Simon Schneider’s short film “Degree of Uncertainty” explores the 1980s corporate origins of climate-risk data at HollyShorts

“Degree of Uncertainty,” a 16-minute short directed by Simon Schneider, will be featured at the HollyShorts Film Festival, according to a Deadline interview with the filmmaker. The film uses a single workplace conflict to dramatize a question that has echoed through climate policy debates for decades, what happens after decision-makers learn hard truths and face the costs of acting on them.

Set in 1982, the story centers on Jackson Miller (played by Trace Guzmán), a young risk analyst working for a major U.S. oil company. As oil prices fall and the company faces mounting losses, Miller encounters new climate-related information and the pressure to translate that knowledge into internal action, despite leadership incentives to avoid costly change.

Deadline’s account frames the project as an exploration of the “ironic origins” of climate change data, focusing on how early scientific findings and assessments became part of corporate risk conversations. In Schneider’s telling, the tension is not only between data and belief, but between knowing and choosing, particularly when employment, budgets, and corporate survival are on the line.

The interview characterizes the film’s approach as grounded in the mechanics of corporate decision-making, including the way risk is modeled and communicated within large institutions. By placing Miller inside the internal machinery of a fossil-fuel company during a volatile period for energy markets, the short highlights how organizational incentives can shape whether uncomfortable information becomes a basis for action or remains a sidelined record.

Schneider’s work also emphasizes the human scale of those incentives. Miller is portrayed as an early-career professional trying to do his job and keep moving forward with the information he has, while discovering that professional credibility and career safety can depend on what leaders are willing to hear. Deadline’s description links the film’s conflict to the real-world consequences of oil-price swings, which can tighten budgets and raise pressure to prioritize near-term financial results over long-term risk.

HollyShorts is providing a platform for the film’s message through a festival setting, where shorter works often reach audiences looking for concentrated storytelling and historical or social themes presented in compact form. With “Degree of Uncertainty” running 16 minutes, Schneider’s narrative structure is designed around a narrow timeframe and a single professional dilemma rather than a wide cast of plotlines.

For viewers, the short’s premise may also serve as an entry point into broader debates about climate disclosure, corporate accountability, and how institutions handle technical assessments. The film’s 1982 setting underscores that these questions have longstanding roots, even as public understanding of climate impacts and the policy response has evolved.

Deadline reported on Schneider’s framing of the film in advance of its HollyShorts presentation, describing the project’s core idea as a separation between information and action. As the festival screening schedule unfolds, attention is likely to concentrate on how the short’s workplace drama uses a familiar corporate environment to recontextualize the development and internal use of climate-related data.