THE CRYONICIST
The Cryonicist is a thriller-heist short film with elements of body horror and romance. The short enters production in October 2025 as a thesis project at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Tonally, the film is comparable to Breaking Bad and Good Time.
CHARACTERS
Olivia "Oli"
(23) - Obsessive, brilliant, and a deeply wounded product of the foster care system, Oli has the uniquely terrible experience of joining and subsequently losing a family… multiple times. It’s no wonder then, after finding Max and starting to build what she believes to be her forever family — she’s fiercely loyal and she’s going to hang on to him for dear life, no matter the costs.
Max
(23) A philosopher at heart, born into a family of scientists. Gentle and loving, Max is the kind of person who holds no grudges and can turn life’s obstacles into a game with ease. Max has been Oli’s other half since age thirteen, and understands her on a level that’s unmatched. His aggressive brain cancer puts him in a coma early in the film, but the unshakable love Oli has for him will guide her actions throughout.
If you encountered someone having a heart attack, and you ran over to administer CPR, would you be perceived as delusional?
No. Even though non-professionally administered CPR works less than 10% of the time.
But there is a point where you’d lose that support… Maybe its after 5 minutes of CPR, with no results… Or maybe after 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes…
The EXACT POINT might be different for everyone, but there WOULD come a moment where you’d say — “alright, it’s delusional to hold out hope.”
With this film, we wanted to explore a character whose point of giving up is SO FAR past the norm that most people WOULD call her delusional.
But to us, Oli might just be an optimist of the most radical kind.
