Ciervo
Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma
10:15 | 2020
A beautifully executed but emotionally haunting portrait of coming of age into a cruel and violent world. Something in the storytelling recalls Lynne Ramsay’s early shorts—an impressively complex mood to strike.
3:45pm
Alisha Liu
2:50 | 2020
Liu uses scale to evoke the main character’s panicked questions over humanity’s cosmic insignificance, but even her zoomed-out views are beautiful, capturing a sort of zen peacefulness even in the manufactured landscapes. Existential anxiety is rarely this pretty.
La Façade
Ollie Magee
2:38 | 2018
Magee’s latest, Nod. Wink. Horse., makes fantastic use of cut-outs, but has been divisive thanks to its central gimmick of hiding its narrative behind a horse (yep). La Façade is playful in a different way, a mix of colourful still life and crude Peter Millard-style illustration.
Aesop Candles
Mattis Dovier
1:37 | 2020
We’re pushing the definition of “indie” here, given that Dovier’s short is essentially a commercial for candles, but how can you watch something this gorgeous and not want to celebrate its artistry?
A Small Antelope Horn
rubberband.
2:17 | 2020
Carlo Rovelli’s books on physics walk a line between science writing and poetry, and hearing his musings on nearly any topic is a treat. Here, rubberband. animates an excerpt from his visit with Northern Tanzania’s Hadza society.
The Lonely Orbit
Frederic Siegel & Benjamin Morard
9:22 | 2019
The story is a sweet one in a sad sort of way, but it’s the colour palette that’s most striking. Told in vivid oranges and blues, it’s a stylish reminder of the thin line between connection and loneliness.
Don’t Know What
Thomas Renoldner
8:18 | 2019
Is it animation? Video editing? Avant-garde cinema? Is it telling a story, or is it experimentation for its own sake? Is it surrealism, dadaism, or something else altogether? The title says it all.
Tides
Mihaela Slabe
4:21 | 2017
Refusing to fall into simple binaries, Mihaela Slabe’s Chris J. Melnychuk scholarship film looks at occasional necessity of giving in to our darker tendencies.
(Also a Monday Short)
Sea
Marharita Tsikhanovich
3:49 | 2017
Another exploration of freedom and loneliness, drawn in restrained black and white. Perspectives and landscapes shift from instant to instant in a story adrift on dreamlike waves.