2025 Palm Springs International ShortFest Review Roundup: Part 1

Summer is here and Palm Springs Shortfest feels like a kickoff to the season. It is the first of several summer fests that help shape the short film season with its gargantuan lineup of 311 films from 64 countries, all curated into 51 stellar programs. With a lineup so diverse no matter what block you end up sitting down for, you are sure to find something you love. Throughout the week we will be picking and choosing several of our favourites from the fest to highlight here. Check out our first four favourites we have seen:

Spaghetti, dir. Charissa Kroeger

The act of watching a movie in a crowded theatre becomes a choreographed ballet of routine socialization in Charissa Kroeger’s uproariously funny and endlessly inventive Spaghetti. Squeezing into a crowded row of movie-watchers, bending over to pick up drink and snack, stretching out before the movie starts, and perking up and sitting straight when the cinema sound booms are all choreographed actions of the huge cast of characters, and watching this enormous group perform subtly elaborate dances as if they are a normal part of their day is a surprisingly thrilling adventure.

Spaghetti’s intricate canvas keeps expanding to include more and more intriguingly unique people, including twin cowgirls, a group of folks with suspiciously elaborate mustaches, a masked luchador wrestler, a lady who is purple for some reason, and a hirsute muscle daddy in an incredibly low-cut SPAGHETTI emblazoned tank top (it’s the titular role!). The packed frames of film, overflowing with people becomes like a filmic Where’s Waldo?, with mountains of details keeping viewer’s eyes darting from side to side, and top to bottom, to take in all the details, not wanting to miss a single devious costume or choreographed movement.

Kroeger has created choreography and creative movement for Lancome, Coach, Miley Cyrus, Zendaya, Valentino, Chanel and Skims, and has crafted cinematic magic as both performing artist and creative for productions led by luminaries such as Paul Thomas Anderson, Nicole Kidman, Harmony Korine and Olivia Wilde, and perhaps most importantly, performed in Francis Ford Coppola’s misunderstood masterpiece, Megalopolis, dancing as one of Vesta Sweetwater’s virgins. Spaghetti is packed with film history itself, with musical and auditory references to everything from Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid to All About Eve, (“fasten your seatbelts its going to be a bumpy” is taken very literally here) to, perhaps most surprisingly, 2022’s Sebastian Stan-starring cannibal thriller Fresh.

Spaghetti’s fascinatingly eclectic costume design is by LA-based fashion designer Momo, known for her wearable sculptures—her forte is luxury handbags, but she makes all kinds of flair from couture costuming to tiny trinkets plush patches, shoe charms, chains, straps, buttons, bedazzles, and bespoke jewelry. All of Momo’s goods are crafted via upcycling, using only second-hand materials to create 100% of her looks. Not only can this lead to a more sustainable film industry, but all of these characters are impeccably dressed in hilarious combinations we’ve never seen before, every frame is a riot of colour, keeping Spaghetti fascinating to look at throughout.

The most relatable part of Spaghetti is that watching the movie sends the crowd into a frenzy, writhing and causing commotion set to the throbbing electronic beats of BYE BYE, from Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon. Then they’re all standing, staring into the distance before, with eyes closed, the theatre flashes empty, sending the theatre goers home to do it again the next night. Spaghetti has already been the recipient of the prestigious Cannes Lion Young Director Award in the category of Video Art, and marks the arrival of a brilliant new talent.

Review by: Joshua Hunt

Shanti Rides Shotgun, dir. Charles Frank

“This wheel is your bitch. You have to learn it.”

These are the wise words of legendary New York City driving instructor Shanti. Maybe it’s universal to remember your driving instructor, maybe it’s not. Being 16 and getting your license is such a formative time in your life, it’s definitely hard to forget the first moments you’re in a car alongside a driving instructor. I had a driving instructor named Jay. Similar to Shanti, he was also the driving instructor for many people I knew. He would call everyone else on the road “your uncle.” 

“Watch out for your uncle just beside you” he would say. Great guy and definitely one of the reasons I passed my driving test in the middle of a snowstorm. 

Shanti isn’t even my driving instructor but she’s such a big personality she’s sure to leave an impression. This documentary starts with a neat shot moving through an intersection. The  sound of honking, construction and sirens sets the mood of driving in a chaotic city like NYC. This short follows Shanti through New York City as she works at Empire State Driving School and teaches many children of the well-to-do families of the city her “Shanti-isms” - like the importance of making a “bitch-ass turn”. The use of September’s “Ostavi Trag” as background music throughout the short is notable. It provides a great vibey contrast and fits perfectly as interlude music with the streets of New York. 

When asked to describe Shanti, Empire State Driving School manager simply says: “[She’s] disrespectful, but in a good way, a funny way.”

I couldn’t agree more. In the chaos of NYC, Shanti is definitely someone you want by your side, riding shotgun. When one of her students asks “What is this guy doing?” while driving, Shanti replies from the passenger seat, “He’s a fucking asshole.” Shanti has no desire to keep things “professional” as she curses at anyone driving poorly around her students and even the “shitty ass road” itself. But that’s precisely what makes her so endearing. She is not only there as a driving instructor, but acts as a friend in the passenger seat as she instructs her student to  “Go to Dunkin” and “get me some coffee before I die.” Shanti’s uncouth methods clearly work as her students over the past 30 years have a 99% pass rate. 

