Time Realtor
2026 · 10m · USA
Directed by Ariel Gardner
Genres: dark comedy, drama, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
An aging widower learns he can sell off his remaining time for cash in order to reconcile with his estranged daughter. A chance encounter complicates the math.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Most sci-fi shorts spend their budget on lens flares. This one spends it on an old man's face — which is the only special effect that has ever actually worked.
Time-as-liquid-asset-class through a widower's quiet ache rather than Black Mirror spectacle is the more disciplined sci-fi gesture — About Schmidt comparison is bold and load-bearing. Curious and hopeful.
Selling-your-remaining-time as a quiet domestic ache rather than spectacle is the right way to do this sci-fi premise, and the 4:3 warm-palette pitch suggests the director means it. Black Mirror without the smugness if it works.
Reviews
Carl and his tender gravitas are hard to dismiss, along with the film's ambitious concept.