Who Wants to be Millionaires?

S/W on the Verge of a Milestone, Best of the Month, and an Online Program From a Film Fest Giant

Author

Jason Sondhi
February 02, 2024

The Short of the Week YouTube channel is, as I’m writing this, sitting at 998,241 subscribers and growing fast. Our co-founder, Andy, accuses us of being too modest when it comes to celebrating milestones so we’re going to do something different this time.

Though this big 1M subscribers achievement can hardly be chalked up to our efforts alone and much of the credit must surely go to the filmmakers we feature (see, there goes that modesty again!), he has successfully convinced me and the rest of the team to jump onto YouTube for a live stream this TUES. Feb 6th @ 1pm ET.

I’m kidding about him twisting my arm (sort of), after all we did streams during the pandemic that were super fun, but it’s been a while! So, join us on Tuesday as the team will be hanging out, taking questions, sharing trivia, and giving away our new merch—it’ll be a good time. 🥳

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

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How To Make A Ghost by Jared Hogan

On Halloween night in a small town, a boy accepts a dare from his friends to hide in the back seat of an empty car and frighten the driver when they return. But what starts as a seemingly harmless prank turns into a night from hell.

Our first feature of the week, from Jared Hogan, burst online around Halloween, and while we weren’t able to turn around a review for it at the time, it has yet to leave my mind since. One key sequence (you’ll recognize it when it arrives) affected me more than just about anything I saw last year. Rob tackles the writeup, and compliments the union of the story, cinematography, and sound, proclaiming that the “production seems to be all working together to create an overwhelming sense of dread.”

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Prep by Raymond Knudsen

A bodybuilding fever dream fueled by childhood trauma, food porn, and acid techno music.

A peek into the psyche of the competitive bodybuilder, filmmaker Ray Knudsen unpacks his own experiences, earned through therapy, and pours them into this avant-garde short that eschews traditional scenes and dialogue in favor of a full frontal assault on the senses. “I spoke to a bodybuilder before making this film and he told me that bodybuilding is like taking a psychedelic – whatever you’ve swept under the rug is going to come out.” That’s what this film is, a barely contained, but fundamentally empathetic outpouring of aggression and insecurity in cinematic form.

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Tall Dark and Handsome by Sam Baron

Varun discovers his girlfriend has a history of dating Indian men and can't shake it off.

“Three is a pattern, five is a racial fetish.” On Thursday we welcomed Sam Baron back to the site for a 3rd time with his latest, featuring frequent collaborator, Amit Shah. It’s a film Baron calls—half-seriously— “…a very personal story for us.” Serafima handles the writeup and she was tickled by the short, calling it “a hilarious commentary on fetishism, self-sabotage and everything in between.”

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The Best Short Films of January 2024

Haunting winter traditions, insightful tales of immigrants & West African hair salons feature in Short of the Week's January 2024 Best of the Month picks.

Finally, we close out the workweek with our monthly all-star selections. Congrats to Maegan Houng, Jennie Williams, and John Ogunmuyiwa for claiming the top three spots for January!

🪐 Shortverse Collections

As always, Shortverse gets its best-of-month shout, with films spotlighted from the community. This time we’ve got a pair of films nominated for BAFTA, an interesting examination of the controversy behind an iconic song, and a body dysmorphia tone poem that just happens to be terrifying! 🫣 

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Our other big Shortverse collection is this collaboration with the esteemed Swiss film festival, Locarno. They have gathered 29 films from their 75th edition which they are presenting to audiences worldwide, for free, for the entire month of February. The selection includes high-profile films like the offbeat favorite The Newt Congress, and reigning Europe Film Award winner, Hardly Working. Also, discover cinematic visions from countries we do see work from often, such as Cuba and Palestine.

📈 1M Subscriber Celebration Spectacular 🎉

Approaching One Million subscribers! Join us Feb 6th @ 10amPT/1pmET for a special live-stream to celebrate the moment, win some of our new merch, play short film trivia, and meet the S/W team.

Click the Link and hit the bell to be notified when we go live: https://www.youtube.com/live/_DX3aCRuMiI 

🍿 New releases you’ve been enjoying…

Dance with the Seashells | Shortverse

When the concert hall of a small town vanishes, the young singer Erika teams up with Mehdi the mascot to go find it! What will they find on their journey?

www.shortverse.com/films/dance-with-the-seashells

Daniel. | Shortverse

A young man writes a diary of his life in London. While he works at a local cafe, visits his girlfriend, and watches films with his flatmates, it becomes clear that something is under his skin.

www.shortverse.com/films/daniel

That’s it for this week’s edition. Tune in next week for more picks, a spotlight on an alum hitting theaters with their feature, and the first announcement from our upcoming Short Awards…