Awesome Short Films

(PG-13 language) Mascha Halberstad’s stop-motion animated short pokes fun at the overdone style of big budget Hollywood trailers, though in this case, there’s a slight mismatch between the hyperbole and the hero of the film.

“The character’s pain is your pain.” An aspiring actor is struggling to break into the industry. But he is appreciated in his side gig, where he acts as a patient to medical students. A brilliant kafkaesque short film.

(PG-13 language) A talented composer is hounded by a phantom marching band after his beloved wife’s death. Matthew Goldenberg and Michael Slavens’ short is a vivid expression of inner turmoil and the loss of a loved one.

Photographer and cinematographer Beno Saradzic made this haunting short film out of several time-lapse sequences shot separately over several months at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Paul Trillo’s quirky short film shows snippets of a smartphone addict’s life from the perspective of his iPhone.  The film was shot and edited entirely on an iPhone using Vimeo’s Cameo app.

The cinematic trailer for an upcoming expansion of the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic is an ominous short film about the Emperor of the Eternal Empire and his twin sons. Knights of the Fallen Empire drops 10/27/15.

For its Robotica series, The New York Times interviewed owners of Aibo, a robotic pet introduced back in 1999. Sony is no longer fixing them, leaving owners attached to their robo-dogs facing the same mortality that faces real pets.

In animator Svilen Dimitrov’s short film, we start out at the end of a man’s life, but we are transported through the events that led up to his demise, as his day plays out in reverse order. We wish we could play it backwards now.

The Legend of Zelda‘s hero Link needs a new shield, but the one he wants is too darn expensive. So the Hero of Time goes off on a money-hunting spree. YouTuber Callegos-Y’s 3D animated short is as funny as it is polished.

A woman patiently assists an elderly mother, who insists on sending a text message to her child even though she barely knows how to use a mobile phone. Stellar acting brings the humor and drama in this simple short film. Also on iTunes.

“If someone you love walks through the door, even if it happens five times a day, you should go totally insane with joy.” A heartbreaking account of Ben Moon’s relationship with his dog Denali, told from the latter’s perspective.

(PG-13 Language) Nope, this is not footage from a video game. Director Claudio Voicu and a group of freerunners wonderfully recreated a time trial stage from the upcoming prequel Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. Behind the scenes here.

A housewife says screw it and moves in to their refrigerator. Yvonne is twice as long as it should be and waters down its point – taking our wives and mothers for granted – but since it’s a Samsung NX1 ad we’ll take what we can get.

In this short film, man perfected androids, but the two races got in a war of extinction. One man is determined to not let himself be the last of his kind. A graduation film by Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg students.

(PG-13 Language) God has decided to speak to mankind through one man, and the Almighty chose… an insurance clerk. Why choose Ike? Why now? What will God say?  All will be revealed in Eli Shapiro’s dark comedy short film.

Simeon Duncombe’s short film features a clever combination of live-action and visual effects as skkateboarder Jack Fagan is subjected to a series of difficult obstacles and trials that he must negotiate before his trick meter runs out.

(PG-13) Foster Huntington’s wonderful short film documents how he and his friends and family built a tree house, a skate bowl and a hot tub in a forest in Skamania County, Washington, and all the fun they had along the way.

Tiny Hamster turns into a cute kaiju after eating green ooze and being struck by lightning. He then goes on to decimate a miniature city partially made of fruits and vegetables in Hello Denizen’s silly short film. Available as a children’s book.

(PG-13 Language) “A dead end. A choice. One could go left, or one could possibly go ri– oh coins! Coins!” The hilarious gamer Jerma985 plays through a short adventure that he himself made using GameGuru.

Ben Steensels and his friends recently went on a whirlwind tour of New Zealand, covering a lot of ground – from lush forests to snowy peaks – in just six days. He captured the overwhelming experience in this wonderfully edited short film.

“…the thing about a photograph, it never lets you forget.” Tom Varisco’s creepy yet relatable short film plays out inside the tortured mind of a man who comes across one of his ex-lover’s old pictures.

LEGO already has a lot of video games, but here’s a fun look at how Portal, Skyrim, BioShock and Counter-Strike might have looked like if LEGO owned them. A well-made short by YouTuber andrewmfilms.

(Gore) Get thee to the chariot! A band of Templars and an unlikely ally are asked to hunt a strange and heartless creature through a foggy forest. Fools. Starring Joel from The Last of Us and Mr. Common Sense.