💸 Brand Bucks

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Paying Attention To

1. Ben Proudfoot debuts new film with the Obamas - If anyone could establish the fall festivals as a bankable trampoline to Oscar it is Proudfoot. With two Short Doc wins and another nomination in the past 4 years, he is the first person to make award nominations feel like foregone conclusions—and brands are going along for the ride. Starting the summer at TribecaX with a brand doc, he ends it at Telluride with the premiere of his new short, The Turnaround. ‘Short of the Year’ winner Kyle Thrash co-directs, the Obama’s production company is on board, as is the DICK’s Sporting Goods in-house brand studio and Major League Baseball. Deadline has the story.

2. Polarizing auteur Nicolas Winding Refn debuts brand film - Over at Venice, a buzzy brand short for the motorcycle maker Agusta played, and the film is being called the “first commercial” chosen as an official selection by the venerated festival.

3. The latest in Miu Miu’s “Women’s Tales” series arrives - Also in Venice, at the festival’s independent sidebar, the fashion brand Miu Miu premiered the 28th installment of its auteur short film series “Women’s Tales” in front of celebrities like Joe Alwyn and Olivia Rodrigo. Argentinian filmmaker Laura Citarella wrote and directed the short, El Affaire Miu Miu, and the film launched online earlier this week with breathless coverage from the fashion press.

4. Newest AI festival hands out awards - There is an opening for what will become the crown jewel of the AI film festival circuit. Assuming traditional festivals don’t absorb the category, whichever event claims the mantle will likely be a brand’s brainchild. Reply, an Italian-based “system integration” company threw its hat in the ring in Venice with its first Reply AI Film Festival in collaboration with Mastercard. Paul Trillo and Vallee Duhamel were among the judges, check out the winners.

5. Gotham Week debuts its first “Brand Storytellers” cohort - The upcoming NYC showcase for indie feature projects has chosen to highlight “…film and media creators with unique vision and distinctive visual style who have experience in the branded storytelling space.”

6. Short Film “Kamala” to hit theaters ahead of the election - Seguing to a different kind of brand, The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop on a pro-Kamala profile doc getting a theatrical push.

7. 11 Must-See Short Films at TIFF 2024 - C.J. Prince delivers a must-read preview of the Short Cuts program for The Film Stage.

8. Netflix Doc Fund Returns - Applications are open to UK and Irish filmmakers for this grant that delivers up to £30,000.00 to fund a short documentary. Deadline is Sept 27th.

9. Behind Neon’s Banner Year and Rivalry with A24 - An insightful conversation with CEO Tom Quinn on the US distributor’s banner year.

10. “Why AI isn’t Going to Make Art” - Ted Chiang, one of my favorite writers (and someone whose fiction is exclusively short stories btw) delivers a defense of human creativity in the face of AI anxiety.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

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With The Move, we welcome Eric Kissack back to the site for the first time since his smash-hit short The Gunfighter. A relationship comedy that hinges on a big sci-fi premise, Irina commends the chemistry of the real-life lead couple and the rhythm of the laughs, something Kissack has honed over years of serving as an editor on classic TV comedies like Veep and The Good Place.

Other Other also has a sci-fi revelation that threatens the relationship at its heart. Mohamad El Masri also has TV experience as a writer/producer on Severance, and Georg notes the cleverness of its conceit, as it extrapolates the challenge of translating an online relationship to real life to a level of metaphysical confusion.

Jakob Márky goes meta with Make-Up, a film about a director named “Jakob” who descends the path of obsession. Céline writes our review complimenting how the film “…uses a sharp, darkly humorous tone to craft a situation where the power dynamics and issues of consent between the characters gives the film a surprising turn.”

We closed the week with Neh by Jesse Gi. A crowdpleaser on the 2021 festival circuit, the film was picked up by HBO before this online release. The reason why is clear, as Irina notes in her piece, as the date film is a funny interrogation of 2nd-generation Asian identity and stars the popular actor Joon Lee in a standout performance.

🪐 Into the Shortverse

Presented By: Top Brand Films

Returning to the idea of Brand Films, I threw together a collection with notable examples old and new. I’m not going to lie, there isn’t a ton of curatorial thought in this, I just grabbed films I remembered and liked. Some of these are big director names like Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze, or the Riz Ahmed example pictured which won Oscar. Others are more hipster picks I have a special affection for. Honestly, after going deep on the form in 2010s I haven’t stayed up to date of late and would love suggestions on what to add to make this a growing, definitive collection. Reply to this email this your faves!