As exclusively announced in Deadline, the 2025 Indy Shorts International Film Festival is spotlighting MPI’s Short Film Lab with a special showcase of four new MPI Original shorts. Among the selections are three world premieres—Pocket Change, The Dying Business, The Art of Inflation—alongside Grind, which continues its festival run with a Midwest premiere. All four films were developed through MPI’s Short Film Lab or Documentary Storytelling Workshop and produced through the MPI Production Lab, which supports rising filmmakers through immersive training and hands-on production experience. The films will screen on Saturday, July 26, at 1:00 p.m. in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Recognized by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the top 25 coolest film festivals in the world, Indy Shorts is the largest shorts festival in the Midwest and a premier showcase for powerful, innovative storytelling. 

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Starring Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under, Planet Terror, Poseidon) and written and directed by MPI filmmakers Heston Roewe and Tanner Mobley, Pocket Change tells the story of a mysterious drifter and his seemingly worthless quarter, who hold the key to saving everyone from a deadly threat when the power goes out at a roadside diner in the middle of nowhere.

Directed by MPI filmmaker Joe Duca, the documentary short The Dying Business follows a quirky Italian American family in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, as they attempt to breathe new life into their third-generation funeral home through a series of unconventional innovations.

Written and directed by MPI filmmakers Brett Wietecha and Tim Hedberg, The Art of Inflation centers on two brothers who flee Venezuela’s economic collapse only to find themselves trapped on a militia-run coca farm. As the stakes escalate, the younger brother risks everything on a desperate plan to escape—and to save the girl he’s fallen for.

Written and directed by MPI filmmaker Mark Apicella, Grind follows the story of John, an aspiring sneaker designer in East Los Angeles, who lands the opportunity of a lifetime to be featured in his idol’s pop-up shop—only to have his best friend and business partner threaten to derail everything by promising John’s design to a gang with their own agenda. 

For more MPI screenings, premieres, and filmmaker events, visit thempi.org/events.