María Alvarez explores a heartfelt story of familial nostalgia in her OSCAR®-Qualifying short LAST DAYS OF THE LAB

LAST DAYS OF THE LAB reflects on the end of an era as you follow a mother and daughter’s conflicting emotions surrounding the closure of their family-run photo lab. It is a story about how each of us grapple with the passage of time and the tangibility of memory. This live action short film has qualified to be considered for a 2024 Academy Award.

This film was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and HollyShorts Film Festival and was made as part of Indeed’s Rising Voices program – an initiative set up to discover, invest in and share stories created by BIPOC filmmakers and storytellers, and has qualified to be considered for a 2024 Academy® Award. Rising Voices was created in collaboration with Lena Waithe, Hillman Grad Productions, and 271 Films.

A mother and daughter sift through old memories as they prepare to permanently close down their family’s photo lab.

María Alvarez is an internationally recognized Cuban-Dutch filmmaker who graduated from the University of Southern California with a BFA in Film & Television Production. Her short film, SPLIT ENDS, was a 2021 Horizon Award Finalist, premiered at the NALIP Latino Media Fest, and then went on to screen at the Cannes Court Métrage and NewFilmmakers LA hosted by the Academy. Her short film, DID I LOOK CUBAN THEN?, premiered at the 2022 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at NFFTY. María is currently in the 2023 Sundance Institute Latine Collab Scholarship program where she is developing her feature film script, GUAVA TREE.

Co-writer Ethan Newmyer is a Korean-American writer, director, and photographer who graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with a B.A. in Critical Studies. Shortly after graduating, he wrote, directed, and produced a short drama entitled NOVEMBERS & EMBERS IN AMBER. He has been in the process of writing his first feature film, while working on a number of other film and television projects that he plans to write and direct alongside his creative partner María Alvarez.

The short has qualified to be considered for a 2024 Academy® Award.