Lights in the Sky

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. Not short film-related per se, but our fearless leader Andy Allen gave a talk at Figma’s big design conference that I would recommend! It’s on the link between play and design and can be viewed on X.

2. While at Config he also played with Figma’s new AI tools and randomly ended up causing Figma a PR disaster…

3. AI generative video continues to race along as Runway fights off the challenge of OpenAI’s Sora by releasing Gen 3 Alpha.

4. Is the best horror movie of the year a Japanese NFT short film?

5. One of our favorite short films on the circuit this year, Dream Creep, gets an in-depth look from Indiewire 👍🏽

6. The duo of Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos helped popularize cinema video essays with their popular Every Frame a Painting series. But, at the peak of their popularity, they quit the creator life. Now they return with a limited series and a narrative scripted short film which will world premiere at Fantasia.

7. Speaking of video essays, Kevin B. Lee is another prominent practitioner, and I was intrigued to see he will head up a conference at Locarno next month. The theme? — Cinematic Survival.

8. Happy for Bernardo Britto—beloved by short film fans for Yearbook and Hudson Geese, the filmmaker has sold US rights to his SXSW feature, Omni Loop, to Magnolia Pictures.

9. The popular webcomic platform Webtoon went public, successfully raising $300M+ in its IPO. I mentioned the site in a piece on the surprise success of Lackadaisy, but I find these user-generated storytelling platforms—Wattpad too—to be worth watching.

10. Confessions of a Good Samaritan from S/W Award Winner Penny Lane has embarked on a US theatrical release. The director’s decision to give one of her kidneys to a stranger launches her on a provocative, intimate, and unexpectedly funny quest to understand the nature of altruism. Find tickets near you.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

🪐 Into the Shortverse

🏆 Best of the Month: June ‘24

Looking for what’s fresh on Shortverse? Our curators recommend these 14 shorts that arrived on the platform in June. From a powerful spoken word animation to a comedic documentary on iconic Los Angeles billboards, there were a lot of gems released last month.

🔪 Making the Cut: Films About Chefs

Inspired by S3 of The Bear, Rob took it upon himself to cook up this foodie-inspired collection. Possessing a nice balance of comedy and drama (not unlike the show itself) try this delicious sampler platter.

👀 You Should Follow: Voyager

Over the past decade, this Brooklyn production company has made a strong contribution to the current shape of short-form Documentary. Direct, stylish, and emotional, their iconic internet-beloved personal projects laid down a marker and aesthetic that extended seamlessly to commercials, branded film, and now scripted narrative shorts and features. Catch up on nearly 10 years of Voyager short films from the company’s profile page.