ShortStick

The Last People of Petra, dir. Lara Dihmis The third and final 2026 Student Academy Award winner in the documentary category is Lara Dihmis for her film The Last People of Petra. Lara is the 13th student coming out of the NYU News & Documentary program to be recognised for the prestigious Academy Award. The film sheds light on the B'doul (also spelled Bedul / Bdoul) tribe who traditionally live in and around the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan. Following the World He

La Pichenotte, dir. Antoine Boulanger In your last moments on earth, when the Angel of Death arrives at your door, a flick of his finger usually ends your suffering and carries you peacefully to the afterlife. But what happens if that flick doesn’t work? This is the premise of Antoine Boulanger’s film La Pichenotte, a finalist for the Student Academy Awards. Boulanger, a Québécois filmmaker, developed the project during his time at Concordia University. It premiered at Quebec

Gauze, dirs. Noran Fikri Alezabi, Nicholas Arujah, Yulin Yue, Xinyue MA, Xiaonan Zhou Continuing the impressive streak of Student Academy Awards finalists coming out of Gobelins in Paris - joining the ranks of The Shyness of Trees (bronze 2025), El Ombligo de la Luna (finalist 2024), Goodbye Jérôme! (finalist 2022), The Tree (finalist 2020) and The Ostrich Politic (finalist 2019) - is the animated short Gauze directed by Noran Fikri Alezabi, Nicholas Arujah, Xinyue Ma, Yulin

I Want to Live, dir. Jason Elliott The second Student Academy Award winner for Best Documentary in our series is Jason Elliott's I Want to Live from the National Film and Television School. The short narrates the history of Mallory Smith, a girl who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 3. The medicine regiment she is put on is relentless. Every day she receives countless amounts of pills, goes through lung exercises, and undergoes antibiotic treatments. Throughout

Kamathipura Express, dir. Leon Korzyński “Do you ever think of going back home?” When Leon Korzyński first arrived in Mumbai, he was only ten years old. The city made such a lasting impression on him that, even then, he could imagine himself returning one day to make a film there. Years later, while studying Directing at the Warsaw Film School, he turned that childhood idea into reality. Working with an international crew, he created Kamathipura Express, an unusually acc

The Panic Inside, dir. Matthias Strasser Toxic people pleasing has a way of sneaking up on you. It starts as a desire to be helpful, to keep the peace, or to avoid disappointing anyone. Over time, though, you stretch yourself thin. You ignore your own needs until the pressure finally cracks open. The Panic Inside from director Matthias Strasser, one of this year’s Student Academy Award winners for Best Animated Film, channels that struggle into an emotionally powerful and vis

Artificial Love, dir. Arjun Fischer Artificial intelligence has become a central part of the debate in society. Across multiple spheres, there are different approaches to AI, and it is a complex issue. One of the Student Academy Award winners for Best Documentary explores romance in the age of AI. Arjun Fischer's Artificial Love, from the University of Southern California (USC), explores a new form of relationship. Patrick, a middle-aged man, falls in love with an AI - he nam

Volklore, dir. Viktorie Štěpánová Czech filmmaker Viktorie Štěpánová’s Volklore has won a Student Academy Award in the Alternative/Experimental category, making it the first Czech film ever to receive the honour. Štěpánová, a graduate of Prague’s FAMU film school, turns to the country’s rich traditions and folklore and gives them a distinctly Gen Z makeover. The result is a riotously playful, visually inventive film that asks a surprisingly serious question: what happens to

COWS, dirs. Nicolás Acevedo Ferraté, Valentin Brachet, Maxence Corriette, Tanguy Delepine, Eireen Failly, Jonathan Lally, Elio Molinaro, Yulia Nikitina, Alexandre Verspuce First out in our coverage for the 2026 Student Academy Awards is the animation finalist COWS. Coming out of the École Supérieure de Métiers Artistique (ESMA) in France, it marks the first time the school has made it into the the winners circle. Originating from the 2025 class in 3D Animation and Visual Effe

Hollyshorts has become one of the most influential film festivals in the short film circuit. This is especially evident in their award ceremony in which many nominees and winners move on to the Oscar shortlists. Congrats to Oscar-qualifying winners Vultures (which we previously reviewed in our Tribeca roundups), With Tapes and Toasts in the Car and Pale Sun (which were both featured in our Early Oscar contenders article/podcast) and The Time my Grandma Was Held Hostage by Ban

