ShortStick

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

Tribeca will always hold a special place in our heart here at ShortStick. It was the first festival we ever covered back in 2023, which now marks our 4th year of ShortStick and covering the fest. We kick off our coverage with reviews of four of our favourite shorts we have seen so far. Check below to see our thoughts as well as our interview with Lily Weisberg and Michael Bloom of Rare Birds. Rare Birds, dir. Lily Weisberg Rare Birds sets an immediate tone. The warm crackle o

After taking a bit of a break over the past few months to reset, we are thrilled to be back for the 2026 festival season. We have an exciting slate of festival coverage planned for this Spring/Summer and there is no better way to start it off than talking about our favourite documentary shorts seen at Hot Docs. Brandon and Pedro are joined by guest writer Jeff Bulmer to shoutout some of the best shorts we saw throughout the week. A Quiet Storm, dir. Benjamin Nicolas In A Quie

This past month Robin had a blast attending the 2025 London Film Festival and is reporting back with several of his favourite shorts he saw at the fest. In Part 2 below he reviews The Big Bad Wolf, Forgotten Routes and Another Other. The Big Bad Wolf, dir. Leo Wright Stop motion filmmaker Leo Wright, through the world famous Aardman Animation Studios, brings us the BAFTA qualifying The Big Bad Wolf . The film cleverly riffs on what is perhaps the most famous kids fairy tale o

This past month Robin had a blast attending the 2025 London Film Festival and is reporting back with several of his favourite shorts he saw at the fest. In Part 1 below he reviews Elephant Families, Cardboard, End of Play and happiness. Elephant Families, dir. Elena Escalante The former part of the title stems from the south London area of Elephant and Castle, a district which houses a community of people with roots from a mix of Latin American cultures who have come together

The Fisherman , dir. Calvin Brown From the opening moments of The Fisherman , a portentous bible quote from the book of Job in an old-timey font over a screen of ominous static, it is clear that this is not the usual animated film: no cutesy anthropomorphic animals will be learning the power of friendship here. The Rankin and Bass-styled characters belie the dramatic hardships and evangelical yearning that is about to overcome this animated world as a devout fisherman has his

As the end of the year and the Oscars draw near, we have a few more festivals we are honoured to be covering, including the always stellar AFI FEST! The programmers have curated several thoughtful blocks spanning animation, narrative and documentary containing some of the best short films of the year, including Oscar hopefuls previously covered here in Snow Bear, The Singers and Shanti Rides Shotgun as well as other favourites of ours like Nervous Energy and Pavilhão. Robin,