It’s been a great year of celebrating all kinds of short films, from the witty and whimsical to the poignant and profound. We’ve seen an awesome turnout at the festival so far and warmly invite you to take the opportunity to check out the remaining sessions if you haven’t done so already. In the Christmas spirit (and to encourage you to head down to the remaining festival sessions!), we thought we’d treat you with three short films from our 2013 programme.
To add value for our audience, we don’t usually accept entries that have been uploaded online. However, the following films were released online after they were accepted and we didn’t have the heart to remove them (although they screened out of competition) – you’ll see why. These films will give you a good taste of what Show Me Shorts is about, and provide a good laugh in keeping with the impending silly season.
Mud Crab
Dir: Igor Coric & Sheldon Lieberman
If we had an Award for the Most Adorable film, I’m pretty sure Mud Crab would take the cake. An animated film about young Spike catching his first ever mud crab, Sheldon Lieberman’s film is a great example of how even the most simple life anecdote can form the perfect foundation for a short film. Mud Crab is adorably heart-warming, offering viewers a slice-of-life peek into Spike and Dadda’s hilarious adventure. Check out this film in our ‘Dad’s Decision’ session.
Flamingo Pride
Dir/Prod/ Writer: Tomer Eshed
Flamingo Pride from Talking Animals on Vimeo.
Flamingo Pride is bold in every sense of the word, from its bright animation to its cleverly executed tale of a heterosexual Flamingo in the midst of an identity crisis. Screening in our ‘Laughing at Ourselves’ session, this German short is brilliantly subversive and hilarious in its ability to continuously shock. A key strength of this film is its impressively detailed animation and, for a film that has no dialogue, it’s this visual element that makes Flamingo Pride a truly rewarding watch.
Noah
Dir/Writer: Patrick Cederberg, Walter Woodman
(NSFW: please note that this film may not be appropriate for work environments or younger audiences due to sexual content)
Raw in performance and poignant in its realness, Noah is the kind of film that just has to be viewed first-hand. Told entirely through the computer screen of a teenage boy, Noah explores the breakdown of a relationship in the digital age. The style of this film is incredibly unique, and it’s captivating to see how accurate the film is in portraying the online behaviour of a teenager, from the obsessive Facebook stalking of an ex to a desperate Google search to impress a new girl. Noah can be seen in our ‘Interface’ session.
And that concludes our Screening Room for 2013! I hope this sneak peek into our programme for the year has encouraged you to head along to our festival because there are plenty more stories to be told! A big thank you to all of the contributors that we’ve had this year, and to all of you readers for continuing to support short films. We look forward to hearing further insights and making more short film discoveries in 2014. See you then!
