OCFF 2022 – Funny Shorts

The 6th Annual Ocean City Film Festival, or OCFF, returns to in-person screenings at five venues throughout the resort town. The festival will showcase over 100 independent films. Over 20 of those are films from filmmakers from the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia area. The majority of those are short films that are packaged together in blocks, according to their genre or thematic similarity. One of those blocks is the collection of films that are a part of the Funny Shorts. These are films that are fiction narratives, intended to hit you with some comedy, bring a little or a lot of levity and hopefully make you laugh.

Beach Boy by Douglas Forrester. Forrester is from Carroll County, near Baltimore. He got his master’s degree in film from Stony Brook University. He is currently based in Brooklyn and is working on his first feature. His short film Beach Boy focuses on Ben-David who is chasing after his elusive first kiss, but he may have to break his mother’s trust to get it.

Don’t Jump by Loring Murtha. The cinematographer and editor for this film is Zack Kron who has another film playing in this year’s OCFF called Matched, playing in the Horror, Sci-fi, Fantasy and the Weird. Loring Murtha is an actor. He’s a writer-producer. He’s also a director. He’s won numerous awards. This film in particular has several prizes under its belt. Murtha plays Todd, a man whose partner named Patricia clashes with him over a charity skydiving event. After both sides get advice from their friends, will they stay grounded or take the plunge?

Keith’s Bread Saga by Forest Kinsey. Kinsey is a contributing writer for Screen Rant, a geek entertainment website. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 2019 with two Bachelor’s degrees. He is a nature photographer on one hand and an improvisational comedian on the other. His film revolves around a dorky guy who encounters strange conflicts and surreal characters on his quest for sandwich bread. It’s very much akin to Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985).

First Impressions by Michael Charron. Charron has written more than a dozen feature films (and produced four of them) as well as written and produced a series of successful shorts. Charron has had several feature scripts both place as finalists and win in festivals and has had multiple short films win awards in recent years, including several that took top honors. However, the true standout here is actor Erik Anderson from Texas who plays Randall, a man who wants to impress his girlfriend and her friends at their weekly game night with his favorite pastime, but things don’t quite go as planned.

Sid and Marge Have a Problem by Catherine Hatcher. This is one of two selections at OCFF from Dial It Back Films. The other is Last Day, playing in the Horror, Sci-fi, Fantasy and the Weird section, playing on Saturday. Last Day is the company’s most recent film. This is one of their first, which they produced several years ago, but this film does feature the same actor-writer, that of Michael Baker who stars as Sid Greenbaum who’s lying in bed with his wife Margie when they get visited by two EMT workers in this screwball comedy. No bad language, but there is some obvious innuendo and a few euphemisms.

Down with the Ship by Alex L. Newman. Newman is a filmmaker from North Carolina, now in Los Angeles. He completed his MFA at Loyola-Marymount University in Film Production, where he collaborated on over 20 student projects, mostly on camera team or directing. The premise for his film is simple: One sinking ship. One life vest. Two men.

Professional Therapy by Maximillian Remmler. Remmler was born and raised on Long Island, New York. He got his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Delaware. He got his master’s at Stony Brook University where he works as an adjunct professor, teaching cinema. He’s self-described as indecisive and can never settle on one genre because he’s made dramas, comedies, action, horror, experimental and animations. He currently has 12 short films under his belt. This film focuses on a therapist and patient trying one last unconventional exercise to get the patient’s life back in order.

The Night Clubbers by Matthew James Thomas. A separate article on this film, its director, as well as the actor-writer, Aaron Latta-Morissette, can be read here. The film is about a golf prodigy who is forced to compete in his hometown’s mini-golf competitions for money after getting laughed out of the PGA for choking on the green, but when he shows up expecting an easy victory, he soon discovers that the “losers” he once stepped on are now the ones running the scene.