The Greatest (Awards) of All

📣 The Best of the Best…

That’s right. On Thursday we dropped the list of the films in the running for our Short Awards. The 200+ films that featured on Short of the Week as Official Selections in 2023 were eligible, then whittled down by our Senior Programming Team to these 15. Now we’re handing them off to an esteemed jury of Katie White, Kyle Thrash, and Tomisin Adepeju to determine category winners and what film will receive the coveted designation of “Short of the Year”.

Read the piece to learn more and to access our original reviews. Then visit our Shortverse collection to watch the films and leave ratings and comments to help us determine this year’s Audience Award. Winners will be announced next week!

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

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A tense thriller with aspects of science fiction, Gabriel Caste’s 12-minute short is one of the more fascinating and enigmatic story worlds we’ve recently visited. Rob shares his excitement in his review, calling it “a captivating narrative” that leaves audiences “with an insatiable curiosity for more.” (Good thing there is a feature script ready).

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An unexpected comedic delight that impressed and stuck with our programmers. Dave Paige takes the premise of a cassette tape being pulled from the ground (an image that has, bizarrely, been stuck in his head for 20 years), and spins a narrative around it that, while bordering on surreal, is ultimately “grounded and character-forward." Centering on Sam, a clueless gardener, Céline notes that the character “gives the viewer an emotional anchor” as the film lets loose on a “roller coaster of weirdness.”

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An enticing “chosen one” narrative set in an AfroFuturist context, Femi Oladigbolu has produced a “strikingly original film” for his shorts debut. With extensive commercial and music video experience, Oladigbolu’s production is meticulous and bent towards a personal vision, as the director tells Rob that “The film serves as a manifestation of the tales passed down to me since childhood.”

🎵 A Music Short Film To Recommend

Red Bull is a brand famous for their short films so when we heard from Red Bull Records about an ambitious music video/short film hybrid for an artist on their roster, we were eager to check it out.

Toronto-based singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Chris LaRocca has collaborated with cinematographer, writer, and director James Arthurs on the emotional short film, “linger”. Drawn to LaRocca’s song of the same name, taken from his latest album i cried my eyes out, “linger” was awarded best music video at the New York International Film Awards and Oniros.

🍿 New releases you’ve been enjoying…

Denmark’s The Animation Workshop has been releasing its latest batch of student graduation films online and this one has caught the eye of animator Kyle Nelson who writes:

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We caught this one at Tribeca last year (btw submissions to this year’s edition just got extended to Feb 14) and it has now come online via The New Yorker. It’s been sparking a lot of conversation on Shortverse with film fan “thisfilms” commenting:

🎟 Coming soon that we’re excited about…

With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, a bunch of films will be vying for your viewing attention next week. Here are a few to look forward to. As always, click the “follow the filmmaker” button to get a notification when the film goes live.

The endlessly clever Duncan Cowles shares his latest, a series of vignettes designed to distract or shock the filmmaker out of heartbreak. Feb 12

While Mikey Please and Dan Ojari are in the news about an expansion of their Aardman-produced, Oscar-nominated Netflix short Robin, Robin, they are finally lifting the wraps on this unreleased short that we profiled out of Sundance London in 2019. Be excited. Be very excited. Feb 14th

The title is a bit of a giveaway, eh? But I reckon you’ll still like seeing how it happens. If you enjoy a little gore with Valentine’s hearts, this short could be for you. Feb 14th

Lastly, Short of the Week’s official selection for the day is this appropriately titled Australian short from Victoria Singh-Thompson which first came to our attention as a Young Director Award Gold medal winner. Not an easy watch, but powerful and immaculately crafted. Feb 14th

📽️ At the Theater

We’ll close out this week’s edition of the newsletter with a shout-out to 3-time S/W alum Michael Lukk Litwak, whose feature film debut premieres in theaters today. Acquired out of SXSW last year, the sci-fi comedy is an NyTimes Critic’s Pick and features the sort of imaginative and clever DiY world-building that made Litwak’s short, The Life and Death of Tommy Chaos and Stacey Danger a modern classic. If it comes to your town, be sure to check it out!