic of dystopian cinema, with the intention of positioning the artist within the text. The short implies that such radical gestures are not only warranted and necessary, but also implicit in the contemporary viewer's experience of watching film.

Director: A.T.

Synopsis: A girl encounters an android on the street. She finds something strange about the experience and decides to follow the android to give it a "message."

Director: Veselin Efremov

Synopsis: In a dystopian future, an organic body is a privilege easy to lose and a convict awakens to the grim reality of having been transferred into a mechanical shell.

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Director: Alexander Pfander

Synopsis: A ship is on a dangerous collision course with an unknown celestial body during an interstellar mission to colonize exoplanets.

The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival launched in 2012 as New York City's first festival of its kind and honors the enduring legacy of novelist Philip K. Dick, whose work maintains a strong influence over modern culture and society. Organized by individuals and filmmakers who understand the difficulties and challenges of presenting a unique narrative in a corporate environment, the festival embraces original concepts and alternative approaches to storytelling in the form of independent science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy, metaphysical, and virtual reality films.

Since 2013, the festival has held international gatherings in France, Poland, and Germany, and many domestic screenings throughout the year. For more information on the festival held for filmmakers by filmmakers, visit thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com.