ShortStick

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,

Without Perfection , dir. Vega Moltke-Leth Historically, women have suffered immensely from societal pressure upon them. Each century represented a different degree of expectations, ranging from the necessity of raising children as their sole function to the pursuit of immaculate visual beauty as a means of aesthetic appeal. Therefore, the late-stage capitalism increased the pressure and the beauty patterns, influenced by social media and the urging of advertisement. The goal

The Song of Drifters , dir. Xindi Zhang The Song of Drifters is a poetic and experimental animated documentary that captures the voices and emotions of a generation constantly in motion, of young people who drift between places, unable to settle, yet carrying with them an evolving and sometimes contradictory sense of home. Through the overlapping voices of eight interviewees and an evocative hybrid visual style, the film explores what it means to belong when permanence is el

I Remember, dir. Jane Deng From New York University the 52nd Student Academy Awards winner Jane Deng brings us her documentary film I Remember . On the surface the student short film is a COVID-19 documentary shot largely on ground zero, at the homes and hospitals of the Wuhan population - where the director was “lucky” to have perfect timing; With a masters degree and a new husband in her trunk she traveled from the UK back to China towards the end of 2019. At the time the p

Dad's Not Home, dir. Jan Saczek A birthday notification buzzes on Kuba's phone, but it goes unmentioned. He and his younger brother Bartek stir awake in their bunk bed and begin the familiar routine of the day. This is not a typical household, though. Their father, David, is suffering from some form of dementia, and the boys share the burden of caring for him while also preparing themselves for school. As they cook, dress him, and keep the house in order, the implication is c

This past weekend Josh attended Ottawa International Animation Festival and took in some of the best the animation world has to offer. Here are three shorts that stuck out as some of the best of the bunch! States of Matter , dir. Marvin Hauck An experimental journey unfolds in Marvin Hauck’s enigmatic short film States of Matter, a strata-cut animation, born from the alchemy of wax and paper. The film echoes the mysterious cycle of metamorphosis: molten wax, once fluid and f

Confession , dir. Rebeka Bizubová Documentaries have the formal capacity of emanating truth and reality. Hence, the possibilities are infinite. An example of the limitless power of the medium is Spoved' (Confession) by Rebeka Bizubová. The Slovak director portrays her personal story of a sexual assault that happened a few years ago and still echoes loudly in her mind. The director analyzes her personal pain in two different scenarios: confessing to her best friend and confess

In ‘ A Sparrow's Song ’ we follow an elderly widow who finds herself in the harrowing throes of the struggles of World War II. She is serving as an air raid warden in a busy shelter, with daily occurrences of air raid alarms slowly wearing down her hope of returning to a normal life. Already struggling to overcome the grief of losing her partner, she is forced to witness the suffering of the people and children around her as they all scurry to take shelter together. One morni

flower_gan , dir. Mati Granica “The work that you are seeing is perfectly legal—but should it be?” The unconventionally inventive short film flower_gan stands at the crossroads of creativity and technology, confronting head-on the future of filmmaking with both curiosity and critique. It challenges the promises of AI-driven creation where speed and scale threaten to dissolve the human touch and asks what is lost when art becomes data. In a landscape rushing toward automatio