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Flash the Badge
S/W Picks, Badges debut on Shortverse, & the best British Independent Shorts of the year
Jason Sondhi
November 03, 2023
Our great genre binge is over, and I think I’ll have a bit of a Halloween hangover. I don’t consider myself a "horror guy” but it was really fun to share the wildly imaginative slate of films we highlighted this year. What should be our next binge? I’m thinking documentary, with DocNYC coming this week and the IDA shortlist and Cinema Eye Honors semifinalists being announced. Open to suggestions, however!
📅 This Week on Short of the Week
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Sushi Noh is quite something. The short by Jayden Rathsam Hua and produced out of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, uses an absurd MacGuffin and the power of a child’s imagination to juggle many subgenres within the horror/midnight arsenal, leading to a film that Céline calls “unsettling, gross, but damn fun.”
Then on Halloween day itself, we welcomed back Norwegian master, Fredrik S. Hana with From.Beyond. Hana won one of our “Short Awards” for the nunsploitation flick, Sister Hell, and this latest effort picked up prizes at Fantasia and Sitges. Chelsea was very impressed, saying that the eeriness of the film, “gives the impression that it shouldn’t even be watched—as if it was something the audience has stumbled upon and wasn’t meant to see.”
Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz was one of the individuals that stood out to us at this year’s SXSW. Her sorority-hazing short, Scotty’s Vag, draws upon her own collegiate experience to, in Céline’s words, use “the canvas of the American college Greek system to paint a coming-of-age story tainted by complicated and nuanced power dynamics.”
A talented Canadian, Tyler McKenzie Evans debuts on Short of the Week with Diaspora, a clever and sharp gentrification metaphor ported to the horror genre. TIFF is a champion, having screened the film in 2022 and inviting Evans to their 2023 filmmaker lab, and we expect big things from him in the future.
🪐 Shortverse Collections
Shortverse gets its own “Best of the Month” roundup, with 12 films that made a splash on the service in October. B&W reminisces on childhood, the latest from acclaimed filmmaker Kris Merc, and a classic “Frasier” episode given the fan-sourced remix treatment are among the selections.
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BIFA 2023: Best British Short Film (Longlist)
In the time since this collection went live, the official BIFA nominations dropped. However, Rob was on the committee determining this longlist and if you want to quickly get up to speed on what’s fresh on the island we recommend watching trailers for these 16 films and then clicking “Get Notified” on the pages as we will work to bring several of these online in full in the coming months.
💡 Product Updates
🏅Badges—The team and I have had STAFF badges on Shortverse, but now, in an effort to map out the short film landscape, we are introducing new badges to different types of accounts. Pro members get a PRO badge, but we’re also debuting badges for EDUCATION, DISTRIBUTOR, STUDIO, and, for our top-engaged contributing community members, a new SUPER member badge. Any you think we should add?
👥 Browse profiles by badge—From the PEOPLE page you can filter by badge. This will make it a lot easier to find Schools or Distributors among other types of accounts.
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