Invigorating Freshness

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. S/W Senior Programmer Debuts Latest Film - Indulge our celebration of one of our own up top. Serafima Serafimova, a longtime writer/curator at Short of the Week, shares The C Word, an impressive short animation about a healthcare professional’s traumatic experience during Covid.

2. Obama Nike Ad Similar to Sundance Short? - Natalie Jasmine Harris, whose short, Grace , was at Sundance ‘24 (and viewable here ) took to X to highlight similarities between her short and a new Nike ad directed by Malia Obama. TMZ rounds up details.

3. Fox Entertainment Partnership with Runway AI Leaks - Journalist Janko Roettgers uncovered internal support documents mistakenly published online that suggest that Fox Entertainment employees have access to the AI video generation tool and have the green light to use it in deliverables.

4. Wim Wenders Commemorates End of WWII in New Short - The Keys to Freedom is a brief and contemplative piece about the French school where the official paperwork declaring Germany’s unconditional surrender was signed 80 years ago. The NyTimes interviewed the auteur about the project, and links to the full film.

5. The Crossing Over Express Spotlighted in The Ankler - It’s behind a paywall, but one of last year’s great short film success stories gets profiled in one of Hollywood’s premier publications . After premiering on S/W , The Crossing Over Express became a surprise sensation on X, garnering the creative team innumerable opportunities, including a yet-to-be-announced feature adaptation.

6. American Society of Cinematographers Launches Learning Platform - ASC+ is a new subscription learning platform offering aspiring cinematographers “in-depth learning courses” as well as networking and workshop opportunities.

7. Animation Obsessive’s “Artist Resources We Love: Vol. 4” - Sticking to education for a sec, the experts at animation’s best substack blog offer up their latest list of learning resources , including S/W alum Alex Grigg’s excellent YouTube channel , “Animation For Anyone”.

8. Lessons From New Microbudget Filmmaking Book - Georg on our team spotted this piece in Filmmaker Mag that excerpts from a new book, Micro-Budget Methods of Cinematic Storytelling  by Jake Mahaffy. Mahaffy a veteran indie filmmaker across two decades, shares his hard-earned wisdom.

9. Just Shoot It Pod w/ The Studio editor, Eric Kissack - We’re fans of the “Just Shoot It” podcast, which I’ve been a former guest of! In this latest episode , Matt and Oren talk to Kissack, a 3-time S/W alum as a director, about his experience editing the entire first season of the Seth Rogen Hollywood satire.   Kissack “shares his tips, tricks, and behind-the-scenes insights into how the show comes together.”

10. What To Watch This Weekend - Another high-profile alum release hits theaters— Friendship , the A24 dark comedy starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd, is directed by Andrew DeYoung ( Rachel ). S/W programmer Adam Banks crewed on the film’s shoot and was able to catch its TIFF premiere in the fall, and gives it his highest recommendation. The film premieres in theaters in NY and LA today before a nationwide rollout next week.

🔎 Spotlight on: CalArts ‘25 Student Films

Rekka, an animation instructor herself, cruises through this week’s massive drop of student work from the heralded CalArts Character Animation Program hunting for “invigorating freshness” and pulls out 7 shorts deserving of highlight. You can also check out all 60+ films in a special Shortverse collection .

📅 This Week on Short of the Week