ONLY THE BEST SHORT FILMS
Grand Prize Winner: Your Eyes, Will I Ever
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.
The Last Supper by Alicia MacDonald (2017) (UK) (3m)
It is 33 AD and Jesus Christ has just eaten the Last Supper with his twelve disciples. Knowing that Jesus is going to be crucified the next day, two of these disciples grab the chance to pitch some PR ideas to "J-Dog" before it's too late. Very modern materialists, they see marketing opporutnities where others might see the death of the Messiah. Alicia MacDonald went on to direct three episodes of the comedy Pure for Channel 4.
Balcony by Toby Fell-Holden (2015) (USA) (17m)
It was supported by Film London's London Calling Plus scheme for BAME filmmakers, and tells the story of Tina, a teenage girl growing up in a deprived neighbourhood rife with racial tension. Tina falls for a recent immigrant girl but, although the girl - who is a victim of prejudice and shame within the community - welcomes Tina's friendship, she may not be interested in a relationship. What will happen when Tina tries to kiss her and is Tina a reliable narrator?
Winter Hill by Lee Gray (2018) (UK) (15m)
Having fallen ill with ME/CFS when she was only 13-years-old, Melanie missed out on all the normal rights-of-passage, such as boyfriends and school exams. Instead, she grew up in an isolated world where she was often judged by a lack of an obvious illness: her diagnosis of ME/CFS was misunderstood time and time again. "People are visual beasts..." as she says in her honest narration about a disease that challenges sufferers both physically and emotionally.
