Award winner
Best First Time Director, Short Film
Berlin Indie Film Festival · 2026
An Ice Cream Tears Production
Ice Cream
Tears
After leaving his mother’s funeral, a man tries to keep moving until a melting ice cream cone and a routine traffic stop make that impossible.
Winner
Best First Time Director
Berlin Indie Film Festival · 2026
Festival journey
Five official selections.
One award win. One honorable mention.
Recognized across an international festival run for its direction, restraint, and emotional clarity.
Jury recognition
Honorable Mention
Berlin Kiez Film Festival · 2026
A second recognition from Berlin during the film’s 2026 festival run.
01 Berlin Indie Film Festival
02 Berlin Kiez Film Festival
03 The Brightside Film Festival
04 Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival
05 Tokyo International Short Film Festival
The film
Grief doesn’t arrive on cue.
Still dressed for his mother’s funeral, a man drives toward the overlook where they once ate ice cream together. The cone melts across his hand and suit as traffic, GPS directions, and the world around him continue as if the day were ordinary.
When a police officer asks for his license and registration, the grief he has kept contained finally breaks through. Ice Cream Tears holds that rupture without judgment: 158 seconds about memory, composure, and the smallest thing becoming impossible to carry.
- Year
- 2026
- Runtime
- 2 min 38 sec
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Format
- Color · 1.90:1
- Sound
- 5.1 & Stereo
Official teaser
Watch the film’s first look.
00:44
A note on the film
The ordinary world keeps moving, even when you cannot.
At the center of Ice Cream Tears is the moment composure stops being useful. Grief waits inside an ordinary obligation: a drive, a destination, a conversation with a stranger. Eventually, the body refuses to continue. The ice cream is comic, childish, and temporary. Then it becomes the one thing its owner cannot hold together.
Jake Crossman & Nehemiah Jordan
Writers & Directors
Selected frames
From the film.
Photography from the picture-locked film
Filmmakers
A small team. A precise film.
01
Jake Crossman
Writer · Director · Actor · Producer · Editor
IMDb profile02
Nehemiah Jordan
Writer · Director
IMDb profileStarring Jake Crossman · Austin S. Butler
Cinematography Nate Henry
Original Music Isaac Brenny
First Assistant Director Stephen Cook
Gaffer Liam Zinn
Still Photography Michael Ertel
Production Assistance Morgan Snead
Press & festivals
Everything needed to program or cover the film.
Verified festival history, downloadable stills, official one-sheet, laurels, credits, and contact information.
Open the press kit