Guy Kent leads Angad Aulakh's acclaimed space drama, which will also joins the lineup at the Anomaly Film Festival following its HollyShorts World Premiere and a Best Sci-Fi Short nomination at upcoming FilmQuest. The film is also nominated for the Delta Award for Best Sci-Fi Short at Festival of Fantastic Films UK.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- AURORA, the critically acclaimed sci-fi short from award-winning filmmaker Angad Aulakh, an alum of Ryan Murphy Television's HALF Initiative, has been selected for the prestigious 27th Malibu Film Festival, screening this awards season at the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Theater in Beverly Hills, CA. AURORA continues the collaboration between Aulakh and Last Carnival producing partner, actor Guy Kent, a partnership that has become one of the most decorated on the independent film circuit with their previous films, the Oscar-qualified The Atomic Dream and the Oscar- and BAFTA-qualified Resurrektor, have earned 33 festival awards and 49 nominations between them. Those include Best Sci-Fi Short at the British Short Film Awards, Best Horror Short at the New York Shorts International Film Festival, and a Best Actor win for Kent at the Amsterdam International Film Festival. The Atomic Dream was released in North American theaters via Filmocracy and iGems.
The film will screen at the upcoming FilmQuest Film Festival in Provo, Utah later this month, as well as the 8th Anomaly Film Festival, Toronto Arthouse Film Festival (TAFF), and Festival of Fantastic Films UK, where it is also nominated for the Delta Award for Best Sci-Film Short. Aurora had its World Premiere at the 22nd Annual Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival and has also been nominated for two awards at upcoming FilmQuest, for Best Sci-Fi Short and Best Visual Effects.
Led by Kent (The Place Between, The Atomic Dream), AURORA follows Commander Freddie Ballard, an astronaut stranded in the farthest reaches of space after a catastrophic accident. As isolation gives way to revelation, he encounters a mysterious presence that challenges everything he believes about life, death, and what lies beyond. What begins as a desperate fight for survival becomes an intimate journey through grief, renewal, and humanity's enduring search for meaning. The film also stars Jennalyn Ponraj, Robert Diago DoQui, and Ethan Daniel Corbett.
Critics have embraced the film, Joey Moser of The Contending calling AURORA "a dazzling experience…lyrical in its beauty and boundless in its scope," while Steve Kopian of Unseen Films wrote that it "has images that surpass the vast majority of what Hollywood has turned out in the last decade." Mark Lakatos of Take2 hailed the film as "jaw-dropping" and "one of the most technically impressive shorts in recent memory," adding that "Guy Kent is a stalwart lead." Kirk Fernwood of One Film Fan called it "magnificent, visionary," and William Hemingway of UK Film Review declared that "AURORA needs to be seen to be believed, and is a tour-de-force."
Now in its 27th edition, the Malibu Film Festival is a long-running showcase for American and international film, this year held at the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Theater in Beverly Hills, CA. Anomaly Film Festival, Rochester's celebrated genre film festival, champions independent horror, science fiction and fantasy from around the world. AURORA has also been selected for TAFF and the Festival of Fantastic Films as well.
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