The "Greatest" Short Films Ever?

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. Gorillaz Return with 9min Music Short ‘Created by Humanz’ - Being in the States, I perhaps am guilty of underestimating the cultural footprint of the conceptual music group Gorillaz, but I’ve always admired their aesthetics, and with over 4M views in the first couple days of release, people sure are excited about their new hand-drawn short film, which dropped online Friday. Animation Magazine has details on the film, which comes from UK studio The Line and S/W alum Jonathan Djob Nkondo. A BTS clip shows off its AI-free provenance, something we definitely believe more and more projects will try to call attention to as AI-work proliferates.

2. The Greatest Short Films of All Time? - On Friday, I published a piece on S/W that highlights a major project from Maike Mia Höhne, the artistic director of Kurtzfilm Hamburg, and Niels Putman of yanco and Talking Shorts. Inspired by the Sight and Sound Critics’ Poll, they solicited ballots from 270 film professionals to create something short film doesn’t really have…a canon. You can check out the list on yanco, and we’ve constructed a Shortverse collection with viewing links for 77 of the 105 films.

3. Final Stretch for Oscar - Inboxes are groaning under the weight of FYC emails as final voting opened on Thursday and runs through March 5th. The shorts theatrical program, distributed by Roadside Entertainment for the first time, just passed $2M in box office and looks on track to repeat its historical average of $3 to $3.5M total gross. Now that the programs are in theaters, a host of reviews and rankings have been released, so if you’re trying source broad opinion for your Oscar ballots, read reviews of the films from LA TIMES, Deadline, The Film Stage, Nonfics, & NyTimes. If you want to make up your own mind, our Shortverse collection is the most convenient way to do so, and indeed, one more (and presumably final) short has popped up online, as Friend of Dorothy hit YouTube this week via Attitude Magazine.

4. 15 Scientific and Technical Achievements Recognized by The Academy - I’m not supremely technically-minded, but I love that filmmaking is a technical art, and always eagerly read about these special Oscar honorees, which include newer, safer bullet effects, new VFX tools at the likes of Wētā, Framestore, Sony, and Dreamworks, and major recognition of Dragonframe for its dscipline-defining stop-motion animation software.

5. BAFTA-Nominated Shorts Hit YouTube - Winners were declared last Sunday, and the nominees are up on BAFTA’s YT channel! The animation winner, Two Black Boys in Paradise, is not included, but UK residents can view the film online via Channel 4.

6. A24 Unveils First Teaser of Backrooms - One of the major themes I’ve been hitting on the last couple of years is projecting an eventual collapse of the filmmaker/creator distinction. Markiplier’s recent success has many thinking about this right now, but the project that most intriguingly bridges this divide in my mind is Kane Parson’s upcoming feature adaptation of his viral “backrooms” clips, based on the creepypasta. There is a lot of work for the teenage director to accomplish; the videos are largely disjointed and non-narrative, but they so excellently evoked dread that Rob was compelled to write about the viral first video on S/W in 2022. A24 similarly saw potential and signed up Parsons to be their youngest-ever feature director. What do we think of this first-look?

7. TROPFEST Wraps its Comeback Edition - When Short of the Week started in the 2000s, Tropfest was a BIG deal. A novel film competition that culminated in simulcast live screenings across Australia, organizers would brag about attendances of over 100,000 for the final showcase, and it helped launch the careers of major talents, like the Blue Tongue Films crew. After running into trouble and discontinuing operations, the first Tropfest in seven years wrapped last weekend. Scorsese delivered a video message, James Cameron served on the jury, Margot Robbie walked the red carpet, and the event streamed globally in official partnership with YouTube, while 35,000 were live in the audience to see Lianne Mackessy win $50,000 and the top prize for her short, Crescendo. Congrats Tropfest, nice to have you back!

8. Four Shorts from Kleber Mendonça Filho - As part of its awards push for The Secret Agent, Neon has curated a free release of 4 early shorts from the Brazilian auteur. Indiewire has the story, and you can order the shorts from Neon’s website.

9. Trillo and Asteria Breakdown AI Process on New F1 Promo - The limitations of text-prompting for serious creative work are clear, so how generative AI is incorporated into multi-disciplinary workflows is key. Paul Trillo shared on Linkedin a BTS video for his latest commercial spot, which combines live action, miniatures, 3D animation, and AI generation and could point a way for future development of models and tools.

10. What To Watch - In just over a decade, Elizabeth Lo has transitioned from an MFA student at Stanford to the Doc World’s most heralded young filmmaker. Shorts like Hotel 22 and Mother’s Day broke through in a major way at festivals, and the Hong Kong-born filmmaker was showered with professional development honors. We spoke in-depth with Lo in 2020 upon the release of her debut feature, but it is last year’s follow-up feature that has elevated Lo into a new echelon. A winner at Venice and nominated for three Cinema Eye Honors, Mistress Dispeller is a provocative look at an emerging profession in China, the titular “mistress dispeller”, whose job is to break up extramarital affairs. Distributed by Oscilloscope, the film made its streaming premiere this past week on Criterion Channel, and I highly recommend it!

📅 This Week on Short of the Week