Awesome Short Films

We’ve seen a LEGO machine that could make pancakes, so the idea of a brick-built cake bakery isn’t that far-fetched. But Tomosteen made their LEGO cake factory using stop-motion animation. The fanciful facility is run by a team of tiny cats, who surprisingly don’t lap up the batter before it can be baked in the LEGO brick oven.

Digital artist and illustrator Markos Kay created this captivating short film that features surreal and otherworldly life forms that look like nothing we’ve ever seen before. They definitely look organic, though, combining elements of plants and animals. Markos’ Vimeo channel is loaded with many more strange beings.

This award-winning short film takes place at the world’s worst telemarketing outfit – a place where lack of performance is met with severe punishment. Director and writer Sam Rudykoff’s dark comedy might actually have you feeling sympathy for the person on the other end of the line the next time you receive an unsolicited call.

This fantastic short film by Fabrice Mathieu tells the tale of a shadow who finds himself frustrated with the actions of his wearer and decides to do something about it. Told using black-and-white footage from more than 60 films, the story unfolds much like a classic film noir, with plenty of action and intrigue.

Artist DariusTwin has made some amazing stop-motion animations using point sources of light and long exposures. This short vertical video transports us to a magical, rainbow-filled world set to the tune of the classic song Dream (When You’re Feeling Blue).

Sean Buckelew’s animated film explores what might happen if the government combined artificial intelligence and drone technology to enable a war machine that makes “objective, compassionate, and ethical” decisions. While live-streaming a demo of its capabilities, a programming error causes it to rethink its purpose.

This animated short film envisions Earth 100,000 years in the future. After changes in the environment and climate have left the planet ravaged, new lifeforms emerge from the primordial soup, adapting and evolving to thrive in a very different world than we know today. Directed and animated by Wang & Söderström.

ChatGPT and other AI tech have been in the news a lot these days. This fascinating short film from Private Island explores the implications of trusting artificial intelligence to solve problems for us. After tasking ChatGPT with improving diversity in the workplace, we’re exposed to some disturbing biases in the AI’s training data.

Derealisation is a psychological condition that can cause individuals to feel disconnected and distant and may result in a distorted perception of the world around them. This trippy short film by Panoply attempts to capture that sense through a surreal sequence of images that play out in photorealistic environments.

Apple and director Peng Fei celebrate the Chinese Year of the Rabbit with a story about a young man’s love of opera and his dedication to his craft even in the most challenging times. The vibrant take on Through the Five Passes was shot on the iPhone 14 Pro and is a great showcase of its cinematic capabilities.

Bored at home during the 2020 lockdowns Michel + Nico, decided to make a movie with their sons Sacha + Robinson. The result is this wonderful short about kids dreaming up their own action-adventure flick. The title pays tribute to The Goonies and Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner. A must-watch for film buffs.

(PG-13: Language/Gore) After a woman calls an exterminator for an apparent bedbug infestation, things get so much worse. But the bugs aren’t the only irritating thing in her life – a telemarketer is hounding her too. Daniel DelPurgatorio’s gross-out horror-comedy short film is a trip straight to Destination WTF.

Artist Roman De Giuli created this fascinating experimental short film by dropping metallic paints and inks into a fishtank. Using 4-axis motion control and zooming in to 5x magnification, he captured the ethereal imagery. It looks even more impressive if you have a display with HDR support.

AI image generation tech has become incredibly powerful but also raises complex questions about ownership of the data it was trained on and its resulting output. Jordan Clark used AI technology to help write this short film about an artificial intelligence that wants to become famous by creating its own art.

(PG-13: Language/Gore) While running away from a battle, a soldier comes across a smart-mouthed rock that offers him a chance at immortality. But this darkly-humorous fantasy short film from writer/director Eron Sheean proves there’s a price to pay for everything.

Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma’s animated short is one of the most artful things we’ve seen rendered in Unreal Engine 5, and its production design and storytelling are top-notch. It chronicles two sisters, and the evil one of them unleashes when jealousy takes over. Their behind-the-scenes series delves deep into the filmmaking process.

Filmmaker Scott Portingale and composer Gorkem Sen created this engrossing short film using macro and time-lapse photography to explore how fluids move, and chemicals react and change states. Each of its vignettes feels like a journey to a strange new world. Gorkem’s yaybahar perfectly complements the footage.

(PG-13: Language) This science fiction short from filmmaker James Parris starts out with a man having a mid-life meltdown, leading to an argument with his girlfriend. But as the Black Mirror-esque story advances, we learn not all is what it seems between the woman and her troubled companion. (Thanks, Rob!)

(PG-13: Gore) A thousand years from now, civilization has fallen, and chaos rules the wasteland. Fortunately, there’s one way out of the HOT FUTURE – epic dance moves. This bonkers 3-part animated series comes to us courtesy of Mike Anderson and Ryan Dickie for Adult Swim SMALLS.

With the help of AI image generation tech, Corridor created this short fan film in the style of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The crossover imagines that The Avengers (and a whole lot of Spider-Men variants) found their way into the Spider-Verse as a result of the events of Doctor Strange’s actions. Go behind the scenes here.

Vet-owned Black Rifle Coffee Company celebrates Veteran’s Day with a stunt driving film starring sports icon Travis Pastrana and elite rally car and off-road racer “Texas” Dave Carapetyan. “The Final Send” shows ‘em shredding the streets of a small Texas town, Dukes of Hazzard-style in customized Hoonigan vehicles.

(Flashing lights) This fascinating short film from Joel Penner and Anna Sigrithur uses time-lapse footage to reveal how tiny organisms spoil food, others that make it tastier through fermentation, and yet more that compost and break down dead things to fertilize the Earth for new life.

Artist Jake Fried’s latest animated short film takes us on an abstract journey through life and the universe as witnessed in the reflections of our eyes. As is the case with most of Jake’s works, he hand-illustrated each frame using ink and white-out. We can’t imagine how long this took to create.