Having a Ball ⚽️

Author

Jason Sondhi
July 12, 2024

The spectacle of international sport has momentarily lured our attention away from videos on the internet. The Olympics aren’t even here yet but our international cast of curators at S/W Virtual HQ (aka our team Slack) has been having good fun jibing each other and themselves over the continental soccer championships. With Sunday’s finals approaching we’ve got Rob and Serafima still in the running for the Euros (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) as well as Rekka in the Copa (🇦🇷).

In honor of the football, we updated our soccer short film collection. But first, the week’s Official Selections to S/W and 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

Uncanny Valley by Rodrigo Goulão de Sousa

An animated short film for Adult Swim about a strange curse that spreads throughout a small town.

Two Single Beds - a short film by William Stefan Smith

Daniel Kaluuya stars in this short film about London standup comics struggling with their demons.

Heptapus by Cooper Troxell

A man and his dog face a life-changing battle with an octopus they encounter on the beach.

A Collection of Kick-Ass Soccer-centric Short Films

With the 2024 Copa America & UEFA Euros ending, here's a collection of our favorite soccer-centric shorts to fill the gap until the new season's kick-off.

www.shortoftheweek.com/news/soccer-short-films

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

  1. Our alum weekend watch! I have great admiration for the steady and considered way Greg Kwedar and his filmmaking partner, Clint Bentley, have built their careers since we interviewed them in 2016. Their biggest project to date, backed by A24 and with an award-contending performance from Colman Domingo, Sing Sing opens wide in US theaters today.

  2. Another alum has their feature in theaters this weekend too—Luke Gilford presents a film that one critic cheekily declares as “The Brilliant Western Kevin Costner Probably Wishes He Made.”

  3. Previously unregulated, Chinese short films now have to apply to screen internationally after a Covid film at Cannes caused controversy.

  4. Rob McElhenney (Always Sunny in Philadelphia) launches a new artist collaboration platform called “Adim” with a debut short film.

  5. "Doing a short film is a purer experience,” a quote from Riz Ahmed, as he does press for DAMMI a short film premiering on MUBI.

  6. The creators of Scavengers Reign took to Reddit for an AMA on Tuesday. The brilliant sci-fi animation show is still on the bubble for a S2 renewal.

  7. The disarray around Hot Docs unfortunately continues as President Marie Nelson is out. Variety has the details.

  8. The PBS Short Film Festival begins July 15th.

  9. TCLtv+, a free ad-supported streaming service by the TV manufacturer, released an AI-generated short film. The report suggests they hope AI content will help “differentiate” the service in the marketplace, but the film is…very bad.

  10. AI art that doesn’t suck? Here you go.

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