Awesome Short Films

Inspired by the 15th-century painting The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello, animator Georges Schwizgebel imagined the movement that played out on the battlefield in the moments leading up to the scene in the original painting. Each frame was hand-painted with acrylics.

(PG-13: Language) Filmmakers Karl Poyzer and Joe Roberts follow up their hilarious sci-fi comedy short Floaters with a sequel about two oblivious pilots discussing their daring, but ill-conceived escape from a high-security space prison. Zach Braff and Joel Fry provide their voices this time.

(Gore) This award-winning short film by KULIK envisions a future where humanoid robots take the place of door-to-door salespeople. But this one homeowner has had enough of the unwanted solicitors, and when an apparent human turns up at his door he must determine if they’re telling the truth. Turn on subtitles.

After a comment about “your kind,” a man thinks he’s being called out for being gay. But it turns out that Anders is being picked on for something completely different that he doesn’t even realize. Writer/Director Victoria Warmerdam’s short film offers a biting social commentary about stereotypes and being treated like an outsider.

Stephen’s 8×6 Workshop created this silly low-budget short film about a man who protects a prehistoric creature who also happens to be a tool from his workshop. But when the baby calipersaurus cries out, its parents aren’t too happy with the situation. We love the TARDIS sound effects. (Thanks, Steph!)

Members of the 2020 graduating class from École des Nouvelles Images created this imaginative CG animated short about two hungry lab rats who get their claws on a hallucinogenic mushroom, and the chaos that ensues in the laboratory after their unintended drug trip.

New York City’s public transit system carries millions of passengers each day, so it’s bound to have its share of items left behind on its seats and platforms. Vicente Cueto’s documentary short film tells the story of lost items and their owners, as told by Sonny Drayton of NYC’s Subways and Buses Lost & Found department.

In this award-winning animated short film, two polar bears are forced into exile as global warming causes them to lose their habitat. As they wash ashore in a more temperate climate, they must adapt to a strange and unwelcoming new world. It’s a poignant commentary on both climate change and anti-immigrant hate.

Those of us who live outside of Africa don’t typically associate the continent with surfing. Lea and Roberto Colombo’s vibrant short film gives us a peek into Africans’ passion for riding the waves with a colorful montage of soothing surf footage juxtaposed with energetic scenes of life on the land.

To celebrate the relaunch of G4, Adam Savage and the crew from Tested created their first short film. The sci-fi film follows two astronauts who discover a mysterious video signal. It’s really less of a story and more of an opportunity for Adam to show off his awesome spacesuit builds.

Everyone knows that people who act like jackasses frequently find themselves the victims in campy horror movies. Writer-director Matthew Luhn’s darkly comedic animated short follows a group of campers who disrespect nature and who get their comeuppance after upsetting a group of seemingly adorable woodland creatures. (Thanks, Rob!)

Freestyle skier Markus Eder takes us on a journey through powdery, icy, and downright daring downhill runs through various Alpine terrain. Watch Eder conquer steep slopes, slick surfaces, and ice caves while pulling awe-inspiring tricks. This epic ski film was captured by Innsbruck’s Legs of Steel over the course of two years.

After struggling to meet the man of her dreams, this woman may have finally found her ideal mate. Anthony DiMieri’s comedic short film pairs its star Alexies Martinez with the Home Depot 12-foot skeleton and his perfect bone structure.

While unable to travel in 2020, Vadim Sherbakov worked on a project closer to home. The filmmaker created this macro video using inks, alcohol, soaps, and household chemicals, resulting in colorful and ethereal moving images. The entire work was shot with a DJI Pocket 2 camera with a macro lens attached.

Geoffroy de Crécy’s haunting short film is composed of a sequence of vignettes, each capturing a stark and lonely place, devoid of life other than humanity’s mechanical inventions. The subtext, of course, is what happened to all of the people and where did they go? Mass alien abduction? Spontaneous combustion?

In 2006, astronauts aboard the ISS fitted a decommissioned Russian spacesuit with a radio transmitter and jettisoned it into orbit. SuitSat-1 eventually re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and is presumed to have burned up. But Josh Tanner and Jade van der Lei’s sci-fi horror short film offers a much creepier take on the suit’s fate.

Fashion design house Burberry celebrates its love of the outdoors, discovering new places, and its FW21 collection with a wild and inventive short film. Using a mix of live-action and VFX trickery, the film places its performers in a surreal world where they can fly through the air like skydivers, but without jumping out of an airplane.

Animation student Adnan Peer Mohamed wanted to make something that would make his audience giggle. We think he succeeded with this short film about a goofy-looking seagull desperate for a snack. When it comes across a hot dog on the ground, things don’t turn out quite as expected.

Anyone who’s woken up bleary-eyed after a night out partying will appreciate this comedic short film by Viktor Hertz. Instead of just stumbling his way back to his bed to sleep it off, our protagonist wakes up in a special hangover clinic for evaluation. We can totally relate to that 12 cheeseburgers thing. Turn subtitles on.

Fernando Livschitz of Black Sheep Films is a master at manipulating reality. Anywhere Can Happen is a series of his vignettes in which vehicles, people, animals, and locations surprise and delight. Reuben and the Dark x AG’s cover of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World perfectly underscores the imagery.

Could you use a vacation? Perhaps a trip to Convergence Station is in order. But when we say “a trip” we mean, like on acid. Andreas Nilsson’s short starts out as a retro travel promo but quickly descends into madness as its true destination is revealed. All aboard!

Santos “Frenchie” Ramos opened his Williamsburg, Brooklyn gym in 1976, and continued to work tirelessly for more than 43 years to keep his dream alive. This short documentary by Mark Cersosimo and Aissa Claveria paints an endearing portrait of the Brooklyn legend and the mark he left on his community.

After a little old lady buys some cookies to snack on at the train station, she finds herself the victim of a snack thief when she sits next to him on a bench. Eduardo Verastegui’s lighthearted animated short film reminds us that not everything is as it may appear at first.

Filmmaker Sam Mason and a talented team of collaborators created this visually spectacular and emotive animated music video for the late Mac Miller’s 2014 collab with Thundercat, Colors and Shapes. The video follows Miller’s dog Ralph as heads on a metaphorical journey through a world filled with characters inspired by the song.

Joseph Fifelski’s science fiction short film tells the story of a mechanic and a humanoid robot who arrives at his barn in search of a fix before she is shut down permanently. While Roy certainly owes a debt to Blade Runner, it also stands on its own as a story about compassion in the face of despair.

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 an alien species.