HUMANIZED
2023 · 28m · USA
Directed by Colin Sevely-Ortiz
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
One year after a tragic accident, a guilt-ridden creator activates a humanoid robot named Robbie to pose as a typical teenager. Enrolled in high school, Robbie must navigate the cruelties of adolescence — bullies, crushes, and outcast classmates — while concealing the haunting secret of what he really is.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone's doing the robot-teenager thing now, but Sevely-Ortiz actually subverts the premise by making the android's mask the entire point — the real rebellion isn't the sci-fi conceit, it's watching a queer Latinx kid use an artificial body as permission to just *exist* without apologizing for it.
The film positions itself shrewdly within the lineage of body-as-metaphor cinema (Splash through Heretic), but what elevates it is the formal restraint—Sevely-Ortiz lets the mundane high school mise-en-scène do the philosophical work, refusing the spectacle sci-fi usually demands.
The casting of the android actor against type—someone with genuine presence rather than uncanny perfection—fundamentally changes how you read every interaction; that single choice dissolves the boundary between 'performing humanity' and 'being human' in a way that feels genuinely earned on a modest budget.
Reviews
Award-winning coming-of-age sci-fi pilot
HUMANIZED by Colin Sevely-Ortiz received the Audience Award for Episodic Showcase
Festivals
- National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) 2023, Audience Award for Episodic Showcase