Lauren Bean

A nervous young poet takes the stage to perform, but as he speaks, his words are shown through a symbolic inner world where self-confinement takes physical form. He is asked to confront the cocoon he has built around himself, and fights to reach the world waiting for him beyond the silk. The poet must emerge from silence and self-doubt, completing metamorphosis, even with no one left as witness.

The Cold Between Us follows Maya and Claire, a young couple who retreat to a quiet Arkansas campsite hoping to reconnect and repair the distance that has grown between them. As they struggle to start a fire and settle into the night, small disagreements and unspoken feelings reveal that they may no longer want the same future. Maya continues fighting to keep their relationship alive, while Claire has quietly begun to accept that their love may not be enough. As the temperature drops and the fire refuses to burn, the couple is forced to confront the cold that has been growing between them—and the painful possibility that sometimes loving someone means knowing when to let them go.