Filmmaker Robert Moniot’s The Ice Cream Man is eight decades in the making. The short recounts the little-known true story of Ernst Cahn (played by Noah Emmerich), a Jewish ice cream shop owner who, along with his family, fled Nazi Germany in 1936 to Amsterdam in hopes of a more peaceful life. However, after the Nazis invade the country, the notorious German officer Klaus Barbie, also known as “The Butcher of Lyon,” homes in on Cahn and his establishment. Barbie’s threatening presence forces Cahn to choose between fleeing the country with his family or taking a stand against the brutal regime.
The Ice Cream Man landed the 2025 Oscars shortlist and has screened at multiple film festivals, including the Indy Shorts International Film Festival and the Naples International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Choice Award and Best Short Film, respectively.