Cine Circle Releases New Action Anthology “HOSTILE”
Cine Circle is expanding its catalogue of independent feature-length anthologies with HOSTILE, a new action collection bringing together five short films built around dangerous missions, hostile environments and characters forced to fight their way through situations that rapidly spiral beyond their control.
Featuring The Gate, Anomaly, Desolate, The Wastelander: Sector 23 and Phantom Quartz, the anthology moves from private military operations and jungle combat to post-apocalyptic survival and covert retrieval missions. While several of the films introduce science-fiction, fantasy or supernatural elements, action remains at the centre of the collection.
Across the five stories, mercenaries, soldiers, agents and survivors enter places where the odds are stacked against them. Some are fighting to complete a mission, others are searching for answers or simply trying to survive, but each finds themselves confronted by an enemy or environment more dangerous than anticipated.
THE GATE
Written and directed by Kellie Madison, The Gate is an 11-minute action-fantasy short starring Amy Johnston as Cassie Weston, a former mercenary operative forced back into the world she left behind when her sister Kate is kidnapped by billionaire technology mogul Gaige Allon.
Cassie's search pulls her into the corrupt world of private military contractors and towards a confrontation that combines martial arts action with fantasy elements. Johnston leads a cast that also includes Cecep Arif Rahman as Rafael, Katie Parker as Kate Weston, Xin Sarith Wuku, Malay Kim and Chalet Lizette Brannan.
The film places experienced screen fighters at the centre of its action. Johnston has built an extensive career across stunt work, motion capture and action performance, while Rahman is widely recognised for his martial arts work in films including The Raid 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
Madison wrote, directed and produced the short, which has received awards recognition and formed part of her wider work in action filmmaking. She later directed the Sony Pictures feature Never Back Down: Revolt, continuing her focus on physical, character-led action.
ANOMALY
Anomaly takes the anthology into the jungle, following a five-person team of elite soldiers sent to investigate a mysterious phenomenon in a remote location.
Directed by Brian L. Tan, the 12-minute action short quickly turns its military operation into something more unpredictable when the team encounters an unexpected enemy. The film was written by Zaike LaPorte Airey and Jeremy Max, with cinematography by Austin Ahlborg.
The cast includes Salvita Decorte, Mike Lewis, Quisha Saunders and Joseph J.U. Taylor, placing a small group of highly trained characters at the centre of a mission where conventional combat experience may no longer be enough. Tan describes the film around the idea that sometimes a person's worst enemy can be themselves, adding a psychological layer beneath its jungle-action premise.
Produced by Andrea Pasquettin and Patrick Tashadian, Anomaly combines military action with science-fiction and thriller elements. Rather than immediately explaining the nature of the threat, the film uses the uncertainty of the mission to create tension between the soldiers, their surroundings and the enemy they have been sent to confront.
Within HOSTILE, it represents perhaps the clearest version of the mission-gone-wrong action story: trained professionals entering unknown territory with an objective, only to discover that the reality on the ground is very different from what they expected.
DESOLATE
Written and directed by Jose Escorcia, Desolate shifts the action into a devastated future where survival itself has become a daily mission.
The 16-minute American short follows Charlie and Ren, played by Kirk Lacy and Madison DeVries, as they enter the remains of a ruined town in search of supplies. Their scavenging run becomes considerably more dangerous when they encounter a ruthless group of survivors and an otherworldly presence hiding within the wasteland.
Rich Sands appears as the Boss, alongside Séan Sweetlove Swaby as Razorhead. Escorcia produced the film with Cinnamon Hoobler, while Zachary Stanke served as cinematographer and Brian Sadler composed the score.
Mixing action, science-fiction and horror, Desolate uses its post-apocalyptic setting to place its central characters under pressure from more than one direction. Human scavengers present one immediate threat, while something far less familiar pushes the story beyond a conventional survival confrontation.
Escorcia has described the film as being rooted in ideas of perseverance, love and human connection despite extreme circumstances. That gives the action a personal foundation: Charlie and Ren are not soldiers completing an assignment, but survivors whose decisions are shaped by the need to protect one another in a world where entering the wrong place can quickly become a fight for their lives.
