You Don't Know What You Got...

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. Animation Community Loses a Legend - RIP to Phil Mulloy, the UK artist often credited with bringing a “punk” ethos to animation via his deliberately crude, satirical animations. A major figure in world animation for 35+ years, the filmmaker received a lifetime achievement honor last year at Animafest Zagreb. Ottawa Festival Director Chris Robinson is in the process of writing a book on Mulloy and eulogizes the filmmaker at Cartoon Brew.

2. Pulling Back the Curtain on Vertical Videos - A flurry of journalism has jumped on the micro-series trend as it migrates from Asia to LA, though it has largely been explanatory rather than investigatory. Dear Producer, though, has first-hand testimony from the trenches on what producing these shows is like. Turns out, they were scandalized by the experience.

3. Ethical Porn Studio Seeks Guest Directors - An intriguing opportunity worth passing along—Erika Lust, the award-winning cinematic adult film company, is looking for new guest directors. Selected directors will receive a production budget of approximately €25,000, full creative support from the company’s in-house production team, and distribution across Erika Lust’s global platforms.
   
   From their Head of Production, “We welcome filmmakers with experience in shorts, features, music videos, or similar formats. No previous experience in adult content is required. We're especially eager to hear from female, queer, and non-binary directors—but anyone aligned with our inclusive, sex-positive ethos is encouraged to apply.”

4. Public Broadcasting in the US Suffers $1.1B Cut - The long-debated cuts to PBS and NPR were passed by Congress, putting both entities at major risk. PBS in particular, via programs like POV and Independent Lens, has been a major force in the US Documentary film space, while local stations have been active in short film promotion. Deadline details what’s next.

5. Michael Lukk Litwak Cartoons in the Times - Litwak, a 3-time S/W alum, has made a surprising late-career foray into cartooning, with placements in the New Yorker and NyTimes. His latest feature is a fun strip series imagining what theme park rides for films like Anora or Parasite would be like.

6. A24 Nabs The Goblin from Celebrated Short Filmmaker - David Mikalson is best known for a pair of provocatively filthy shorts that played Fantastic Fest and became Vimeo Staff Picks. But now, Deadline reports that his latest script spread through Hollywood like wildfire, and, after spending all his money on an “anatomically correct” puppet version of the main character for his planned microbudget production, A24 will now jump in and fund the film at a “significantly increased budget”.

7. The Short Films of James Gunn - It is well-known that the Superman director started his career working with the legendary B-movie outfit, Troma. But much of his work from this period is not well-known. Robert Lang dug into this period to unearth the shorts and webseries of Gunn’s early filmography.

8. Moovalley Raises Fresh Round From Major Entertainment Investors - The company, which distinguishes itself in AI video by training only on licensed data, debuted its "Marey” model to the public last week (detailed in our last newsletter) and now announces that it has raised $84M in capital from investors that include Comcast and CAA.

9. Cannes LIONS Cheating Scandal - We highlighted Cannes LIONS last month in an uncomplicatedly positive way, so it’s only right to point to this new exposé. Ad Age shines a light on the rampant cheating, graft, and bribery behind the scenes at the event as companies jockey for awards.

10. A Hollywood Syllabus from The Black List Founder - We’re admirers of Franklin Leonard, whose vision for a true meritocracy in the entertainment industry resonates with our own. He was recently invited to The Ankler’s video series, The Rushfield Lunch, and challenged to share a reading or viewing list he’d assign to Hollywood. Leonard replied with a comprehensive 9-week outline. Check it out.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

🪐 Into the Shortverse

🇮🇷 The Best Short Films from Iran

With one of this week’s S/W featured selections hailing from Iran, we decided it was a good time to celebrate the country’s immense short film tradition by collecting some of our favorite recent Iranian shorts.