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Independent Shorts Awards is excited to reveal that Raphaël Buisson, the filmmaker behind the highly anticipated sci-fi short Focal Point, will join the Spotlight Q&A Panel at the 7th Annual Independent Shorts Awards, taking place on September 6, 2025, at Regal LA Live, Los Angeles.
Buisson will appear immediately following the film’s world premiere screening in Program 7: Beyond Reality, Cinema #9 (2:15 PM – 3:50 PM), at the Q&A session set for Program 12, Cinema #10 (4:45 PM – 6:00 PM). He will join lead actor David Alan Graf, offering audiences an immersive conversation on the emotional, scientific, and creative layers behind the film.
About Raphaël Buisson
Paris-born and Los Angeles-based, Buisson—a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts—is known for expertly blending emotional storytelling with speculative sci-fi. Focal Point, a visually striking and thematically rich 26-minute film, examines grief, memory, and the illusion of control through a dystopian lens. In it, a grieving scientist discovers that Earth exists within a single neuron—and, driven by loss, attempts to rewrite the past. The film was crafted on a $46,000 budget, anchored by scientific authenticity courtesy of Nobel Prize–winning physicist Kip Thorne, who served as co-producer and actor.
Buisson’s prior work includes the thriller Stardust (2019) and the satire The Optimist (2024), and he is currently developing a feature-length expansion of the Focal Point universe.
This is a unique opportunity to hear directly from the director in his first public conversation following the world premiere of Focal Point. Raphaël Buisson will share his emotional inspiration, cinematic vision, and the creative journey behind the film. Don’t miss your chance to join the discussion—and be among the very first to discover one of the most compelling short films of the year.
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