Double-Stuffed Edition

A skipped week swells the picks to double-count. Plus, Oscars wrap-up, and SXSW coverage

Author

Jason Sondhi
March 15, 2024

A nasty illness knocked me out of commission last week, causing us to skip sending out Shorts Weekly and necessitating a super-size edition this week. 🤢

With a double-helping of picks, a recap of Sunday’s Oscars, and a check-in on the action down in Texas for SXSW, there is a lot to get to—let’s start.

đź“… This Week on Short of the Week

***

Play Me by Caleb Phillips

A woman wakes in the middle of nowhere with no memory and a man tied up in the back seat. Stranger yet, she finds a tape recorder with her voice on it telling her what to do next.

Phillips premiered a viral sensation with us three years ago with The Other Side of the Box. His latest proves that he just gets basic horror dynamics as well as anyone. The last filmmaker I saw who made the direction of tension and terror seem so simple? David F. Sandberg.

***

Nice Talking to You by Saim Sadiq

Two strangers form a silent bond in the world's loudest city.

Saim Sadiq broke through onto the world stage last year with Joyland, his celebrated feature debut based off his S/W-selected short, Darling. The feature picked up the Queer Palme at Cannes and was selected as Pakistan’s entry to the Oscars. While Sadiq’s star is on the rise, Céline remembers this early short of his with great fondness, made in 2018 while the filmmaker was completing an MFA at Columbia. In her review, she describes it as “Genuine and engaging…reminiscent of Linklater’s “Before trilogy”, with two amazing performances and a magnetic chemistry.”

***

Every House is Haunted by Bryce McGuire

Maya and Danny move into a haunted house, on purpose.

Bryce McGuire was just wrapping up his press responsibilities for Night Swim, his feature debut that has done over $50M at the box office this winter, when he reached out about releasing this festival short from last year. We eagerly accepted and Chelsea handled the writeup for this surprisingly heartfelt film that cleverly preempts the premise of most haunted house shorts by establishing the fact to all concerned from the outset. Who would willingly move into a haunted house? What could they hope to gain from it? Watch and find out!

***

âśš Bonus Shorts from Last Week

Margie Soudek's Salt and Pepper Shakers by Meredith Moore

An artist and VFX instructor connects with her aging grandmother, Margie, in a documentary short on collecting, artmaking, and obsessiveness as a way to enhance our realities.

***

EGĂšNGĂšN (Masquerade) - a short film by Olive Nwosu

A woman returns to her hometown of Lagos in search of healing in Olive Nwosu's BIFA-nominated short film EGĂšNGĂšN (Masquerade).

***

Marlon Brando by Vincent Tilanus

A unique bond between openly queer best friends Cas and Naomi is threatened by diverging paths in Vincent Tilanus' Cannes short film Marlon Brando.

***

Five Weeks by Geej Ower

Following the birth of her baby, Jen's feelings of isolation are palpable in this tense short film about the emotional strain of early motherhood.

👋🏽 A Farewell to Awards Season

Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers won for “The Last Repair Shop”

After the Oscar ceremony, we analyzed the 3 shorts winners. What worked for the teams and what didn’t?

As we congratulate the new winners, it’s a good opportunity to revisit this piece from last year, What it’s like to win? where Rob interviews a pair previous Oscar recipients on how the award affected them and their careers.

Also, with Ben Proudfoot being awarded yet again, we point you toward his guest post for us in 2022 where he made a stirring case for short film as a medium while the categories were being threatened by removal from the telecast.

If you’re in the mood to watch previous Oscar-winners, we have a Shortverse Collection ready to go.

Lastly, what are you curious about re: Award season? Would you like to see more insider analysis of how the campaigns function, or practical guides on how one qualifies? Reply to this email with your thoughts as we plan for 2025.

🎸 SXSW Rocks On

Over the weekend S/W published A Shorts-centric Preview of SXSW, which is a magisterial documentation of projects from S/W alums, with a mix of projects from heavy hitters like Renee Zhan, Jim Cummings, Annick Blanc, & Lance Oppenheim.

Winners for the fest were just announced. Congrats to alums Eros, Sam and David, Nina, and Kara for picking up awards!

Speaking for winners, our research team compiled this massive 40 film collection of previous SXSW award-winning shorts, ready to binge.

Everyone’s favorite butthole-obsessed filmmakers made a triumphant return to SXSW this year where their Oscar-winning feature had its world premiere two years ago. Their talk just went up:

🤗 Look What Showed Up…

🎟 Coming soon that we’re excited about…

Fresh off its premiere at SXSW, Jim Cummings is launching his latest short, The Last Brunch online this Monday, March 18th. Follow Jim on Shortverse to be notified when the short releases.