CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QC Life) - The high-stakes world of middle school recess comes to the big screen in “Lunch Box”, an award-winning coming-of-age comedy short making its Queen City debut at the Charlotte Film Festival. The film follows two rival groups of eighth graders who battle daily on the schoolyard: the athletically dominant “All-Stars” and the scrappy underdogs known as the “Rejects.” With playground bragging rights and a coveted lunch box packed with prized junk food on the line, the determined underdogs refuse to back down in changing the status quo.
Behind the project is a dynamic directorial duo with deep ties to creative storytelling and the Carolinas. Co-director Sean Billings-Almendarez is a Charlotte native, NYU graduate, and award-winning creative producer who currently serves as VP of Creative Production at Global Strategy Group’s The L@B. He teams up with co-director Romeo Okwara, an MFA graduate of Cranbrook Academy, photographer, and former NFL defensive end who spent eight seasons with the Giants and Lions before retiring in 2024.
Having already earned the Audience Award at the NYU Sports Film Festival and screened at HollyShorts in Los Angeles, “Lunch Box” continues its festival circuit next month at the Georgia Latino International Film Festival in Atlanta, followed by New York City’s International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival in November.
The Charlotte Film Festival is September 22-27 at the Independent Picture House. To learn more visit charlottefilmfestival.org/2026.
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