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9 frames Still in the running. Winner announced at Awards Night, 19 September 2026.
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Credits
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Produced by
Starring
Synopsis
A place where dreams are real, wishes come true, and everything is always awful for everyone.
The first installment of the Hard Times anthology, Hell, follows the patriarch of a dying farm on the outskirts of Ash Harbor as he is methodically ground down by the machinery of despair. What begins as endurance curdles into something far more existential, a portrait of collapse told through dust, labor, and silence.
Hell made its world premiere in 2026 at Animation Dingle, where it quickly garnered critical acclaim and went on to collect multiple awards at festivals around the world.
On the nomination
A place where dreams are real, wishes come true, and everything is always awful for everyone
Director's Statement
When I was a child, I would walk with my father through the slowly developing farmland of Vermont. I remember him telling me, “This world is already lost, we are just watching it die.” At eight years old, I felt powerless, desperate to protect the rural landscape I loved, yet unable to stop its slow erasure. Now, three decades later, that feeling remains undiminished. As a staunch environmentalist with a multi-generational heritage in agriculture, my love of the natural world is marrow deep. And yet, my father’s words have become my own. I fear this once-beautiful world may be terminally sick. Hell is a surreal, sci-fi meditation on despair. Set on a dying farm in a fictional place called Ash Harbor, it unfolds in a landscape ravaged by man-made ecological collapse. It carries echoes of the 1930s Dust Bowl, but darker still. Towering engines roam barren fields, shedding toxic debris as they go. Known as the Bathers, these enigmatic machines are the remnants of a great lie, the promised cure for a meager life that ultimately cost us everything.
What makes this one special
- Parker Croft has been here beforeAlso in the 2024 programme
- Programmed at 5 other festivalsAcross 4 countries
- Nominated for Best International Micro Short Film
Also selected at
5 official selections across 5 other festivals
- SelectionAnimation Dingle
- SelectionFlorida Film Festival
- SelectionShort Encounters International Film Festival
- SelectionDallas International Film Festival
- SelectionInternational Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR
Recorded by the filmmaker on their entry.
Director's Biography
Parker Croft Director
Parker Croft is an American director and screenwriter known for his portrayal of flawed, conflicted characters and his exploration of themes like mortality and love through a bold, voyeuristic visual style. His most recent short film, As Easy As Closing Your Eyes (2024), has earned 144 awards across more than 200 film festivals, including 16 for Best Director. His debut short, Suncatcher (2019), was similarly acclaimed, screening at 62 festivals and earning 13 awards. Croft first made his mark as a screenwriter with the feature Falling Overnight (2011), which won the Special Jury Prize at Cinequest and later streamed on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. In 2017, he co-founded Paper Horse Pictures, an award-winning film production company based in West Hollywood, California. In addition to his narrative work, he has directed music videos for artists such as The All-American Rejects.
Trailer
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Hell was an official Nominee for Best International Micro Short Film at the AFIN International Film Festival 2026, a Top 100 Best Reviewed and IMDb-qualifying festival.
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