Experiencing Interruptions?

Never Too Late

When Cliff’s only companion— a virtual assistant—shuts down in a future where the air itself is becoming unbreathable, an asthmatic 70-year-old man’s cry for help to a faraway support desk becomes a haunting search for meaning and human connection.

"A compelling work, which really grabs one in. it’s authentic and heartfelt" Nelson Farber, Culture Journalist/Filmmaker

  • Colleen Davie Janes
    Director
    Nanny, Out Of Bounds, Wait With Me
  • Steve Lichtenstein
    Writer
    Aaron With 2 A's
  • Pete Dorton
    Producer
    Bobcat Moretti, In Fidelity, Werewolf Games, Her Turn,
  • Steve Lichtenstein
    Producer
    Aaron With 2 A's, Justice
  • Steve Lichtenstein
    Key Cast
    "Cliff Downs"
    In Fidelity, Bull, Aaron With 2 A's
  • Vandit Bhatt
    Key Cast
    "Joshua/Surya"
    recurring Guest star in Quantico, Guest Star in New Amsterdam, Paris is in Harlem
  • Kate Greer
    Key Cast
    "Laura "
    The Undoing, Younger, Jessica Jones, The Americans
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Sci-FI, drama
  • Runtime:
    17 minutes 38 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 29, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    35,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    ALEXA and RED for VFX
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Beaufort International Film Festival
    Beaufort
    United States
    February 19, 2026
    World Premiere
    Nominated - Best Short
  • Vero Beach Film Festival
    Vero Beach
    United States
    April 11, 2026
    Florida
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Colleen Davie Janes

Colleen is a multi-award-winning feature film & TV director with a recent placement as a Semi-Finalist in Shondaland’s Series Fest director contest. With a penchant for crafting stories that dare to straddle the realms of comedy and drama, she is drawn to message-oriented ideas, with characters who embody resilience and hope in the face of adversity. She excels at ensemble, fast paced explorations of the darker side of the human condition – with a nod to the absurd - but also appreciates the opportunity to slow down and truly explore the moments in between. Her most recent feature work has received distribution via Tubi (OUT OF BOUNDS with Karen Obilom and Sterling Sulieman). Other projects can be seen on Lifetime Movie Networks, Passionflix and Prime Video. Her short films have screened and garnered attention and awards internationally, including the Oscar® qualifying Holly Shorts Film Festival and Soho International Film Festivals.

She is currently in development on a 10mm feature film comedy about where the military meets the circuit on a big feature film set, with Ged Dickersin producing (CODA, 2021 ) in New York City.

A recipient of a New York Foundation of the Arts artist’s grant “Anonymous Was a Woman”, Colleen is Co-chair of the East Coast events committee for the Alliance of Women Directors, a member of Film Fatales, Women In Media, Primetime Network, and was honored by SHOOT Magazine at the DGA as a “New Director to Watch”.

With decades in the business, Colleen began her career in film as a Production Assistant in feature films. She later became a sought after Production Coordinator in commercials, music videos and features, working with such directors as Oliver Stone, Brian DePalma, Robert DeNiro, Hype Williams, John Bayer, Jonus Ackerlund and M. Knight Shyamalan. In between coordinating positions, Colleen directed and produced commercial spots: Edge Auto Rentals, Chelsea Guitars Series (DiMassimo NY).

She is an actor’s director as a conservatory trained actor in Meisner as well as Strasberg and other Method techniques. She overlapped her acting work with stand-up comedy, performing in over 20 venues internationally, as well as directing black box theater in NYC.

Her work has taken her from Iraq to LA, and she includes the Oscar® short listed feature documentary and Sundance Grand Jury nominee QUEST FOR HONOR dir. Mary Ann Bruni as a particular honor.
Colleen’s debut screenplay THE FAMILY REMAINS was a semi-finalist in the Page International Screenplay Contest, and she continues to write to maintain her creativity between directing projects.

She is a graduate of Boston University with a BS in Communications/Film with a concentration in Acting.

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Director Statement

When I first attended a reading of Steve Lichtenstein’s NEVER TOO LATE, I was immediately drawn in. The script was already cinematic—riveting on the page—and I knew I could bring it to life in the way Steve had envisioned it as both writer and star.

While much of my work moves at a brisker pace, this story invited me to slow down and linger in the silences—to explore grief, isolation, and fleeting hope through a more meditative lens. As a longtime fan of sci-fi, I was also excited to step into a near-future world—2036—just far enough ahead to feel unfamiliar, yet close enough to feel inevitable.

At its heart, NEVER TOO LATE is a story about human connection in a time of synthetic substitutes. I wanted viewers to feel Cliff’s ache—his grief-laced attachment to his late wife’s hologram, and his discomfort with the growing dominance of AI. His resistance to change, to help, even to kindness, was something I wanted to unravel slowly, layer by layer.

Despite unexpected VFX challenges that delayed our release nearly a year, the film emerged nearly exactly as I had envisioned. I’m proud to share it now—and to shine a light on the talents of our brilliant cast, our cinematographer, our composer, and the entire creative team that built Cliff’s fragile world.

May it remind us that even in a future driven by machines, our humanity still has a chance to break through.