‘Imagine if your body could be a hard drive, uploading and downloading knowledge.’ That’s what the science-fiction short film, Imprint (2026) explores in its 15-minute runtime. This short film celebrated its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in the ‘Shorts: The Dark Web’ category. Directed by Ran Jing and co-written with Yumiko Fujiwara, Imprint follows Flora (Wrenn Schmidt) and her young daughter, Ariel (Koko Raine) – a ballerina who is struggling academically. But in order to make her daughter the main star, Flora explores enhancements by means of technology.
Imprint explores the depths of a mother’s love. Going above and beyond to achieve perfectionism. The film asks – how far will a mother go to make her daughter the best? Feeling dissatisfied with her daughter’s academic and dance performance, Flora is persuaded by a technology company. Han (Valerie Yu), a 30-year-old immigrant must trade her knowledge to gain legal status in the U.S. The surgery goes well until Ariel starts acting strange.
Imprint: Feature Film Potential
Flora is acted brilliantly by Wrenn Schmidt, playing the role of a worried mother just trying to do her very best. Meanwhile, the ‘bad guy’ mastermind behind the operation, Dr. Linus is portrayed rather sinisterly by Alex Wyndham. The acting is super strong with a cast that share a long list of acting credits among them.
There’s horror elements and tensional drama wrapped up in a science-fiction story. Although there clearly holds a much bigger potential here for this short to be a feature film. Important themes come into play with greed, power, and social status. The divide of power between two mothers – Flora and Han shows the hierarchy of society where the wealthy keep on winning.
As Han loses her knowledge, she must change her plans for her daughter. For a better future, Han must become disadvantaged. The system is extremely cyclical as when she loses another rich family like Flora’s gains. But as Ariel starts having nightmares, the procedure has much more of a lasting impact than Flora could have ever imagined.
Relevant to Today & the Future
Its lighting plays a huge part in its storytelling. The bright light during the procedures tricks the characters and audiences into thinking this was a positive investment. Yet post-procedure the lighting is darker surrounding Flora. Ariel’s bedroom is dark and shadowy. The tone at dinner time is much more drab than before as Ariel’s personality begins to fade away.
Imprint presents a clear, solid story by its writers Ran Jing and Yumiko Fujiwara. Even though the story is set in the near future, it feels very real and relevant to today. With the rising power of artificial intelligence, similar to those procedures presented in Imprint feels like a scary decline in our own human qualities. The story powerfully leaves us with multiple questions about the future. It also leaves us questioning what it means to be human in this technologically advancing world.
Rating: 4 1/2 Stars
Imprint is part of Filmotomy’s coverage on Tribeca Film Festival 2026.
You can also read reviews from our coverage on Tribeca Film Festival including Dear Upstairs Neighbors here.
