Texas Short Film, 9 minutes

Nominee: Best Texas Short Film

Synopsis:

After attending the funeral of her Scandinavian fiancé's mother, an American woman must decide whether to honor the mother's last wishes by partaking in a time-honored family tradition: eating the mother's corpse.

Luke Van Garza &

Martha Louise Van Garza

Bio:

Martha Van Garza: Producer, Director, Editor, Actor, VO Artist

A veteran of theatre, comedy, radio, and a published playwright, Martha Van Garza made her directorial debut on the zombie comedy short, PETE & RE-PETE, winning numerous awards in the process. Still in the acting game as well, Martha continues to oversee the day-to-day operations of StarShine Films and her home staging company, HomeStretch Staging. In 2023 she became the co-director of the Austin International Film Festival (formerly Screen ATX). She shares her love of film with her husband Luke and a passion for helping filmmakers get the recognition they deserve.

Luke Van Garza: Producer, Director, Writer, Script Coach

A film school brat, Luke holds degrees from both the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California. He worked as a story analyst at HBO, Phoenix Pictures, and Rat Entertainment, and parlayed his development experience into a producing gig on a Fox show. Luke currently teaches screenwriting at Austin Community College, but continues to produce, with two independent features streaming on Amazon Prime and other platforms. Luke is also co-director of Austin International Film Festival, a judge for other film festivals, and the Director of Development for Inner Sanctum Films. He was born and raised in Edinburg.