Our coverage of Hollyshorts continues with three more reviews, as Robin talks about Life Goes On, Pedro reviews Chop Cheese and guest reviewer Jeff writes on Eructation. Eructation, dir. Victoria Trow “You gotta take what talent you’re given and try to foster it. Make it as good as you can.” For Kaylee, that talent is burping. Victoria Trow’s short documentary Eructation profiles a woman preparing to break the world record for loudest female burp. The film takes the form of

Hollyshorts Film Festival is consistently a highlight of the summer as it brings the very best short films together into one glamourous and glorious festival. We continue our coverage with three short films that have really caught our eye so far. See below to see some highlights from the fest: Little Bug, dir. Matt Branston Humans have too often exploited animals in attempts to “progress” society. Whether it's to test medicine, cosmetics or other consumer goods, I think most

We are kicking off our 2026 Hollyshorts coverage with a bang as Pedro reviews the provocative and thrilling The Intimacy Coordinator. The word is in, The Intimacy Coordinator is brilliant and deliciously engaging. Pedro also sits down with director/actress Louisa Connolly-Burnham as they discuss the tonal transition from Sister Wives to The Intimacy Coordinators, how the visuals were shot, sexuality in film and Intimacy Coordinators as a profession. Head to Spotify or listen

The always spectacular and relevant Indyshorts festival has ended and award winners have been announced. The timely and emotionally resonant La Barrière took home the Narrative Short Grand Prize while vibrant and exquisitely crafted 9 Million Colors won Best Animated Short Grand Prize. One of our guest-writers Kylie Corcoran was especially impressed with Documentary Short Grand Prize winner Stalin Boys and wrote up a review for the site. See her thoughts below. Stalin Boys, d

The 32nd rendition of Palm Springs International Short Film Festival (ShortFest) is now behind us, and with it we get no less than five short films which are now qualified for submission to the Academy Awards. With their broad programming of over 300 short films it can feel daunting to tackle a catalogue of this magnitude, but that also comes with the benefit of screening something for everyone and we saw a lot of familiar names and titles among the various blocks of the fest

In part 3 of our Palm Springs International Shortfest coverage we review 3 more short films in The Tuners, Equal Dust and Hand. Check out what we had to say below! Hand, dir. Jennifer Winterbotham Jennifer Winterbotham brings us the horror comedy Hand, which starts us off with Amber (Sharlene Cruz) getting woken up in the middle of the night by a call from her boyfriend Justin (Dario Vazquez). While sparse on the details, it is apparent from sniffles and body languages alone

Palm Springs International Shortfest always brings the heat with it's diverse array of short films. Here are another three reviews of short films that have really stuck out to us so far in Imago, The Liars and Everything Must Go. Imago, dir. Ariel Zengotita In Imago, a woman’s birthday takes a turn for the worse when her mother calls, demanding that her daughter come and tend to her needs. Ana’s (Didi Romero) best birthday party since childhood is followed up by an infuriatin

Next up on our festival tour of covering the very best at fests, we have the 32nd Palm Springs International Shortfest. Palm Springs always programs an incredible fest with an extensive lineup. There is truly something for everyone, stretching through all genres including comedy, horror and drama. In Part 1 Josh and Robin review 3 of their favourites seen so far. Loynes, dir. Dorian Jespers Since its premiere in Director’s Fortnight at Cannes 2025, the uncategorizable Loynes

For the third year we are back with our annual Tribeca Exit Survey! You can check out our previous additions here and here. We take pride in watching every single short at the fest and the four of us are here to share what stood out to us in several categories. Thank you to Tribeca and the programmers for another incredible festival. We can't wait to see what jouney these shorts set off on. 1) As always we will start things off with Live Action. What was your favourite live a

In Part 2 of our Tribeca coverage we continue to make our way through watching the shorts and selecting our favourites to talk about. See which two live action short and documentary shorts caught our eye as well as our interview with Director of Fabric, Frank Sun below. Fabric, dir. Frank Sun At last year's Tribeca Film Festival, Frank Sun presented We Are Kings, his highly personal short about an Asian boy obsessed with DVDs and films. Through the lens of nostalgia, the dire