THE BEST Short Films

Zeppelin Zeerip’s offbeat short film owes more than a bit to the style of Wes Anderson, telling the story of a group of young men who head into the snowy mountains of Idaho in search of an elusive Hermit who escaped from an asylum. It’s an unexpected blend of winter sports action and quirky indie film tropes.

One of the worst parts of childhood is feeling like you don’t fit in. In director Catherine Prowse’s animated short promo for UK children’s charity Childline, they remind us that there is no such thing as “normal” and if we all let our freak flags fly and accepted our differences, the world would be a better place.

Art&Graft envisions a future in which most of the world’s animal and plant species have gone extinct, and science attempts to recreate these lost creatures through a combination of genetic engineering and motion capture. It’s like Jurassic Park, only much, much sillier.

Animator Zohar Dvir’s short film takes us inside the mind of a perplexed millennial who seeks answers to life’s questions. When she turns to her Magic 8 Ball, she ends up pulled deep into a hallucinogenic dream world that starts between her couch cushions.

2001: A Space Odyssey evokes quite the sense of isolation as HAL 9000 picks off the Discovery One’s crew, then Dave Bowman has a quiet, hallucinogenic trip. Filmmaker Lydia Cambron’s dark parody explores the parallels between Kubrick’s universe and the one we’ve been living in since the pandemic started in 2020.

Animator Michael Marczewski presents an exceptionally blocky short film in which e-mails manifest themselves as tiny cubes that walk between computers. As the messages cross back and forth between two co-workers, things go off the rails when objects get in the way and corrupt their communications.

Like many inventions, pharmaceuticals are a double-edged sword. Some have saved and improved millions of lives, while others have caused terrible side-effects and dangerous, deadly addictions. Patrick Smith’s rapidfire short film offers a satirical commentary on our obsession with drugs without saying a word.

As the girls of Camp Heebie Jeebie share their creepy ghost stories, things take a turn and their creations start to come to life. Animator Dylan Chase’s comedic horror short has some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, along with exceptional character design and storytelling.

While on his way to a date with his girlfriend, a man carelessly destroys a mysterious creature’s nest, which then invades his body. But that’s not the worst thing that happens to the guy in this extraordinarily creepy and atmospheric animated short film by Stas Santimov.

It’s October 31, and a deranged serial killer is on the loose. But this horror movie cliche is having a crummy day because it’s 2020, and nobody is out trick-or-treating. Then, he encounters something even more terrifying than he usually scares up. The short that Andrew Kasch created for Just Scare Me is good for a Halloween chuckle.

“Killing two birds with one stone is actually harder than murdering them one after another.” Grant Kolton’s snarky animated short pokes fun at common English idioms like “You can’t judge a book by its cover” and reminds us that they’re not all to be taken as gospel.

Joe Sill’s animated science fiction short envisions a future where a corporation runs a massive network of autonomous vehicles, and those who drive themselves are hunted down as criminals. The proof-of-concept thriller follows a gang of motorcycle couriers who must deliver a mysterious package.

Filmmaker Natalia Mirzoyan’s animated short depicts a brief moment in time at the beach, where people of all ages come to enjoy the sunshine and saltwater. While painting an evocative portrait, the film explores the different ways that people perceive time throughout their lives.

A man has been trapped aboard his own spaceship for years, as his robot guardian insists that not a single planet they’ve visited is habitable. But what’s the real reason he’s not allowed to disembark? Gökalp Gönen’s short film is a thought-provoking and creative work of science fiction with a fantastic style and mood.

Danil Krivoruchko and a group of talented artists around the world collaborated on this fantastic fan film inspired by Peter Watts’ science fiction novel of the same name. It tells just a sliver of the original story from the perspective of a man waking up from cryosleep, as he recalls a first-contact mission with a alien species.

Using narration based on an actual Craigslist “Missed Connections” ad, animator Patrick Dias imagines what actually happened when a man dropped his prosthetic arm while running to catch a train. The captivating voice acting by Tiana Asperjan helps bring depth to the story. We’d love to see a whole series of these.

In this silly and slightly demented animated short from Super Dope, a little girl gets way more than she bargained for when she orders a strawberry cone from her neighborhood ice cream truck. Everything seems to be going wrong in 2020. Does dessert have to get ruined too?

Director James Molle and students from Gobelins animation school take us along for a boy’s journey of discovery, as he struggles with worry and seeks answers from a world occupied by strange, anthropomorphic characters. The low-res pixel animation style and lack of speech compliment the mystique of the short film.

In this silly animated short, a man tries out one of those capsule toys that expands when you add water to it, and gets way more than he bargains for. At least he has a new friend for a little while. Directed and animated by Emma Ehrling for Animade .

This silly animated short pokes fun at a sci-fi trope, as a floating vessel is stopped by the authorities and asked to provide their information. Its creators Karl Poyzer and Joe Roberts did a great job making us laugh with their minimal approach to movement and focus on cheeky dialogue.

A man struggles to get his underwear to dry, but an unexpected rain shower pops up every time he hangs them outside. Why does it rain every time he tries to get his laundry done? Writer/Director Cliona Noonan’s animated short film blends a quirky style and a charming story.

PoChien Chen’s animated short film uses a lighthearted style to paint a devastating picture, as a chef serves up a variety of deadly dishes to his animal customers while his human patrons destroy their habitat and gorge on sushi, oblivious to the harm they’re doing to the planet.

Writer/Director/Choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall’s wonderfully creative short film does a great job capturing the feeling you get when you’re stuck in traffic in a New York City taxi cab, and start to think it might be faster to get out and walk… or dance to your destination.

The spice might be life in Dune, but on this alien’s world, it’s sugar that reigns supreme. This animated short follows the story of an extraterrestrial on a quest to bring the critical condiment back to his home planet in hopes of saving it. Created by Ilya Landshut for HumanArtStudio.

While stuck home during the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to try and vary your days and mix things. up. In Jan Riesenbeck and Dennis Stein-Schomburg’s strange short film, a man explores the importance of breaking out of routines, while his floating head transforms into some of the many thoughts he expresses.

Filmmaker Yiannis Biliris and Visual Suspect offer a trippy new perspective on the world. By digitally manipulating footage of automotive traffic into complex repeating patterns, they visualize “the arteries and veins” of an imagined mega-metropolis.