ONLY THE BEST SHORT FILMS
Film Of The Week: WOW
WOW by Chic & Artistic (2016) (France) (5m) *
With the winners of the last competition now on their own page, here's a look back a previous competition film. The dialogue-free WOW is a palindromic film; meaning that it is the same backwards as it is forwards. This is an interesting conceit in a short film, for when certain scenes are played backwards, their meanings appears to be reversed too. So in a love story, a beginning becomes an ending, a connection becomes a separation. The film stars two French models: lingerie model Charlene Perillat and Kevin Drelon.
Salam by Claire Fowler (2018) (USA) (14m)
Salam was supported by the Shore Scripts Short Film Fund and was selected for some of the best film festivals in the UK and USA. It takes place over the course of one night and tells the story of the eponymous Salam, a Palastinian working as a Lyft (like Uber) driver in New York. She hears a family member has been injured in a bombing just before she picks up an American woman who appears to be running away from an abusive partner. The two women make a strange connection before Salam finally hears news from home.
Caroline by Logan George & Celine Held (2018) (USA) (11m)
Caroline is very - and I mean very - reminiscent of Andrea Arnold's 2003 Oscar winning short film Wasp. That is not to say that Caroline is not a very accomplished film with wonderful acting - especially from its young lead - in its own right. Caroline is set in North America and tells the story of a single mother with an interview but no-one to look after her three young children, the eldest of which is called Caroline. She has little choice but to leave them in the car while she goes inside for the interview but concerned passers-by soon get involved.
Autumn Leaves by Saman Hosseinpuor (2015) (Iran) (4m) *
Written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Saman Hosseinpuor, Autumn Leaves was voted Best Short Short in the 10th FILMSshort competition. It tells the story of a little girl who wants to stay at home and play with a fallen leaf but must go to school instead. We follow her as she makes her way through the streets until she arrives at school, where leaves are no longer a source of amusement. It is a subtle, dialogue-free film full of beautiful shots and showing a side of Iran not normally seen by Westerners.
Your Eyes, Will I Ever by Félicien Colmet Daâge ('18) (France) (4m)
Your Eyes, Will I Ever has won the Best Animated Short Film award in the FILMSshort competiton. Directed by Paris-based animator Félicien Colmet Daâge for the titular song by four-person French band, Krill. It focuses on a couple who live a cocooned life in the middle of a desert populated by massive butterflies. The woman in the couple is captivated by the huge insects and the man soon finds her in a literal cocoon as she begins her metamorphosis.
The Moon Fall Unconscious by Nico Scheepers (2017) (SA) (23m)
The winner of the GRAND PRIZE is The Moon Falls Unconscious (Die Maan Val Bewusteloos), a beautifully made fantasy short film from South Africa. Made in Afrikaans (a language derived from Dutch), it tells the story of the young Mia, who lives with her caring but ageing grandparents and wants to learn where she came from. All she knows are the fairytales that her grandparents have told her. But what really happened to the rest of her family?
Not The End Of The World by Jack Bennett (2017) (UK) (8m)
Not The End Of The World is a comic, coming-of-age animation about a naive teenage boy's first romantic encounter with the opposite sex. Joe has never had a girlfriend, but that is all about to change: he receives a note from Hot Molly and is convinced that it is the start of a beautiful relationship. How long will this love affair last and why has Hot Molly turned her attention on Joe in the first place?
Albatross Soup by Winnie Cheung (2018) (USA) (6m)
Albatross Soup was nominated at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It takes its audio from a group of Americans trying to work out the answer to this riddle: "a man walks off a boat. He walks into a restaurant, orders the albatross soup. He takes one bite, pulls out a gun and kills himself." The psychedelic images visualise their thought processes as they attempt to solve it, guided by the man who has set the question. However, it seems to take them an inordinate amount of time to work out that the ingredient in the soup is of some import.
Backseat Driver by Rich Peppiatt (2018) (UK) (8m)
Winner of the BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD, Backseat Driver is a very well-made short that takes place over the course of an early morning drive into the City of London. But the chauffeur does not intend to drive the banker to his work place quietly. Instead, the banker becomes the target of the chauffer's fury. It seems the increasingly angry chauffer is keen to vent his rage over how the bankers live in a vacuous, gilded tower. But there seems to be something a little odd about their relationship.
Speed Dating by Isaac Feder (2007) (USA) (8m)
A look back at a previous competition winner. Speed Dating is a brilliant romantic comedy about Greg, who has recently broken up with his girlfriend, trying out speed dating. He is confronted with a series of comically incompatible women until he meets one woman who is different from the rest and keen to have an honest conversation with him. Is this the girl for which Greg is waiting? With a great script and wonderful acting, short films don't come much better than Speed Dating.
Lunch Time by Alizera Ghasemi (2017) (Iran) (16m) 
Lunch Time was in competition at Cannes. It tells the story of a 15-year-old girl who has been sent to identify her mother's body in the hospital morgue, but discovers that she has to be accompanied by a guardian in order to do so. She claims that, with her father in rehab, there is no-one else in her family who could identify the body but the hospital staff are suspicious of where she got her black eye. Will they let her in and is she telling the whole truth?
Mother's Call by Mayank Satapathy (2018) (India) (6m)
Mother's Call won the BEST INDIAN SHORT FILM AWARD in the 14th FILMSshort Competition. In this Hindi thriller short, a doctor is threatening to expose the politicians that caused the death of numerous children in a hospital, so the politicians order a 17-year-old boy to assassinate the doctor’s sister as a warning. But the boy is not a cold-blooded killer and it is his mother who must help him escape his situation.
