Our Best Short Film winner will receive our custom Global Shorts statuette which we ship anywhere in the world, free of charge. The award is manufactured by Society Awards, the same awards company that manufactures the Golden Globe and the Emmy. All winners will receive our Global Shorts Winner laurels in black, white, and gold.
Title: The Nightwatchman
Runtime: 12 min
Country: Australia
Director: Alexander Forrest
Placement: Award of Excellence
Competition: March, 2025
Synopsis: Jack, a university security guard, struggles to stay awake during a particularly boring night on the job. As a last-ditch effort to not fall asleep, he speaks to a co-worker over the radio, Joel, who quickly turns cold and hostile, calling him a weirdo and telling to find something else to do. Defeated, Jack gives into his tiredness and falls asleep, unaware of a haunting ghostly presence lurking behind him.
Jack wakes up to loud metallic screech. An untold amount of time has passed, and the power is out. Jack tries to get a hold of Joel but is distracted by an ominous figure outside his office. Just as his vision narrows in, a blurted screaming comes from his radio and Jack goes to find Joel and fix the power outage. Journeying through the dark hallways and gothic architecture of the university, Jack is haunted by the ghostly figure, who’s purpose and identity he can’t decipher. The further he travels the stranger and more chilling things become, until he turns the power back on and comes across Joel’s dead body.
Investigating Joel’s body, Jack is horrified as he retrieves the murder weapon, an unassuming ball point pen, the same one from Jack’s office. In disbelief, he looks up and sees a security camera right above the body and sets off to find out the truth.
In his office, Jack watches the security footage as the ghost looms behind him, and he discovers what happened after he fell asleep, learns about the ghostly figure, Joels fate & the truths within himself.