It's Going to Be a Long Day

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life hits theaters in New York today and will be on VOD July 2nd. A documentary on the influential artist/designer, the film is from alum Dan Covert of Dress Code and grew out of his acclaimed short film profiles of Geoff.

2. Annecy announced its winners, with an alum, Gints Zilbalodis, winning big for FLOW. Kudos to Will Anderson too for taking home the Cristal for Best Commissioned Film for his Pictoplasma 2023 opener.

3. Runway Gen-3 Alpha, the latest edition of the popular AI generative video model, is now out.

4. Cannes Lions is happening, celebrating the art of advertising. Catch all the Grand Prix Winners including the short film We Are Ayenda, which took home the Grand Prix in the Entertainment category.

5. “We’re trying to find those filmmakers that have stories to tell that belong in the form of a feature-length documentary or movie and bridge that gap where you either create short-form content for free or you spend $40 million. We can’t live in those two extremes.” - Tubi CEO Anjali Sud about the company’s “Stubios” initiative.

6. An Oscar category for Intimacy Coordination? An attention-getting headline overshadows a thoughtful piece with trailblazing erotic filmmaker Erika Lust, but also — not a crazy idea?

7. Congrats to Liz Sargent, who is adapting her short film, Take Me Home, into a feature. Partnering with a national advocacy organization that will run a philanthropic campaign to fund it, and committing to leading an impact campaign alongside the film, it sounds like a novel model for producing a narrative feature in 2024.

8. Two filmmakers have won $100k grants to produce their short films thanks to the first Writer-Driven Shorts competition from the GM Incubator Fund and the Black List.

9. Frameline, San Francisco’s venerable queer film festival, will stream much of its short film lineup to virtual viewers. We recommend the “Cruel Summer” program which features Beach Logs Kill (one of our favorites out of SXSW) and a new short from S/W alum Neal Mulani.

10. Farewell, Donald Sutherland. We lost one of cinema’s more distinctive faces and voices. A critic reminisces on his favorite Sutherland roles.

🪐 Into the Shortverse

Euro 2024: Soccer Shorts

My work days are being impinged upon by day-time sports watching, so with big cup competitions in Europe and the Americas, it is time to collect our favorite shorts that deal with the beautiful game. Freshly awarded Cannes Lions Grand Prix winner We Are Ayenda is here, plus a piece from Dress Code who are celebrating the feature in theaters today. Also, any chance I get to recommend Joy in People is a chance I will take.

S/W Alums Playing Palm Springs Shortfest

The latest edition of “Where in the world is Céline Roustan?” finds our itinerant team member in sunny California. As she helps present the fest as one of its staff programmers, we’ve compiled this showcase of filmmakers who are soaking up the sun with her. A collection of 31 artists previously featured on Short of the Week who are back at the festival with new work, explore them and their films.