It's Been a Long Time

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. Hi-Profile Google AI Film Drops - The first of three short films announced in a partnership between Google Deep Mind and Darren Aronofsky’s new company, Primordial Soup. Ancestra is a short from Eliza McNitt, previously known for her award-winning VR work. The film is available on YouTube, along with a making-of video.

2. Recapping Annecy Awards Night - Amid at Cartoon Brew was on hand to cover the winners and share impressions from last week’s closing night.

3. The 100 Best Films of the 2020s - I’m a sucker for a good list. Indiewire generally puts thought into theirs, the latest of which covers this decade to date. What do you think of their choices?

4. Midjourney Releases Their Video Model - Called v1 Video, the release is getting good buzz from the AI community, but the specter of Disney suing the company dampens the hype somewhat.

5. VR Studio Penrose Closes Shop - Once called “the Pixar of VR” by Techcrunch, it was recently announced on the company’s socials that the VR content studio is wrapping things up this month. Renowned for top-class storytelling projects like Arden’s Wake, Alumette, and The Rose and I, the company relays the sober conclusion that the “market for spatial storytelling has yet to reach the scale we needed to thrive.”

6. Dispatch From the Film Festival Frontlines - Irish animator John Kelly is on the circuit with his short, Retirement Plan. He put together a short little update to his fans that I found to be cute and funny. I’d bet many of you can relate!

7. Short Shorts Asia Winners Streaming - A ton of shorts, including the festival’s winners, are streaming worldwide through the end of the month. It’s a little clunky, but a $15 pass, purchased through the fest’s Life Log Box platform, gets you access to the best of last month’s edition.

8. Microbudget Pre-Production Class from Gotham - I like Gotham’s lineup of digital classes with stellar real-world film talents, and this one, from esteemed producer Kelly Williams, sounds worthwhile. The cost is not nothing, but Williams, who has an extensive track record in shorts and indie features, is someone well worth learning from.

9. Vimeo’s Apple TV App is Back! - Maybe this is a niche announcement, but maybe not—Vimeo unceremoniously sunsetted its AppleTV app some time ago, advising viewers to airplay from their phones instead. It worked fine, I guess, but when I’m powering through screeners, the whole point is that I want to hide my phone somewhere far away. So, news that the app is back and rebuilt is welcome news to me!

10. Salute to Scott Macaulay, EiC of Filmmaker Mag - News just dropped that Filmmaker Mag’s longtime chief will be stepping down from the magazine after 33 years in charge. Filmmaker Mag has been an important voice throughout those years, helping to define the independent filmmaking scene in America throughout the initial indie-boom of the 90s into the digital revolution and modern streaming age via a mix of smart criticism and practical reporting. It has also served a critical talent ID role via its celebrated 25 New Faces of Independent Film series. Selfishly, I know that our inclusion on the list in 2011 was a critical validator of the Short of the Week project at a very early stage. Macaulay says that he will use the new time to write and to produce, an activity he’s continued to do throughout his tenure. Cheers Scott! And thank you.

🦁 Brand Spotlight: Cannes Lions Edition

Cannes, which wraps up today, seems to have been a coronation of a couple of long-simmering trends. First, creators dominated the social scene, and a fresh industry report indicated that, for the first time, more than half of content-driven advertising revenue will come from user-generated content. The Ankler called it a “tipping point” and quoted an insider stating that “If you’re not working with creators at scale, you’re completely missing out on your business outcomes and your metrics.”

This is intimately connected with the transition of entertainment to streaming, and sure enough, another report on the eve of the festival showed that streaming overtook broadcast and cable TV viewing for the first time in May. YouTube is the biggest driver of this trend, and continuing the lovefest that followed their 20th anniversary, CEO Neal Mohan delivered a keynote at the event and spoke to the press.

As readers of this newsletter are aware, streaming and the creator economy are where growth is in filmmaking, and alongside that, brand films are making a comeback. Talents looking to break into the traditional film industry would be smart to keep an eye on trends here. So, these are some of the things that caught our eye coming out of the event.

• Shorts Score Big - Short films, as we understand them, comprise just a tiny percentage of overall nominees at Cannes, but picked up some of the biggest awards. The Final Copy of Ilon Specht, which we covered in March, took home the Grand Prix in the festival’s oldest category, “Film” as well as a Gold in “Entertainment”. The Grand Prix in Entertainment went to Night Fishing, which innovatively utilized Hyundai dash cams to craft a thriller brand short that played Fantasia and Fantastic Fest. Finally, Apple picked up the Grand Prix in the “Creative Effectiveness” category for its long-running short film series “Shot on iPhone”. The latest in the series, from S/W alum Aneil Karia starring Stormzy, just dropped a couple of days ago and inspired our latest Shortverse Collection.

• Tubi Was Strongly Represented - With streaming swallowing up a growing amount of TV time and ad spend, the Fox-owned free streamer feels it’s well-placed to capitalize. The company just announced clearing 100M month active users, and was active at Cannes, announcing new programs and partnerships, including Tubi for Creators, which is recruiting big YouTube and TikTok names to the platform, as well as a program with Kickstarter that will provide finishing funds and distribution to film projects on the crowdfunding platform. This is on the heels of Vimeo-vet Rich Bloom joining the company as the new GM of Creator Programs.

• The Fresh Class of Saatchi & Saatchi New Creators - Formerly the New Directors’ Showcase, the program got a subtle name change a couple of years ago but for 35 yrs the program has been at Cannes introducing young UK film talent to the collected advertising world. Here is the 2025 class, congrats to S/W alum Jonny Look!

• Upcoming Masterclass on Branded Content in the Digital Age - Not Cannes news, but if you’re curious about what’s happening in the intersection of filmmaking and brands, Sub-Genre founder Brian Newman is an authority. Learn from him in this free online session through Sundance Co/Lab which is happening on July 2nd.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

🪐 Into the Shortverse

🎙️The Mixtape: Short Films about Musicians

These stories aren’t just using musicians as a convenient narrative hook; they turn to artists and their worlds as a lens through which to examine larger, universal themes: identity, belonging, connection, and the often messy beauty of creative expression. With that in mind, we figured it was high time to gather a collection of our favorite short films centered on musicians, both real and imagined.

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Raising Awareness: The Best PSA Short Films

A couple of really fun PSA-style shorts popped up on Shortverse in recent weeks, so we decided to highlight this niche form, collecting some of the best short films created to raise awareness about a specific issue.