Hugging Hearts

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Paying Attention To

1. Netflix Unveils Monument Valley Short - From the talents at Moth Studio, this cool short was commissioned by Netflix to hype the latest release of the influential game series. Aside from adding a data point to our view on the complementary potential of games and shorts, the film features gorgeous animation and mind-bending perspective shifts that should satisfy fans of the game and general animation enthusiasts alike. For those who want to go deeper, Moth put together a great feature on the short’s development.

2. Here’s The Blacklist 2024 - The annual survey of favorite unproduced screenplays has landed. One of the premiere launchers of fresh talent, congrats to this year’s selectees!

3. Sundance Feature Lineup Announced - As we scramble to put a bow on 2024 it’s a bit disheartening to have 2025 banging on the door, but every January Sundance sets the stage for the year in film and it is fun to scan the press release for what we have in store. We’ll cover the short film angle closer to the fest in our annual preview article, but it’s a good lineup for shorts lovers with short-to-feature adaptations Ricky and Atropia in the US Dramatic comp and over a dozen Short of the Week alums throughout the full program.

4. OpenAI Opens SORA Up - Massively hyped for months, OpenAI’s challenger in video generative AI is now available to the masses. Perhaps inevitable due to that hype, the initial reactions have been disappointing, with one user likening it to a “REALLY expensive slot machine with the occasionally incredible jackpot.” On the heels of a critical open letter from Sora alpha testers, it’s been a rough rollout for the AI giant.

5. Encounters Returns! - The UK’s premier short film festival has had a rough go of late, forcing a cancellation of the 2024 edition and throwing the festival’s future into doubt. So, it’s great to the festival announce on Instagram that 2025 is a go! We’ll see you there in September.

6. Did China Perfect Quibi? - I stumbled upon an interesting thread describing the popularity of micro-serialized shows on app platforms in China. User @ruima explains that: “Revenue from short video dramas 短剧 — serialized stories of 1-2 minute episodes typically totaling 60-120 minutes, designed for vertical viewing on phones—has surpassed movie box office.”

7. Scott Glassgold Launches 12:01 Films - A familiar name to many short film insiders, Glassgold carved out a niche in the 2010s as a manager-producer for many of the filmmakers achieving Hollywood heat for genre proof-of-concept shorts. Recently he’s shifted gears toward short stories with phenomenal results—19 sales in the last 2 years. Variety describes this new venture as a “production company which aims to identify, grow, and produce creator-driven IP, primarily through short stories as the foundational launching point.”

8. New Organization Founded to Advocate for Producer Rights - We found out about Producers United via the excellent Substack blog Dear Producer, which has been at the forefront of several of the issues the new org is set to address, such as uncompensated labor and the devaluation of the producer credit. Producers are the backbone of filmmaking writ large, but their work is especially undervalued and precarious in shorts, so we’ll be looking forward to recommendations and initiatives that emerge from this new collective.

9. No Film School Hosts “State of Shorts” Podcast - That title is probably a bit ambitious but hosts GG Hawkins and Jason Hellerman assemble an interesting roundtable of film programmers and creators to discuss the evolving landscape of the medium.

10. Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared Updates! - A brand new website was just unveiled for the cult web series turned British TV show. We have a soft spot for DHMIS, having featured the debut webisode before it went to Sundance, where we got a chance to know the team. It eventually became a viral success and spawned a second season for TV, but distribution has been limited. Therefore my favorite part of the new site is the ability to purchase access to the second season! Finally!!!

🏆 Awards Update

Today is the last day for prelim Oscar® voting to decide the category shortlists. If you’re a procrastinating voter who hasn’t submitted picks yet you could do worse than have a look at these films that have featured to date on Short of the Week…😉

But, awards season is more than just the Academy, so let’s quickly run through some other notables.

• The European Film Awards gave the inaugural “Prix Vimeo” to its favorite short. Congrats to the Croatian film L'homme qui ne se taisait pas (The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent) for taking home the prize.

• The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) were also announced. Rob is on the nomination committee, so we of course loved nominees and especially Wander to Wonder, from alum Nina Gantz, which took home the prize for “Best British Short Film”

• The International Documentary Association Awards crowned their membership’s favorite films recently and Instruments of a Beating Heart took the top spot for shorts. Congrats! It’s one of my faves too, and I just wrote about it today for Short of the Week.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week