Sauna Sickness If you told me that Malin Barr had studied the DSM-5-TR before writing her short film Sauna Sickness, I would not bat an eye. Revealing it is based on a past relationship would carry equal weight in terms of its emotional impact. Barr is a master storyteller, regardless of inspiration. The film follows a woman staying at her Read More →
BEFORE YOU Filmmaker Lauren Melinda‘s extraordinary short film BEFORE YOU is an emotional rollercoaster you must ride. The film follows a young couple’s journey in early pregnancy, including their undesired outcome. I am intentionally being vague because BEFORE YOU should be vital viewing. In just under 13 minutes, Melinda taps into the visceral trauma connected to pregnancy. There exists a Read More →
LUCID Directors Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall‘s 2022 short film LUCID gets the feature treatment, and Fanatsia 2025 audiences are its first test subjects. The film follows Mia, a misunderstood art student who delivers more performance art than quality visual art. She’s stressed and overly dramatic, but that’s pretty much a requirement for us artsy folk. At risk of being Read More →
PORELESS Filmmaker Harris Doran delivers Tribeca 2025 audiences a laugh-out-loud short about embracing authenticity and finding your place in this messy but beautiful world. In PORELESS, a fabulous, queer beauty entrepreneur is selected as a finalist in a Shark Tank-style competition to be part of an elite global brand. A last-minute allergic reaction threatens to end his career before it Read More →
THE MOOGAI Filmmaker Jon Bell delivers a horrific manifestation of unresolved cultural trauma in THE MOOGAI. The film opens in 1970. Aboriginal children have been forcibly removed from their families and adopted into white families for decades. Present day, Sarah Bishop eschews her cultural roots. Once a stolen child, a fact she vehemently denies, the difficult birth of her second Read More →
OUT FOR DELIVERY Joanna finds out that chemo is no longer working. Her doctor offers her a Death With Dignity option. They can mail her medication to end her life, but she must make arrangements for her body to be picked up. When the package gets delayed, all her plans go haywire. Death and comedy don’t usually go hand-in-hand, but Read More →
BAGGAGE Lucy Davidson‘s SXSW 2025 short film BAGGAGE sticks the landing. The film follows the journey of a suitcase from weigh-in through security and all the mental stress that comes with it. Visually, BAGGAGE is a detailed delight. Kid-friendly black-and-white stop-motion characters make for a universally meaningful watch. The story perfectly mirrors the uncomfortable experience of going through security as Read More →
WHITCH Filmmaker Hoku Uchiyama delivers the magic with SXSW 2025 short horror comedy WHITCH. A mother named Aura reads her young daughter a bedtime story, then finally takes a breath from her long day. Suddenly, a mysterious woman appears in her house, encouraging her to make haste. With five minutes until midnight, the woman begins a ritual in the living Read More →
TIGER Tragedy follows a family of creatives. Dana Tiger‘s artist father was the creator of the t-shirt brand Tiger. After his untimely death, her mother pushed his art into the homes of millions in the 80s. The entire family begins silkscreening orders to JCPenney day and night. When the youngest sibling, Chris, unexpectedly passes the same way, the business halts, Read More →
ONE REHEARSES, THE OTHER DOESN’T An extraordinary cinematic memoir where truth and fiction obliterate boundaries, Jessica Hankey‘s short, “ONE REHEARSES, THE OTHER DOESN’T,” rocked Slamdance 2025. Part confessional and all raw emotions, ONE REHEARSES jarring nature is exhilarating. Marjorie Annapav divulges unfiltered intimacy, from her time as a sex worker in the 70s to witnessing a murder. Her life is Read More →
AZI Montana Mann‘s Sundance 2025 short film AZI is an intriguing cat-and-mouse game of power. A weekend trip away takes an odd but intriguing turn when a challenge presents itself. Seemingly harmless fun turns into something (perhaps) more sinister in a matter of hours. The dynamic between 17-year-old Azi and her best friend’s father’s new girlfriend moves from passive-aggressive to Read More →
DEATH EDUCATION 死亡教育课 WORLD PREMIERE Yuxuan Ethan Wu‘s Sundance 2025 short DEATH EDUCATION has no soundtrack. Wu’s cinematography and Tairui Zhu‘s location sound set the tone for the entire film. This pensive piece opens in quiet stillness, then transitions into jarring images of things the public never sees — a sterile metal morgue of a funeral home and the cremation Read More →
B!tch I’m Early In under six minutes, DWF NY 2024 audience winner B!tch I’m Early (B.I.E.) manages to be quintessentially New York and entirely universal in climbing the corporate ladder as a woman. This generational battle of two women, who are more alike than they realize, pit themselves against each other for an office promotion. Quite literally racing to the Read More →
CANCHAS From the moment it begins, DWF NY 2024 short film CANCHAS perfectly captures the chaos, fear, and unresolved trauma of COVID-19. The story follows a dermatologist who has become a vital frontline worker. The intimate hand camera work immerses the audience in those new and meticulous routines we created in masking, social distancing, sanitizing, and disinfecting. Watching brings back Read More →
STOMACH IT Peter Klausner‘s Screamfest 2024 short film STOMACH IT highlights the impossible nature of emotionally disconnecting from your job. Jon Lee Richardson holds us captive with a viscerally pained performance as a crime scene cleaner who experiences worsening digestive issues from one job to the next. In the first two minutes, the most skin-crawling aspect of this short is Read More →
FISHTANK Wendi Tang’s stunning new short FISHTANK follows Jules (Tiffany Chu), a Chinese American woman, who has been sober for a year, but can’t stop vomiting goldfish. Things take an unexpected turn when she suddenly meets a fish enthusiast. In Wendi Tang‘s HollyShorts film, FISHTANK, Jules is sober, but now, instead of vomiting from alcohol, she throws up goldfish. When Read More →
THE THAW Filmmakers Sarah Wisner and Sean Temple‘s striking horror folktale has been killing it on the festival circuit, and rightly so. THE THAW tells the story of a family running low on food for the winter months, tasking their daughter to prepare a sleeping tea that would put them into a deep hibernation state. It does not go well. Read More →
DEVOTEE 2024 Hollyshorts Film Festival August 8 – 18, 2024 TCL Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles, CA Logline While up late one night, a precocious boy uncovers his mother’s dark devotion. It’s always a bold choice to bring harm to a child. It is even more audacious to have a child witness something eternally scarring. Filmmaker Richard J. Bosner does both Read More →
Explore the healing power of reconnecting, in Benjamin Verrall’s nostalgic short film, “SHOUTING AT THE SEA,” featuring Harry Michell and Maddie Rice. Read More →
Explore Danielle Baynes’ short film, THE DOG, a striking metaphor for depression, featuring an exceptional performance by Kate Walsh. Read More →
You must be logged in to post a comment.