Awesome Short Films

This experimental short film used artificial intelligence technology to stitch together action footage by the STORROR parkour team. The custom-written software identified similarities in their maneuvers and body positions, then manipulated and overlayed the imagery from various locations they’ve visited around the world.

Spend an evening among the animals through this series of short but impactful vignettes. Scott Wenner’s animated short film does a wonderful job creating a mood and sense of time and place through its sepia-tone color palette and silhouetted imagery.

Filmmakers Ryo Kitabatake and Takuma Sasaki created this experimental short film about the everyday pressures that weigh on all of us. The tentacled mass that tugs at our protagonist is boldly symbolic of the complex and intertwined nature of modern life’s responsibilities. Music and sound design by Max Cooper.

(PG-13: Language) Animator Steve Smith’s hilariously weird short film drops us into a post-apocalyptic world where all that remains are electronically augmented mutants who float around flooded cities collecting garbage that humanity left behind. Can we get a S.L.U.G.Z. feature film now?

Some of our earliest childhood memories involve colorful Fisher-Price toys with big buttons, spinny parts, and other tactile things to play with. This short animation from NYC creative house Bullpen envisions the evolution of these toys as we grow into adulthood, better representing life, from the mundane to the downright dangerous.

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.

(PG-13) After much protesting, a man gives in to peer pressure and snorts cocaine at a cocktail party. But his friends had no idea just how much of a coke fiend the guy was. Ace Norton’s short film goes off the deep end quickly as its protagonist turns into a human vacuum cleaner.

Animator Lazy Square create this fun little 43-second clip which imagines the evolution of a little red sedan from its humble beginnings in 1989 through its retirement and eventual rebirth as something straight out of Doc Brown’s laboratory in Back to the Future.

After humanity has met its end, what will happen to the machines we leave behind? Michael Dockery’s eerie animated short film imagines just that, as robots roam a desolated Earth, left to their own devices, endlessly downloading old information and destroying their own kind as they search for a purpose.

Artist Roman De Giuli created this abstract interpretation of the skies and heavens not by pointing his camera upwards, but down at wet pieces of paper where he manipulated watercolors, inks, and acrylic paints. The darker colors with the sparkles really do look like space.

(Flashing Images) Filmmaker Thomas Blanchard presents a unique perspective on the diverse people, places, and things in New York City. The mix of black and white footage with bright flashes of blue and red breathes added energy into the already lively city. Sébastien Guérive’s music and sound design further enhances the mood.

This short documentary takes us inside of Footsteps Studio, a unique post-production studio in the countryside of Ontario, Canada, where a group of talented foley artists spends their days creating sound effects for movies, TV, and video games. We love how every room in the house has been wired for recording sound.

Water is critical to the survival of almost all living things. This fascinating time-lapse short film by Christian Stangl provides a close-up look at what happens to organics as they run out of moisture. Stangl captured the images using a combination of macro lenses and microscopes. View a selection of stills on Flickr.

Filmmaker Ian Hubert spent the better part of three years creating this short film which drops us into a Blade Runner-esque world. But instead of focusing on the dystopian nature of the place, we see the lighter side of living in such a future. If you want more, support Ian’s ongoing work on Patreon. (Thanks Rob!)

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.

Before we watched this animated short film, we thought Between Two Ferns was the most awkward talk show ever. But Anat Efrati & Yannay Matarasso’s graduation film sure got us feeling more uneasy than Zach Galifianakis ever did within seconds of Dr. Zussman’s mystery guest arriving on stage.

On the surface, Joseph Bennett’s animated short film is just two guys gabbing about nothing while birdwatching. But it turns into a deep existential discussion as the duo starts thinking about their place in the universe and their own mortality. Comedian Joe Pera did a fantastic job with the voice acting too.

Most skateboarders get their start rolling around their neighborhoods, using the sidewalks, streets, curbs, and whatever else they can find in place of half-pipes and vert ramps. Colin Kennedy’s short film pays tribute to skateboarding the suburbs and features cameos by Chad Muska and Rodney Mullen.

This animated short film follows a lonely backpacker as he struggles with changes to his body. As he wanders the world, he encounters a mysterious figure in the walls of a concrete building. An outstanding graduation film by Nicolas Roth, Pirmin Bieri, Luca Struchen, and Aira Joana of the Lucerne School of Art and Design.

Animator and concept artist Euni Cho created this heartfelt and beautifully-illustrated short film about a bunny rabbit living in a city of bears. She keeps to herself and struggles as a street musician until she embraces the strangers around her. The track is Tourniquet by Hem.

Animator Kaspar Jancis’ somber and emotive short film follows the story of an aging Russian Cosmonaut and the struggles of everyday life he experiences in his dying days. As he reaches his final moments, his actions on earth mirror his time in space.

Taehoon Park’s awe-inspiring science fiction short film envisions a universe where machines have replaced by humans. A lone character survives by grafting his body with technology and attempts to escape in a human body he cloned. It’s only a tease of a bigger story, and we’d love to see this evolve into a feature film.

Director Pascal Schelbli, VFX Supervisor Marc Angele, and a team of talented CG artists created this short film which imagines what the world might be like if all of the plastics that make their way into the oceans came to life as sea creatures instead of polluting them like they actually do.

Taika Waititi, Ricky Gervais, Zac Efron, Olivia Munn, Pom Klementieff, Rodrigo Santoro, and Tricia Helfer lent their voices to this animated short film that shines a light on the horrific practice of testing cosmetics on animals. Created for The Humane Society of the United States. Written and directed by Spencer Susser.

This animation follows the story of two people living under the same roof, but one of them is missing their head. When their partner leaves the house to go exploring, the headless one struggles with anxiety about the world they cannot see. We love the minimal line-art style of Ala Nunu Leszynska’s award-winning short film.

(PG-13) With the popularity of murder shows on TV and podcasts, it seems we have quite an obsession with serial killers. David-Jan Bronsgeest and Tim Koomen’s short film follows the tale of a woman who listens to a podcast about a demented murderer who ends up blurring the lines between fiction and reality.