The cursor blinks. The comments scroll. And somewhere in the digital noise, a stranger types a message meant only for him. That's the deceptively simple premise behind User Not Found, a five-minute drama that turns the mundane ritual of live selling into something far more intimate and unnerving. Arriving today on OTT Stories, the short film marks director Jerfe Daco's latest exploration of how technology mediates the most personal of encounters - and what happens when the barrier between performer and viewer dissolves.
Release Date & Where to Watch
User Not Found is available to stream starting November 5, 2026, exclusively on OTT Stories. The platform's short-form catalogue has become a destination for tightly wound, high-concept narratives, and this five-minute drama fits neatly into that mould. Given its brevity, the film is well-suited to a single sitting - though viewers may find themselves replaying it to catch what they missed the first time. There's no word yet on a wider release or festival rollout, so OTT Stories remains the only place to catch it for now. At five minutes, it's the kind of commitment that asks almost nothing of your evening and, if the premise is any indication, gives back considerably more.
Cast & Crew
Jude Hinumdum leads the film as Sebbie, the live seller whose broadcast takes an unexpected turn. Hinumdum carries the entire narrative on his shoulders - a demanding task in any project, but especially in one that unfolds almost entirely through a screen and a single performance. The role requires him to shift from breezy salesmanship to something far more vulnerable as the messages grow personal, and early glimpses suggest a performance built on small, precise reactions rather than grand gestures.
Behind the camera, Jerfe Daco directs. The filmmaker's interest in confined spaces and psychological unease is well served by the material here; a live-selling setup offers few places to hide, and Daco appears to relish the claustrophobia of a ring light, a camera lens, and an unseen audience. Daco also penned the screenplay. The production hails from Hollywood, and the original language is English.
Story & What to Expect
Sebbie is mid-broadcast, doing what live sellers do - pitching product, working the chat, keeping the energy up - when an unexpected comment arrives from a mysterious stranger. What begins as one odd message among many gradually becomes something else entirely. The messages grow more personal. They seem to know things. And as they accumulate, Sebbie is drawn into an unsettling encounter that stirs something long buried within him.
That's the engine of User Not Found: not jump scares, but the slow creep of recognition. The film's central question - who is on the other side of the screen, and why does it feel like he has been waiting for them all his life? - suggests a story more interested in emotional excavation than in cheap twists. The word "waiting" does a lot of work in that logline. It implies longing, maybe grief, possibly a connection that predates the internet altogether. Daco seems to be asking what happens when the anonymous strangers who drift through our feeds turn out to be anything but anonymous.
Expect a tight, economical structure. Five minutes leaves no room for detours, and the film reportedly moves with the relentless forward momentum of a live broadcast itself - no pauses, no do-overs, just a man and a screen and a conversation he can't control. Tonally, the drama leans into quiet dread rather than overt thriller mechanics; the horror here is relational, not supernatural. Viewers should anticipate an ambiguous ending that refuses to spell everything out - the sort of final beat that lingers well past the runtime.
Why It's Worth Watching
Short films rarely get this kind of conceptual precision. User Not Found takes a scenario most of us have witnessed - the slightly desperate theatre of live commerce - and reframes it as a stage for something deeply human. The film's concerns are timely without being preachy: parasocial intimacy, the strange vulnerability of broadcasting yourself to strangers, the way a single message from the right person can undo years of careful composure. It also asks a question worth sitting with: in a world where we perform for unseen audiences daily, what would it mean for someone to truly see us?
Hinumdum's performance is the other draw. A one-man show confined to a single setting lives or dies on the actor's ability to make silence and hesitation feel active, and by all indications he delivers. Daco's direction, meanwhile, makes the frame itself feel like a character - the webcam as confessional booth, the comment section as a doorway.
At five minutes, the film is an easy recommendation for anyone who appreciates a story that trusts its audience. It won't overstay its welcome, and it won't explain itself twice. Stream it tonight, then ask yourself who might be waiting on the other side of your own screen.
