Short film starring Mariana di Girolamo premieres in Sundance Festival

• Techno-thriller AliEN0089 is a short film directed by Valeria Hofmann, which ponders around digital identities and violence boundaries within both physical and virtual territories.

• 2023 Sundance Film Festival will take place in Park City, Utah between January 19th and the 29th.

• The film will also be presented at 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) which will take place from January 25th to February 5th.

Sundance released its short films program, among which chilean short film AliEN0089 stands out. The film is a First person POV starring Mariana Di Girolamo (Larraín’s protagonist from Ema premiered Venice FF 2019). The film is a techno-thriller on the life of Sabina, a gamer who receives threats from other players both inside and outside the videogame.

The film will have its world premiere at the Midnight session which is known for being an exhibition of genre movies and “classics of the future”. Movies such as Hereditary, The Blair Witch Project and Get Out have also premiered here. “Premiering on this section has been an additional surprise, since the projections are nocturnal and it’s where movies that we like a lot, such as Mandy or It Follows have been shown for the first time. It is good news for the film, because even though it is a little bit mutant and radical in its varied format use, it is perceived as a genre movie” says it’s director, Valeria Hofmann.

“The film embodies the way in which nowadays we interact with technology, where it is not very clear where we draw the line of being on-line or off-line. The Internet works as some sort of Ouija, letting the unexpected enter our lives and affect us”, comments the director.

Watch the trailer here! 

AliEN0089 is a Mimbre Films production, produced by Augusto Matte (Los Perros, Critics Film Week Cannes 2017), Daniela Camino (The Journey of Monalisa IDFA 2019) and Pascual Mena (Austral Fever, Venice FF 2019). The short film was a co-production with Rei Cine (Argentina, production house of Lucrecia Martel’s Zama).

Valeria Hofmann is the director and screenwriter of AliEN0089. She had previously worked on La Siesta del Carnero (2020), a documentary that was presented on FIDBA, FIDOCS, FICUNAM and Malaga Film Festival. Nowadays she works as screenwriter on several cinematographic and series projects while also working on her first full length movie.

2023 Sundance Film Festival will take place in Park City, Utah from Thursday, January 19 to Sunday, January 29, 2023. Director Valeria Hofmann and producer Daniela Camino will attend the festival in person. The premiere will be in the Prospector Square Theatre, on January 20th at 9:00pm. Hereinafter, the film will be presented at 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) which will take place from January 25th to February 5th.

Title: AliEN0089
Genre: Techno-thriller
Country: Chile
Language: Español
Production: Mimbre Films (Chile)
Co-productor: Rei Cine (Argentina)
Length: 20 minutos
Year: 2023