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Thanks for checking out the latest Shorts Weekly. It’s a holiday weekend here in the States and the unofficial start of Summer, so while there’ll be a new Short of the Week pick on Monday, expect a light content week.
Still, the team is hard at work on multiple fronts, including special content for the website, new features on Shortverse, and a fun curatorial project we hope to be able to share more information on soon.
For now, check out the week’s short film picks and some notes from Cannes and SIFF. But first, our weekly links roundup.
🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To
Still image from Gint Zilbalodis’ “Flow”
Criterion gets bought! The beloved distributor + Janus Films change ownership in a private sale. Should we be worried!? (Probably not)
Speaking of Criterion, their streaming service has a great collection of shorts. But, some very good stuff is leaving at the end of the month. I recommend Réka Bucsi’s surreal masterpiece Solar Walk, the animated short Weekends, and a film I always wanted for S/W but which never got free release—Una Gunjack’s 2014 breakthrough, The Chicken.
Soon providing competition to The Criterion Channel will be a new streaming service from Kino Lorber. Drawing upon their 4000 title library, the SVOD service will start at $5.99/mo. I’ve talked on multiple occasions with Richard Lorber about streaming shorts under the company’s various initiatives, so here’s hoping the service can be another viable sales outlet for short filmmakers.
On the opposite end of the streaming spectrum, Netflix released its 2nd watch report, sharing data on viewership numbers on its service.
“Now, good Is death. Only great works. Good is not good enough.” I enjoyed this interview with Tom Rothman, Chairman of Sony Motion Pictures Group. Sony was the only big studio to not chase Netflix with its own streaming service and has reaped the benefits. He’s bullish on the future of movies and this quote sounds very close to one of our foundational credos…
Back to shorts, Unifrance is one of the power players in worldwide short film and they announced the winners of the 22nd Short Film Awards. Special kudos to Luce Grosjean of Miyu Distribution for taking the special Distributor Prize!
UK’s famous Film4 produced 4 short films tackling the theme of ‘love’ from deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent filmmakers. The collection, “4Love” is streaming on YouTube.
There is more Cannes news in the ‘Festival’ section below, but I was tickled to see that S/W-beloved indie animator Gints Zilbalodis has caused Indiewire to absolutely gush about his latest feature, Flow.
Feeling Cannes FOMO? A selection of 9 shorts from Critics’ Week are streaming for free, courtesy of Festival Scope.
Indiewire reports that Hollywood Finally Has a Single, Central Platform to Report Harassment or Abuse.
Go deeper into the world of shorts by joining our Discord community! Share your work, get advice, ask support questions, and hang out with talented creatives from around the world.
🎊 Festival Updates
🏆 Winners
Cannes is winding down, and while the identity of the Short Film Palme d’or recipient will have to wait, many other awards and headlines have caught our eye:
Winners for the student short section, La Cinef.
Directors’ Fortnight issued its 1st-ever Audience Award and alum Matthew Rankin (Tesla World Light) takes it for Universal Language. Congrats Matthew!
SIFF also wrapped, and Chelsea had a blast in Seattle. As part of the jury, she gave out prizes to Madeleine and The Waiting (both are online, but geo-blocked from some territories). Here’s the full winner list, with a special note for alum Greg Kwedar taking home the Golden Space Needle for his feature, Sing Sing.
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📅 Upcoming Deadlines
That’s it for now! We’ll be back in your inbox next week. See you soon.