A Feast of Shorts

It's the best time of year for online shorts with numerous hi-profile releases. Plus an inspiring anthology from Palestine is causing buzz and we're sharing one of the shorts before it hits theaters.

Author

Jason Sondhi
December 01, 2024

Happy Sunday! Thanks for your forbearance as Shorts Weekly comes to you at the end of a US holiday weekend rather than our customary Friday slot.

Thanksgiving was good to me—surrounded by family, I gorged on all the traditional home-cooked specialties. Well, minus the turkey at least (vegetarian household), but I think I ate an entire pecan pie to make up for it. It was delightful.

Forgive the schlocky transition, but it feels like we’re gorging on shorts too at the moment. This is, the best time of the year for short film fans on the internet—awards season combines with the end of the annual festival calendar, so filmmakers wrapping up their runs are clamoring to fit an online release in before the end of the year creating an unusual density of highly acclaimed shorts.

Just look at Short of the Week the last few days—we covered the reigning BAFTA winner, Canada’s official top short, an incredible writer/director debut from a bona fide movie star, and an exclusive film from an exciting short film anthology that is being put forward for Best International Feature. We prioritize quality year-round, but damn! that’s a killer stretch.

We’ve got those films in this newsletter, plus a music/fashion icon who’s making a splash on Shortverse, and our monthly Best-of selections, coming right up.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

Open by Richard Paris Wilson

A man becomes fixated on trying to open one particular pistachio nut in this wildly inventive portrait of a man’s descent into obsession.

Shadow Brother Sunday by Alden Ehrenreich

A down-on-his-luck musician returns home on the day of his younger brother’s movie premiere to steal his computer and sell it to the paparazzi.

Jellyfish and Lobster by Yasmin Afifi

Brought together serendipitously in a moment of mischief, two elderly care home residents form an unlikely relationship when they make an enchanted discovery in this BAFTA-winning short.

Holiday House by Alex Heller

Starring Annasophia Robb, when dollhouse-builder Shelley meets a fan in person, she realizes that he isn't the "friend" she expected.

Motherland by Jasmin Mozaffari

Winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short! During 1979 at the height of the Iran Hostage crisis, Babak goes on a trip to meet his fiancé’s parents and ends up confronting the realities of what it means to be an Iranian immigrant in a patriotic post-Vietnam America.

Best of the Month: November 2024

Shorts from Richard Paris Wilson, Marcus Anthony Thomas and Gareth Bowen make up the trio of films selected as the S/W team's Best of the Month for Nov '24.

💎 Exclusive Feature

22 films from 22 filmmakers, the inspiring short film anthology, From Ground Zero, is made up of shorts produced by Gazan filmmakers in the last year and a half, and we’re pleased to give you an exclusive early look at one of the films. Utilizing a wide range of approaches – documentary, fiction, animation, and experimental – the project showcases a diversity of stories and experiences from Gaza during the current conflict.

Spearheaded by Rashid Masharawi, the omnibus film arrives in US theaters on Jan. 3rd and has been submitted as Palestine’s official submission for the Best International Film Oscar®. Céline’s article today provides background context to the project and introduces Sorry, Cinema, embedded above, which is one of the 22 short films in the anthology.

Directed by Ahmad Hassoun, the North Gazan filmmaker turns the camera on himself as he apologizes to his artistic medium for his recent lack of productivity due to…being in the middle of a warzone! The format offers a clever and emotionally effective structure to convey Hassoun’s powerful personal story, and we’re pleased to share it with you.

🪐 Into the Shortverse

SICK BOI EP.01 The Flame of Prometheus | Shortverse

Fashion and music icon Ren released the first installment of his new multimedia project - “Sick Boi” - on Shortverse a couple of days ago. An immediate hit, Ren’s fans have descended to support the film, with 130+ comments on the page.

Description: In 2084, elites rule a ravaged world, clinging to hope from a mysterious prophecy. A young woman immune to a deadly illness may hold the key to a cure, sparking questions of survival and redemption.

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Several great projects surfaced on Shortverse last month including the gorgeous animation short Beyond, which is what you’d get if you crossed Scavengers Reign with Adventure Time and made it 3D. Check out that short + 13 more in our curators’ monthly roundup.

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