Hundreds of short films are released on the festival circuit yearly. We review those that spoke most to us here.
Feminism and sex triumph at the same time in Flóra Anna Buda’s big winner of the Cannes, Annecy, and Sarajevo short film prizes.
In his short film debut, Stephen Vuillemin explores parasocial relationships, highlighting the pervasive feeling of surveillance that has become increasingly prevalent in our digital age.
Alice Brygo mixes documentary footage with computer-generated imagery to produce an intriguing, genre-defying admixture of realism and the surreal.
No hollow performances of masculinity to mask the realities of grief in Guillermo García López’s Roma family tale. By exploring insecurities, his coming-of-age story becomes a metaphysical quest for reassurance.
Mohamed Bourouissa visualises the escape of the mind when it is not possible to escape with the body in this compelling short film about everyday racism.
An unapologetic coming-of-age tale, La Perra dives straight into the paradoxes of female desire. A lonely and sometimes hurtful experience.
Two nun-like identical twins go silently through life in an almost unconscious state, portrayed by two elegant actors that patiently wait for their portraits to be drawn.
Elegant and deeply human, Atsushi Hirai’s Oyu is a carefully constructed homecoming haunted by loss.
A gruesome and eerie stop-motion fairytale, aesthetically influenced by the Brothers Grimm
Francesco Sossai builds a queasy claustrophobia in the neo-giallo The Birthday Party.
In an attempt to tell a universal story, Nienke Deutz’s The Miracle arrives only at vagueness.
In exploring humankind’s intimate relationship with artificial intelligence, Inès Sieulle exposes our prejudices and tendencies as a species more than anything else.
In Eglė Davidaviče’s deeply personal film, the exploration of self-acceptance is intrinsically connected with community.
Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel’s striking visual poem proves how our capitalist way of thinking is unfit for human life and its sustainability.
