But for the Twilight blue colour palette, Drew Bierut’s Boring Barry & His Imaginary Friend opens like a rom-com: optimistic radio presenter chirping about the morning, soft dissolves, and fluid camerawork. And then the reality cuts in: Barry, who is tired of it all. Though he—and his imaginary friend—are still comedic.  The 14-minute narrative follows awkward, angry, snippy, miserable Barry (Timothy Taylor) through the thick of his depression induced apathy with no one but his own snarky/supportive head (a quippy Mark Renaudin, also the screenwriter) for company. He hates all his nei ..read more

Melissa Vitello’s The Coven, an 8-minute horror-comedy written by Adriana Natale, is queer, campy, and hilarious. The story of an overenthusiastic roommate who cannot read the room if the written notice thwacked her in the face—is overtaken by the story of her ancient roommates so compellingly, no one remembers the scrapbooks they came for.  Natale plays Frances, a bright, chipper, endearingly obtuse bird, surprisingly at home with a pair of financially broke witches, Hazel (Debba Rofheart) and Driscilla (Danni Vitorino), their carefully cultivated maggots, attack bat, and the neatest wit ..read more

A meet-cute is a scenario in a film, novel, or other storytelling medium where a future romantic couple meets for the first time in a charming, amusing, and memorable way. The term “meet-cute” refers to the circumstances surrounding the initial encounter between the two potential love interests. These circumstances are crafted by the writer to be cute, quirky, awkward, comedic, or otherwise endearing, setting the stage for the characters to develop feelings for each other down the line. Some key aspects of a classic meet-cute moment include: An unusual, comedic, or unique setting/situation th ..read more

La noche dentro, Antonio Cuesta’s 24-minute thriller, is a feat of filmmaking. A sensorily taut narrative following the immediate aftermath of a boy’s death at the hands of a nurse, the film examines guilt with a withering transparency not likely to be forgotten anytime soon.  Belén (an intricate Clare Durant) wakes up after being attacked, and the worst is yet to come. Procedural inquiries trickle into the voiceover that had held only concern and care moments before, the frame widens just as she comes to, and the focus shifts permanently from Belén’s wellbeing to her wrongdoing. A patien ..read more

Cameron Tyler Carr’s 18-minute sci-fi drama Harlem Fragments is not a trip down memory lane. It is an adventure spanning years with the quest to salvage the remains of a life that once looked all but permanent.  Emotionally fraught, and splintered in structure, the film follows 10 year-old TJ’s (Kyle Keyes) attempts to understand what happened to his family in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The family home is lost, the parents (Clarissa Thibeaux and Roderick Lawrence) are breaking up, and his sister (Stella Coviello) is harsher than a lonely and confused boy can comfortably process ..read more

Alexis Evelyn’s My Obsession with Death is a 10-minute comedy that, along with its young adult protagonist, attempts to transcend its defining limits. Though the plot spans a few seconds, the story expands the moment, as thought and memory are wont to do. In them, Ruby finds a new way of being.  Still in her early 20s, Ruby’s (Alison Thornton) obsession has already been part and parcel of her being for well over a decade. As she stands on the edge of a pool—a potential love affair bobbing through the surface of the water like a particularly peppy, pretty buoy—her body language screams ave ..read more

Dustie Carter’s documentary on Lew Blink, Dumpster Archaeology captures its subject’s lighthearted whimsy through its comedic, stylised design—leaving the job of showcasing Blink’s earnestness about his pursuits to him. His excitement is infectious (potentially so is his work, in less fun ways) as Blink dives into dumpster after smelly dumpster in the middle of summer, digging for treasures to carry back home and arrange into pieces of art. His home is a museum of other people’s lives, variously showcased, preserved, reworked, or repurposed. In his own words, his home is 98% populated by thing ..read more

Ksenia Bugrimova’s 23-minute Zerno chronicles a woman’s experiment to find lasting love within an alternate universe that came into the 21st century without quite leaving the last one behind. The best of both worlds, as they say, but here it is also the modestly weird of both worlds. The unnamed woman (a pitch-perfect Olga Grishina) in this wordless, uncrowded, non-romance sci-fi is independent, emotionally available enough to want love, and determined enough to pursue it. Her methods add disturbing to that list of descriptors—and it is not because she grows a man from a seed in her apartment ..read more

Adam Van Dyke’s Paracosm, a ten-minute chamber horror, is nothing if not compact. The plot, of course, but especially its driver: a drug dealer with a doorstep delivery (and pickup) service who says little and does exactly as much as necessary.  The luminescent, futuristic capsule that the shabby Mak (Paige Henderson) buys from her must sell for a lot because this is not your run-of-the-mill backdoor guy in day-old clothes (that would better fit Mak herself). Instead, this silent businesswoman (Nicole Murray) is dressed to impress. It is a little less impressive, even somewhat clumsy when ..read more

Oliver Ward’s Aroma is a 10-minute short set in a modern North London cafe but has the flavour of post-war European cinema (with the barest hint of Fleabag). A man—a comically exacting one where his order is concerned—waits for his date to arrive, a young couple plays scrabble while discussing sexual possibilities, and a tired waitress works a second shift through it all. The three storylines forego grand narratives in favour of casual co-existence to not only make it fit within the runtime but have it be fun, too. Elliptical jump cuts (and a neat stretch of silence) ensure that the awareness ..read more