Don't Panic!

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Paying Attention To

1. In the lead-up to his franchise sequel, Alien: Romulus, Fede Alvarez has released a remastered version of his breakthrough 2009 short Panic Attack! The film was a massive hit at the time, but also controversial, as most of the press it received centered around the amazing fact that an unknown boy from Uruguay made it for “only $300!” (you can see what filmmakers thought of that claim in the comments under our review).

   Regardless of whether those initial claims were valid, or if the film even holds up today, it was a landmark in demonstrating how digital tools would allow technically gifted outsiders to crash Hollywood and kicked off an interesting stretch where sci-fi proof-of-concept films were hot commodities. It’s great to see it will be preserved for posterity and makes us wonder about the possibility of updating other classic shorts. What film would you like to see remastered?

2. Beloved “Internet” animator Julian Glander (Bloop’s Birthday) on how to make an animated feature all by yourself.

3. Cartoon Brew unveils its inaugural “Power List” of US Animation

4. During a moment of turmoil, a peek behind the curtain at the famous Sundance Labs.

5. Speaking of which, today is the official deadline to submit your short to Sundance. Remember, you can check upcoming fest deadlines on the Shortverse “Festival” tab.

6. S/W die-hards know Amit Shah well for his performances in Quiet Carriage and a trilogy of shorts by Sam Baron. He shows up on an ep of the “Short Films Big Questions” podcast this week.

7. Big listicles are click-bait, but it’s clear a lot of thought and work went into Indiewire’s Top 100 films of the 2000s and I can’t help but stan.

8. The Olympics were not just a huge hit ratings-wise they arguably fulfilled the promise of streaming video.

9. One of the great figures of short filmmaking, not just feature films, Agnès Varda is recalled in the pages of this week’s New Yorker.

10. Author of “The Metaverse”, Matthew Ball finally weighs in with “9 Takeaways from the Vision Pro After 6 Months”

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

On Monday Céline welcomed Nancy Pettinicchio to the Short of the Week family with Falena, a contemplative short sporting an all-star lineup of French-Canadian talents like DP Alexandre Nour Desjardins, actress Nahéma Ricci, as well as our 1st collaboration with the esteemed Canadian distributor, Welcome Aboard.

Then join us in congratulating Irina who joined us as an intern in late 2022 and just wrote her first featured S/W review with Pulkit Arora’s Anu! A tricky one to write about too, the New Zealand drama is an observant film about grief that expertly uses its lockdown-era premise to explore the interweaving of tradition and technological modernity.

Finally, Chelsea reviews Grant Curatola’s fun, and gorgeously shot horror-thriller, East End. Playing like a giant game of telephone, the short is frequently funny, but also a rather sly examination of the townie-tourist divide in a Montauk-like locale.

🎊 Welcome to TIFF 2024!

The Toronto International Film Festival arrives on Sept 5th and the 43 film Short Cuts lineup has been unveiled. Explore the selections in our featured Shortverse Collection! Céline, a former Toronto resident, has a long-standing affection for the festival and will be on the ground for the event, and I am planning to make it out for the first time since 2017. Here are some of the shorts that we’re especially hyped for:

• Pictured above, alum James P. Gannon’s latest looks like a crowdpleaser.

• A crew of femmes striking back against a gang in NYC Chinatown, in a short described as an “ultra-stylish, multilingual, kick-ass action spectacular”? Yes, please!

• I’ve always wondered why more shorts don’t have sequels. Even if it’s a just spiritual followup, I’m excited for Fuck Me, Annette Sidor’s followup to 2018’s Fuck You, which has had nearly 4M views on our YouTube.

• Star actress Dakota Johnson will show off her directing debut, a “wickedly smart and funny” short about a queer woman confused by the state of her relationship.

• Alexander Farah might be poised for a star breakout. The editor-turned-director was interviewed by Rob earlier this year and I can’t wait for One Day This Kid.

• Oscar-nominated filmmaker and Canadian treasure Theodore Ushev will be presenting his latest animation, Le Loup (The Wolf).