Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/18/26 – Science fiction has always looked toward the stars to ask questions about life here on Earth, and filmmaker Angad Aulakh takes that approach with AURORA, a 15-minute short making its World Premiere at the 2026 HollyShorts Film Festival on Thursday, August 20 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Starring Guy Kent as Commander Freddie Ballard, AURORA follows an astronaut stranded in the distant reaches of space after a catastrophic accident. What begins as a fight for survival gradually shifts into something more introspective as Ballard encounters a mysterious presence and is forced to confront grief, mortality, faith, and the possibility of something beyond the world he knows.
AURORA is less interested in conventional science-fiction thrills than it is in creating a meditation on loss and what gives life meaning. Its deliberate pace and spiritual approach may not resonate with every viewer, but there is no question that Aulakh is reaching for something personal and ambitious.
One of the film’s most distinctive elements is the way Aulakh incorporates his Punjabi heritage and Sikh faith into a genre where those cultural perspectives are rarely represented. Punjabi language, music, wardrobe, mythology, and spirituality are woven into the story without turning the characters’ identities into an explanation for the audience.
That personal connection became even deeper during production. Aulakh has spoken about experiencing the loss of a parent as well as losing a home during the Los Angeles fires while developing the project. Those experiences inform the film’s interest in survival, renewal, time, and the ways people attempt to move forward after profound loss.
Guy Kent gives the film its emotional center, carrying much of the story through isolation and uncertainty. The expansive cinematography by Emmy-winning cinematographer Charlie Wuppermann also gives the short a scale that feels considerably larger than its running time.
Produced by longtime collaborators Aulakh and Kent under their Last Carnival banner, AURORA marks their third film together following the Oscar-qualified The Atomic Dream and festival favorite Resurrektor. The filmmakers are also developing AURORA as a proof of concept for a potential feature.
Perhaps most importantly, AURORA is clearly the work of filmmakers willing to take a creative risk. It asks viewers to contemplate some very large questions in a very short amount of time: What do we hold onto after loss? What do we release? And when confronted with something we cannot understand, where do we place our faith?
The answers may be different for everyone.
AURORA
World Premiere – 2026 HollyShorts Film Festival
Thursday, August 20, 2026
TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood
Running Time: 15:35
Director/Writer: Angad Aulakh
Producers: Guy Kent, Angad Aulakh
Cast: Guy Kent, Jennalyn Ponraj, Ethan Daniel Corbett, Robert Diago DoQui