THE WASTELANDER: SECTOR 23
A nameless traveller enters one of the most dangerous locations in HOSTILE in director Jonathan Bentley's The Wastelander: Sector 23.
Set within the ruins of a vast post-apocalyptic city, the film follows the Wastelander, played by Paul Kavanagh, as he runs from personal tragedy and enters the notorious Sector 23. Guided by stories surrounding the mysterious Temple of the Oracle — a place where legend claims all questions can be answered — he continues deeper into a territory filled with warring mutants, dangerous machines and deadly predators.
The 14-minute British production was written by Kavanagh from a story developed with Bentley and also features Graham McTavish as the voice of The Ring. Suzie Knight, Dunyasha Barrow, Natassia Bentley and other performers populate the film's ruined world.
The Wastelander: Sector 23 became a long-term passion project for Bentley and Kavanagh, developing over more than a decade while the filmmakers expanded both the world and the film's visual-effects work. The result combines physical production, creatures and extensive VFX to create a much larger post-apocalyptic environment around its central journey.
The film screened as part of SCI-FI-LONDON's Bleak Futures programme and has received recognition for its technical work. At the UK Film Awards it was a finalist for Best Action and received the Best VFX award, while its festival run has also brought recognition for areas including cinematography, editing and special effects.
For HOSTILE, Sector 23 embodies the anthology title literally: this is a world where almost everything the protagonist encounters can kill him, yet the need for answers keeps pushing him further into danger.
PHANTOM QUARTZ
Phantom Quartz brings the collection back into the world of professional operatives with a tightly constructed French action short built around espionage, stunt work and physical action.
Directed by Marc David and written by Alexandre Vu, the 12-minute film follows Nolan Le, a former DGSE agent who has left his old career behind in the hope of living an ordinary life with his daughter. That peace proves temporary when he is called back into service to recover a stolen piece of quartz.
Vu stars as Nolan alongside Thitsady Voravong, Antoine Piquet, Laurent Lasko, Gary Cothenet, Jessica Nugeron and Yann Brouet. The film was produced by Kahina Benyahia, Brouet and Vu, with Stunt Workshop International and Sans Filtre Production behind the project.
Physical action was central to the production. Stunt Workshop International handled stunt supervision, with Yann Brouet serving as fight coordinator and Aurélien Grelier coordinating stunt driving. The filmmakers have described the project as an opportunity to combine physical and mechanical stunt work directly with camera choreography, bringing together collaborators with extensive experience in screen action.
That emphasis has translated into awards recognition. Phantom Quartz won Best Action at the 2024 UK Film Awards, with additional wins for Best Fight Choreography and Best Stunts.
Its premise may revolve around a mysterious object, but the film's identity is firmly grounded in action: an experienced operative forced back into the field, a seemingly straightforward retrieval mission and a chain of increasingly dangerous confrontations standing between him and his objective.
Five Missions. No Safe Ground.
Although the worlds of the five films differ dramatically, HOSTILE connects them through characters who are forced to keep moving when their situations turn against them.
Cassie Weston returns to a violent world to save her sister. A military unit disappears into the jungle in search of an unexplained threat. Two survivors enter a ruined town where every encounter could be fatal. A lone wanderer crosses into a sector from which others have failed to return. And a former intelligence operative is pulled back into service for one more mission.
Together, the films combine martial arts, military action, survival, stunt-driven filmmaking and post-apocalyptic adventure into a single feature-length collection built around confrontation and survival.
HOSTILE joins Cine Circle's growing catalogue of independent feature-length anthologies, bringing together filmmakers from around the world into a curated release for wider digital distribution.
About Cine Circle
Cine Circle supports independent filmmakers through events, education, funding opportunities and film distribution. Alongside its filmmaker community and industry events, Cine Circle works with short filmmakers to bring their work to wider audiences through curated feature-length anthology releases and digital distribution.
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