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Cold (Short Film)

Cold tells the story of Carmen, a Latina woman who wakes up in Purgatory and is given 1,000 days to fix the vehicle in her driveway or spend the rest of her life lost to time. Throughout the film Carmen must battle her harsh environment, isolation and her rapidly declining mental and physical health. Cold is a story of depression, loss and trauma re-lived on repeat day after day after day. As such we want the audience to feel Carmen's frustration and pain while on the hamster wheel of despair. Cold explores the pain of losing a child to suicide and a mother's struggle to move on.

  • Greg Poppa
    Director
    Foxes
  • Greg Poppa
    Writer
    Foxes, Score (You and Me), Merry Pawmas
  • Sugey Cruz
    Writer
    On Turning 16, Merry Pawmas
  • Sugey Cruz
    Producer
    On Turning 16, Dirt, Transient, Merry Pawmas, Good Mothers, Night Voices, Secret Within The Sphere, Foxes
  • Greg Poppa
    Producer
    Transient, Foxes, Merry Pawmas
  • Sugey Cruz
    Key Cast
    "Carmen"
    Transient, Secret Within The Sphere, Merry Pawmas, On Turning 16, Dirt, Merry Pawmas, Hellbent on Boogie, Good Mothers
  • Greg Poppa
    Key Cast
    "Samuel"
    Baby Girl, Servant, Director's Cut, Weapons and Their Names, Transient, Merry Pawmas, Good Mothers, Falling Stars, Foxes, Score (You and Me)
  • Rachel Colette Dolan
    Key Cast
    "Daniella"
    El Canto de los Coquis, The Tears of Our Reality, The Impact Factor, Something Imaginable, Las Lobitas, Los Angeles
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Magical Realism, Drama, Body Horror
  • Runtime:
    34 minutes 9 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 11, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    15,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • London Director Awards
    London
    United Kingdom
    Finalist
  • Red Rose Film Festival
    Lancaster
    United States
    November 7, 2025
    Red Rose Award Nominee
  • Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival
    Philadelphia
    United States
    May 25, 2025
    Official Selection - LOLA Awards
  • Pittsburgh Independent Film Festival
    Pittsburgh
    United States
    June 20, 2025
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Greg Poppa

Greg is a writer, director, actor who has worked on many big budget and independent films and TV. From M. Night Shyamalan's Apple+ Show "Servant" to 2023 Sundance best short nominee "Weapons and Their Names". Greg finds the process of filmmaking a struggle worth pursuing because the art of making a film allows us to process who we are as a person in a visceral, honest way.

Greg has directed two short films, Foxes (2021) and Cold (2024). When he's not making films he can be found playing ice hockey, riding horses, playing drums, or playing the guitar.

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Director Statement

In 2023, while attending the Sundance Film Festival, when a film I was in, “Weapons and Their Names” was selected to be a part of the program, Sugey Cruz and I were driving into Park City when I saw a house at the top of a snow capped mountain and I thought “I wonder who lives up there and why? What is their life like? Why do they choose to be up there?” I originally imagined the film as a ghost story where a man living in isolation is visited by ghosts. After we got home from Sundance Sugey and I began writing sessions and I quickly shifted to story to a woman living in purgatory being haunted by her past. I was inspired by art works such as Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights”, Nine Inch Nails’ “With Teeth” album, but most of all I was inspired by Sugey’s life. Hearing her talk to her mother while they grocery shopped or made dinner as we worked out kinks to the story added a new and integral layer to the story that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

With “Cold” I wanted to put the audience in Carmen’s shoes from the beginning of the film onwards. I wanted them to feel up close and personal with her struggle and connect with her in a relatively short amount of time. I also really needed some humor in the film, otherwise a film like this could really drag, fortunately we got a great performance from Ronin who played Carmen’s companion “Armando”.