The lights dim, the orchestra begins, and Pietro, Tommaso and the rest of their class, sit in the lodge, ready to take in Vivaldi’s masterpiece. As Summer plays, they draw nearer and share a kiss. Is it just a fleeting, inconsequential moment,or is it the first time they’ve both experienced intimacy with someone else? This is the question director Lorenzo Tardella explores in Le variabili dipendenti (The Dependent Variables), as his short looks at how both protagonists grasp the moment and deal with its aftermath. “Those glimpses, those goosebumps, everything about that moment ..read more

Guy Kozak’s End Zone is something like a fever dream without the consequence. At the baseline, this is a simple story about a young football player that sustains a head injury, but it’s presented through a surrealistic lens that makes it one of the most inventive shorts we’ve featured in sometime. Everything (production-wise) at work in End Zone creates a delightful disorientation for the viewer, as we plunge into the, presumably, concussed protagonist’s (Player 13’s) dream state. Shot on film, the visuals are beautifully sweaty and dense, with overlays and non-cohesive edits blending togethe ..read more

The process of searching for a job is already stressful enough, but when we finally get a call to schedule an interview, it can cause even more nervousness. Right up until that moment when you finally have to introduce yourself. In Benjamin, Benny, Ben we join the film’s titular protagonist on his way to a job interview, as he stresses over how to introduce himself to his potential employers. Written and directed by Paul Shkordoff, this 7-minute short takes us on an anxiety roller coaster, as we’re immersed in the perspective of a man overcome with worry. We are conditioned to belie ..read more

Sometimes, a disagreement with a stranger evolves into a much more meaningful encounter, where we are forced into a vulnerable position and can only hope for that stranger’s humanity to help out. This is what happens to Audrey, the protagonist of Accident, written and directed by S/W alum Stephanie Ahn (Manicure). Much like her previous film, Accident offers an authentic slice of life that defies expectations. “My goal was to create a bit of the emotional experience of the feature film it’s based on” Accident is actually a proof of concept, Ahn confessed to us. As it originates fr ..read more

In Rinocerante, the fragile balance of a family faces upheaval as Balázs, the son, confronts his father, revealing that he has different aspirations than those that have been forced upon him. Set over three scenes, written and directed by Tamás Lakatos, the short explores both the father/son relationship and the toxicity of the head of the family. Simultaneously captivating and infuriating, how far will Balázs let his father go? “The story was loosely based on Grimm folklore” Over those three scenes, we witness Balázs grow in confidence, inching close ..read more

Storytelling has traditionally explored existential themes, but when it comes to confronting your own mortality, there’s no more direct approach than dissecting your own body on screen. In Patrick Bouchard’s 10-minute short, The Subject, the director takes a scalpel to a life-size version of his body, extracting various items that symbolise his past until he reaches the heart and the weight he has been carrying with him. The Subject begins in a workshop. Not the traditional setting for an autopsy, but then this is no ordinary procedure. A fact that is confirmed shortly after the first incisio ..read more

A sumptuous Covid film? That’s an odd prospect! We have seen many many films that were created under the auspices of lockdown and social isolation (we co-ran a whole curatorial initiative just for them), but the typical film of this type proudly revels in the limited means of their creation—a trend that, along the way, mainstreamed a more rough-hewn visual aesthetic of cameraphones and low bitrate zoom calls. Eron Sheean, featured today on Short of the Week for the second time after 2022’s stellar comedic fantasy The Rock of Ages, takes a different approach—the shared limitations of the perio ..read more

As the eyes of the filmmaking world turned towards the South of France for the Cannes Film Festival this May, it was thrilling to see a director we’ve long supported at S/W receiving high praise at the event. With his latest feature, Flow, described by Indiewire as “one of the most groundbreaking animated films about nature since Bambi”, Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis is once again proving that some of the most exciting filmmakers emerge from the world of short film. With this in mind, May’s coverage saw us showcase truly original work from some of the brightest emerging filmmakers around ..read more

Back in 2015, when discussing a Power Rangers reboot we labelled the fan film as a tremendous vehicle for attracting attention. With the filmmaking industry always looking for new avenues to reinvent existing IP, it’s a claim we stand by almost ten years later. While developments in technology have made it easy to reimagine cinematic universes in new styles (Wes Anderson Star Wars, Pixar Lord of the Rings, etc), fans have been paying homage to these worlds through fan films for years. Whether it’s actor Thomas Jane reprising his role as The Punisher or Morgan Cooper’s rein ..read more

From the isolating impact the internet has had on society to the “inevitability and convenience” of destructive machines, Sean Buckelew has made his cynical view of technology very clear in his filmmaking. Returning to S/W just a year after featuring his last film, Drone, the filmmaker is back with a new tech-focused short, I Am A Robot, a triptych of stories delving into the darkest thoughts of your household smart objects. In his trio of tales exploring the inner workings of autonomous machines, Buckelew introduces us to a foot-loving vacuum cleaner, takes us for a ride with a “self-loving ..read more