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In the Mood For Shorts
A "lost short" from a grandmaster in theaters, the debut of an "ethical" AI model, and meta shorts about filmmaking.
Jason Sondhi
July 11, 2025
It’s been a week of house-keeping at S/W HQ, which, on account of our being a remote, online project, refers to cleaning up our film databases, going through our Support backlog, and organizing our brand partnership decks, which were strewn haphazardly across Google Drive and Notion. Fascinating, I know?
Yet, it kind of is—I’m going this weekend to Lincoln Center to see In the Mood For Love (more in our 10 Things… section), but one of the calling cards for this 25th anniversary release is an accompanying short film that hasn’t been seen in 24 years. Some people thought it was misplaced, but it wasn’t; it just sat in the archive all that time. Perhaps I’m wrong, and certainly there are numerous examples to the contrary throughout cinema history, but I feel instinctively that a physical nature to this film helped preserve it. There is simply a dimensional reality to objects that must be respected in a way we fail to do so digitally. We did a licensing project last year and I was astonished to discover that filmmakers routinely did not have access to hi-quality versions of their shorts that were made just a few years prior!
I’m no saint either. The convenience of digital storage getting cheaper and bigger every year (even as footage gets bigger too) fosters a lack of intentionality. We’re transitioning our archive of shorts from Vimeo, and so I’ve been sitting on about 6TB of films for half a year, without a definite plan on what to do with them. Not good! This week’s curated Shortverse Collection is comprised of short films about filmmaking, and I have a suggestion to the storytellers reading—it seems to me that the world needs a good short film thriller about proper data management. 😤
🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To
The “Ethical” AI Video Model is Here - Marey, from Moonvalley, is a model trained on 100% licensed data, and is now available to the public. We’ve been hearing about it for a while, as it is the product of a partnership between Moonvalley and Asteria, the AI Studio founded by Bryn Mooser. Bryn is a filmmaker-entrepreneur famous for starting the doc powerhouse, XTR, and before that, the VR studio RYOT. Asteria has been in the news as it is set to produce Natasha Lyonne and Brit Marling’s forthcoming AI feature, and counts leading AI-creative, Paul Trillo, as a partner.
Trillo is responsible for this launch film, but it also sounds like he’s been deep in the weeds with Moonvalley, building and tweaking the product to meet filmmaker specifications. Having this sort of filmmaker-focus is important to the conception of Marey, as Mooser discusses in this video conversation with VP Land, outlining that the company seeks to design “Hollywood grade AI” which is not a black-box, but instead something collaborative, controllable, and contextually smart, which can fit within existing workflows and tools.Using licensed training data is a smart move in that context, as the legal worry around AI video is real for professional customers, especially in the wake of Disney suing Midjourney. If nothing else, it has been good branding. Will it be a meaningful differentiator in what is shaping up to be a very crowded field? My guess is “No” if it results in an inferior product. My suspicion is that folks have seized upon the argument of ‘stolen data’ in AI as a rhetorical measure that justifies deeper-seated animosity toward the tech. Marey, however, is poised to be a good test of that assumption—evangelists are fine with Google ingesting all of YouTube surreptitiously, so they don’t need convincing, but will current detractors be swayed into positivity by a “clean” model? I doubt it, but time will tell!
Vimeo Awards Inaugural Short Film Grant Selectees - In partnership with Nikon and Red, Vimeo announced five filmmakers who will receive grant packages that include $30k in cash, production equipment, and professional mentorship. The five filmmakers are Andrew J Rodriguez, Carmen Pedrero, John C Kelly, Sofia Camargo, and (S/W alum!) Annie Ning, who were selected by an all-star judging panel that included David Lowery and Charlotte Wells. Congrats!
Ari Aster is Looking to Mentor Emerging Filmmakers - Aster, through his prod co, Square Peg Films, is hosting a 4-day networking and mentorship event in Austin called Square Peg Social that seeks to set up filmmakers and established industry figures in 1 on 1 settings. Submissions are now open.
“Lost” Wong Kar-wai Short Film Now Screening in Theaters - Honestly, surprised this hasn’t been made into a bigger deal! In the Mood For Love topped the last Sight & Sound poll for films made since 2000. But, it was originally meant to be the second story in a film triptych. A great blog entry from a few years back outlines the story’s twists and turns, but the long and short of it is that, as the filming of In the Mood For Love grew and grew, space for the third story ran out. This short, unimaginatively titled In the Mood For Love 2001, and speculated as the inspiration for Wong’s english-language debut, My Blueberry Nights, had not been seen since a Cannes masterclass in 2001. Now, Janus is releasing it in theaters alongside a new 4k restoration for the film’s 25th anniversary. Here are the cities and dates it’s playing.
Fun Filmmaking Challenge Returns: The Mute Series - Andy Lambert had some success in 2020 with this clever anthology series of online shorts, and we’re pleased to see it return with four new installments. The premise is simple: RULE 1: no dialogue, RULE 2: no camera moves, RULE 3: only one shot. We’re suckers for these kinds of constrained filmmaking exercises, and if you’re experiencing mental blocks in your filmmaking, maybe you should try a MUTE short yourself!
The Silence of Good People: The Hangman - The Substack newsletter Animation Obsessive is a resource we’ve recommended before, and my favorite version of the publication is when they introduce me to historic short films from before my time. This passion project from the 60s has ended up having a long legacy via the education system, but is as relevant as ever.
Oscar-nominated Short Back as a TV Show? - We’re not shy about our love for stop-motion practitioners Mikey Please and Dan Ojari, so this bit of news caught our eye—the duo will be at Cartoon Forum this September to pitch a 52×7min series adaptation of their Aardman-produced Netflix-distributed short film. 🤞🏽
A Short Film Live Performance in Brooklyn - I’m not too sure of what to expect here, but if you’re in Brooklyn tomorrow night, come join me for GOTHAM: A live short documentary. From the description—The mystery, and theft, at the center of the 21st century's most successful font. ONE NIGHT ONLY A TRUE STORY 8 YEARS IN THE MAKING PERFORMED & SCORED LIVE IN THE STREET DON'T WORRY… ITS ONLY A HALF HOUR OPEN STREETS IS ALSO A REAL FUN VIBE—ummm…ok?! The film is from Joe Posner, famous for innovative video journalism during his stints founding the video departments at Vox and Semafor, so I have no doubt that whatever this is, it will be interesting!
S/W Programmer Céline Roustan Joins Ouat - A bit of self-serving industry news, but kudos to our own Céline on joining the Toronto-based short film distributor, Ouat Media as an acquisitions lead 👏🏽. Here is the announcement.
What To Watch This Weekend - It’s not a director we highlight this week, but an actress! Go watch Too Much, the latest show from Lena Dunham, which stars Megan Stalter in the lead role. We had the pleasure of showcasing Stalter’s work at the end of 2024 in the uproariously funny comedy short, ILY, BYE.
🪐 Into the Shortverse
Inspired slightly by the latest comedy skit from one of our favorite internet comedy voices, Jonathan Salmon, a collection of short films offering a look behind the camera at the filmmaking process.
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