One in a Crowd

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. SXSW Winners - Congrats to all the winners at SXSW this week. S/W alum Alexander Farah took home the Oscar-qualifying Best Narrative Short award for One Day This Kid, and fellow alum, Maceo Frost, got Best Music Video. Again, you can visit our Shortverse collection to browse the entire shorts lineup and read our preview piece to learn more. Our festival eyes now turn north to Canada as REGARD begins next week.

2. How An 18 Year Old Short Became 2025’s Most Heatwarming Comedy - Out of SXSW, Screen Rant has a fun story about an unlikely short-to-feature adaptation.

3. Goldie Creator to Crowdfund Followup Project - Alum Emily Brundige, fresh off the premiere of her short-to-series kids show Goldie on AppleTV+, is crowdfunding a proof-of-concept for her next series idea, Strawberry Vampire.

4. Kickstarter’s Long Story Short is Underway - Brundige’s project is a good reminder that Kickstarter’s annual month-long celebration of short film is happening now. Discover over 600 promising short film projects you can support.

5. Recap of the Future Film Coalition Townhall - Previewed a couple of newsletters ago, I tuned in for the initial meeting of this new group that seeks to fill an advocacy role for indie film that’s really been absent since the shuttering of the AIVF two decades ago. If you missed it, here is a recap of what was presented.

6. Robert Rodiguez Taps Fans to Be Partners in New Venture - New models are probably needed to secure independent filmmaking’s future, and Battle Angel Alita director Robert Rodriguez is the highest profile filmmaker yet to pursue equity crowdfunding with his new company Brass Knuckle Films. Fast Company has further details. Filmmakers like Jim Cummings have employed this model in the past, and Legion M, billed as “the first fan-owned entertainment company,” just released My Dead Friend Zoe in theaters.

7. Patreon’s State of Create Report - Most filmmakers don’t consider themselves creators in a “creator economy” sense. I expect that divide to shrink in 2025 though, making this new report pertinent. Based on a survey of thousands of creators, this report dives into topics like the “fall of the follower” and sentiments around platforms’ aggressive push of short-form video.

8. Documentary Gets its own “Hotlist” - Inspired by scriptwriting’s perennial Black List, a new project to raise awareness of great unproduced documentary projects has arrived. Here’s the 23 film list, and here is one of the organizers speaking with RealScreen about the project’s motivations.

9. Muse Premieres on MUBI - Fans of celebrated Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War), get excited! A new 6min short from the auteur arrived this week. Described as a “modern myth” that marries “high fashion to shades of early cinema” the short streams for subscribers worldwide.

10. Fredrick Wiseman in Conversation With John Wilson - We’ll close by recommending this conversation with two of my favorite living filmmakers. The pairing makes complete sense—even if I never would have thought of it! Hosted by Film at Lincoln Center as part of their recent retrospective of Wiseman, the talk is a warm and funny delve into the legend’s career.

🪐 Into the Shortverse

Before Severance: Shorts from the Cast & Crew

Even before the AppleTV+ show’s breakout 1st season, we started tracing the connections between the show’s creative team and their history in shorts. One of our fave commercial directors, Aoife McArdle, directed three episodes in season 1. Then, staff writer Mohamad El Masri premiered his sci-fi short film, Other Other, with us last year.

Jen Tullock, who plays Mark’s sister on the show, previously carried a Short Award-winning film with a memorable solo performance. As I dug in, I discovered more, including show lead Britt Lower writing and directing a Tribeca 2020 short that is now in series development at FX. That doesn’t even count the immense filmographies of heavy hitters like Ben Stiller and Christopher Walken, or breakout cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné, whose directorial debut with episode S2.E7, Chikhai Bardo, has been called “the finest hour of TV this year”. She’s had a prolific career shooting French-Canadian shorts before the show.

I’m hoping this will be a fun trip for all you Severance die-hards and even for those who haven’t jumped aboard the show yet, this can be a reminder that most paths in this industry start from humble beginnings, so take heart with your own journeys!

📅 This Week on Short of the Week