Awesome Short Films

Fast forward in time to a strange and exotic place filled with all kinds of animals. But all is not what it seems on the surface of animator Louis Morton’s award winning short film, which offers a unique aesthetic and an inventive science fiction story about the future of life.

(Gore) Joe and Lloyd Stas’ horrific short film fully embraces the grindhouse genre, as a man visiting a countryside pub finds a mysterious letter in his coat pocket, and then all hell breaks loose when he reads its contents. This is definitely not one for the kiddies or the faint of heart.

Filmmaker and musician Tyler Russo presents a depressing reminder of the more mundane and repetitive nature of life in this vocoder saturated video clip he created for Adult Swim. If nothing else, it’ll provide some motivation for you to change things up. Listen to the full song here.

Filmmaker Conner Griffith is a master of tying together sound and motion. In this clip, he takes us on a speedy ride along California’s Interstate 5, precisely edited to the tune of Richard Tee’s rousing piano version of Take the A-Train.

Created by Tobias James and Derek Man of Marble, this darkly comic short film is a modern day take on the tale of King Midas. It tells the tale of two men who stumble across a magical washing machine that can turn anything into gold. But things go rapidly downhill as greed gets the better of them.

(PG-13: Language) Travis Bible’s horror short satirizes obnoxious online personalities and their chatty followers, as “soon to be top five” vlogger Chad Ryan pays a visit to a cabin where a massacre took place. But he finds himself in a bit too deep as he livestreams his experience to millions of followers.

Artist Mike Pelletier’s experimental short film is an incredibly trippy visual created by tossing together a bunch of digital human models, removing their skeletal structures, and then dipping them in virtual paint. If it sounds weird, that’s because it is. We can’t help but think of the part of Terminator 2 where the T-1000 melts.

Sean McKenna’s short film is a low-fi science fiction piece about a child’s drawing that makes its way into a time capsule, and is eventually discovered by aliens after the fall of civilization. Narrated beautifully by actor Julian Barratt, it’s a showcase of how storytelling and creativity matter far more than budget.

Maria Constanza Ferreira created this short using screen grabs from Google Street View. By setting the perspective to a fixed view, it creates the illusion of an impossibly long road. As the film progresses, it uses digital manipulation to turn satellite images into abstract art.

A man with a fear of just about everything decides to test his luck at exposure therapy, facing his numerous phobias by moving in with all of them under one roof. A wonderfully fun animated short film from Bali Engel and Matthieu Landour of Bat Collective.

Bloom Pictures and director Illogic’s (Garden Party) amazing and energetic animated short film will fill your ears with music, your brain with wonder, and your heart with glee, as we learn what forest animals do when nobody is around to hear them. Watch the making of video here.

Two people visit a museum to learn about the history of humanity, and themselves become subjects of a future museum. Kirsten Lepore’s lighthearted animated short offers a hopeful view for the evolution of our planet. Produced in collaboration with Belvedere Vodka + Janelle Monae for their Beautiful Future campaign.

This amazing 2005 short film from Studio Smack illuminates the rampant commercialism of the world around us, illustrating the universe as a starck white-on-black place in which all we see are logos and typography, and the rest of the world fades away.

(PG-13: Language, Gore) This short film by Ruairi Robinson (Blinky) introduces us to a man struggling with depression and other disturbing symptoms. His doctor prescribes some off-market meds which replace one problem with another. Do the pills reveal the true nature of the world, or do they just enhance his psychosis?

The title of Nicolas Bailleul’s stunning short film translates roughly to “Even a road of thousand miles begins with a single step,” and does a great job capturing the flavor of Japanese life as it moves deftly between the incredibly varied worlds of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Koyasan.

In Julien Leconte’s wonderfully animated short film, a man plays fetch with his pet, when all of a sudden his companion vanishes from sight. As he heads off to find his pal, he stumbles across a mysterious and imposing creature.

This fun stop-motion film from Paul Greer’s Vanguard Pictures follows a battle between two mysterious helmeted opponents chasing each other on some wild vehicles, and promises plenty of crashes, flying machines, and action from start to finish.

Most couples have a few silly words that are uniquely theirs. But Bill and Tonya Martin decided to create a complete language of their own that nobody else knows how to speak, called Martinese. Sam Davis and Rayka Zehtabchi’s documentary is at its heart a bittersweet story about parents finding their way after the kids fly the coop.

Morgan of Seed Animation Studio gives us all the finger… actually lots of them, in this strange and hypnotic short film which turns human digits into some really unusual mechanical contraptions. At a certain point, they all started looking like hot dogs to us.

It’s a story that plays out like the opposite of Sausage Party. A donut is oddly desperate to be eaten by his human friend in this strange and silly animation by MegaComputeur. The title of the short translates to “Sweet Pleasure” in English.

This short film from Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow takes place between the end of Fallen Kingdom and its upcoming sequel, due out in 2021. As dinosaurs now roam the earth, a family finds themselves face-to-face with a pack of genetically-engineered prehistoric monsters who invade their campsite.

Visual artist Kevin McGloughlin teamed up with with musician Max Cooper for this mindbending audio-visual collaboration. Reminiscent of the work of the great Philip Glass, Cooper’s repetitive and driving sounds are reflected in surreal scenes which were digitally copied, tweaked, and pasted to repeat endlessly.

Filmmaker Gioacchino Petronicce’s abstract short film is as much a feast for the ears as it is for the eyes. It takes on the hefty subject of humankind’s impact on the world, exploring our feats and foibles, and contrasting them against images and sounds of nature. Turn up the volume for maximum impact.

A husband and wife go to a high-tech “fantasy suite” to spice up their love life, but all is not how it appears in this Einat Tubi and David Gidali’s dark science fiction short that uses deepfake technology to power its potent social commentary.

The typically informative Kurzgesagt takes a break from fact to present a work of animated fiction. Based on an original short story by Andy Weir, The Egg is a hopeful tale of what might happen after we leave our bodies behind, and how we are all interconnected in a way.

In Christopher Weekes bittersweet short film, humans and monsters live alongside each other, but they’re treated like outsiders and freaks. The film’s protagonist struggles with her desire to fit in, but in the end, it delivers a hopeful message about embracing our true selves. Oh, and that’s Rose Byrne as Martha.