Shanti Rides Shotgun shows that Shanti is more complex than just the hardened, cursing driver instructor you see while she is in the car. As it delves a bit into her personal life, it shows a more sensitive side of her as she discusses her late-husband and what he meant to her. 

Overall, Shanti Rides Shotgun is a delightful documentary. Although it is just 8 minutes long I could watch hours of Shanti yelling at drivers on the NYC streets and helping her students on the road to success.

Review by: Brandon MacMurray

The Devil is Busy, dirs. Christalyn Hampton, Geeta Gandbhir

In the wake of Roe v. Wade the tension is higher than ever when it comes to reproductive rights in the USA. While a lot of the news reporting for us on the outside looking in focuses on the legal and political impact, the effects in practice are much harder to comprehend. This film flips that around and puts the focus on the people fighting tooth and nail to provide healthcare within the constraints of the ever changing laws.

In The Devil is Busy we follow Tracy who works as a director of operations in an abortion clinic in Atlanta, Georgia. Shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the state of Georgia made abortions illegal after the detection of embryonic cardiac-cell activity which typically occurs around five to six weeks after the last menstrual period, commonly known as the “The 6-week abortion ban”. Put into practice, this means that Tracy and her colleagues are forced to refuse medical care to a lot of patients who seek their aid. It also means that the staff involved in the procedures that do take place, risk their livelihood and even imprisonment if they miss that tiny window of opportunity where abortion is legal.

Needless to say this puts a lot of tension onto an uncomfortable situation where many guests will be at their most vulnerable already. But the struggle does not end there, because parked up front every day just outside the practice is what Tracy refers to as the “resident protesters”. Using religion as an excuse for spreading misinformation and hate, they stand shouting out bible verses, handing out pamphlets, waving protest signs and filming the poor people arriving throughout the day.

As an atheist I find it hard to relate to the religious angle on either side of the issue, even if I do find it interesting that there is such a strong relation to faith with completely opposite interpretations of the same shared theology. Religion or not, it is abundantly clear to us as viewers the great risks that the admirable staff takes on, in large part due to the sickening lengths the protesters will go to in order to achieve their version of justice.

As hard of a watch as this was, we need to see it now more than ever. We need to support the humanity of people providing healthcare against all odds and we need to put pressure in whichever way possible to recover the right to your own body which has been lost in recent years. For that reason alone I wholeheartedly recommend you to watch this documentary, and to spread the word.

Review by: Robin Hellgren

Upper, dir. Lennert Madou

The Belgian director, Lennert Madou, is a talented visual artist. His photography work has impacted campaigns of some of the most respected brands and magazines in the world. Madou captured campaigns for brands like Adidas Originals, Louis Vuitton, and Farfetch, as well as magazines such as Elle and Hube. His first short film, High Jump, won the award for Best LGBTQ+ Short at the Palm Springs Shortfest. His latest, Upper, which is his graduation work for the RITCS (Royal Institute for Theater, Cinema, and Sound), is also a selection at the Palm Springs Shortfest. It had it’s world premiere at Film Fest Gent, and its international premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival. 

Upper captures the tedious afternoon of two young friends, performed by Pablo Schils (Tori and Lokita) and Cyrille Mairesse (Les Chatouilles). They spend the day together in a small town in the countryside while waiting for the passing of a meteor. They play around in a quarry, running around it, piling used truck tires, and even going inside a tire and rolling until it stops. Their plan for the day is to occupy it until her mother picks her up at seven. In the meantime, they watch videos on a laptop and take pictures with a small portable camera. It all comes down to making the time fly by until the meteor comes through the skies, making their seemingly mundane activities more interesting. 

The director, who is still at the beginning of his career as a filmmaker, showcases his ability to create fascinating imagery that fills the screen with illusion and enchantment. In 1896, the Lumiére brothers shocked French spectators by displaying an illusion by manipulating light and movement. It created an art form called cinema, in which the visual imagination would be the pillar of its performance. A century later, artists continue to manipulate audiences through their images, and Madou dominates the notion of cinema in an impressive manner. In Upper, the director combines photography, an area of expertise, within the narrative framing of human boredom. Taking pictures is a distraction for those kids, not a marketing strategy, archival process, or capture of beauty. Freezing time in pixels is a game for them. 

The director and his cinematographer, Kamiel Doens, register the images as opportunities to dream and imagine different scenarios, precisely like a child playing. The duo decides to imagine the kids and their monotonous days through a realistic approach, delivering a few breathtaking visual registrations, especially with the use of a vast landscapes. A great example of this visual style the cinematography paints is the movement of the girl in a pile of truck tires. The architecture of the pile of tires is similar to the Pisa Tower, crooked and leaning to the left side, while the contre-plongée angle frames the girl, the sky, and their architectural amusement. It is one of many shots that impresses and captures the eyes of its audience. 

Ultimately, it is particularly impressive to learn that Upper is Lennert Madou's graduation film, which features an imaginative use of photography and the potential of images to narrate poetically the passing of time for children.

Review by: Pedro Lima