Top 60 Shorts of the 2020s (so far): Part 5

Hey everyone! ShortStick just turned 2 years old this month. Seeing as we are halfway through the decade, to celebrate, we are releasing our list of Top 60 shorts of the 2020s (so far). Between the four of us we have watched thousands of shorts released this decade and after much deliberation lowered it down to 60 we thought were the best. This list is far from definitive but based off a number of factors including awards success, festival success and our own taste and opinions. It contains animated, documentary, live action and experimental films. We decided to release alphabetically because depending which of the four of us you ask any of these could be ranked In the top 10. Scroll down to see what made the list!

The Queen of Basketball (dir. Ben Proudfoot, 2021)

Ben Proudfoot has been on an extremely impressive run of shorts in the 2020s including three Academy Award nominations (The Queen of Basketball, The Last Repair Shop and A Concerto is a Conversation). This wouldn’t be a top of the decade list without including him. We had a one short per film-maker rule and ultimately went with The Queen of Basketball over The Last Repair Shop due to it being his solo effort. However, we won’t argue with you if you think The Last Repair Shop should be included, as both took home the win for Best Documentary Short at the Academy Awards. The Queen of Basketball tells the story of women’s basketball pioneer Lusia Harris, the first (and only) women to be drafted to the NBA. Ben (as always) does a great job of catching the personality and essence of Lusia while presenting the facts of her story. He creates an engaging and easily digestible documentary no matter how much you do or don’t enjoy basketball as a sport. 

What letterboxd users are saying:

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPFkcoTfr7g

-BM

The Red Suitcase (dir. Cyrus Neshvad, 2022)

The veiled sixteen year old Ariane (played by Nawelle Evad) lands at Luxembourg Airport. Ariane is arriving from Iran, a muslim girl travelling alone and visibly distressed, she pauses at the arrival too frightened to take her red suitcase. We quickly learn that Ariane has travelled alone to meet her soon-to-be, much older, husband in an arranged marriage set up by her father, and picking up the suitcase to walk out from arrivals means meeting that older man who is waiting on the other side to take her to their wedding ceremony. Harrowing in its delicate pacing this film feels eerily grounded in the reality for many young women around the world today. Oftentimes overlooked, either through actively silencing these voices or from societal pressure to conform and accept the religious oppression, stories like these ring far too familiar even to an outsider. The director Cyrus Neshvad developed the idea for the short from conversations with his Iranian mother about her experience of disappearing women in Iran, which gives it a level of anxiety-inducing sincerity that is oftentimes hard to achieve in fictional work. As relevant today as it was when it premiered three years ago, this film is worthy of as much exposure as possible.

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Watch here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/theredsuitcase (PVOD) or on Kanopy (US)

-RH

Room Taken (dir. TJ O'Grady-Peyton, 2023)

In this short, shortlisted for the 97th Academy Awards, Room Taken follows Isaac, a homeless man who is secretly staying in the house of an elderly blind woman without her knowing. Director TJ O'Grady-Peyton manages to capture a story in a way that it feels innocent, borderline comedic at times. It is easy to imagine the setting in any number of different ways - threatening, scary, stressful - if given a different frame of reference. By keeping the audience siding with the struggles of Isaac it concentrates the focus on the social issues around homelessness and keeps a warm human touch throughout. It is easy to see where inspiration could have come from given recent years socio economic struggles and political leadership in the United Kingdom. But where most media tend to amplify the results following the issue at large, Room Taken is a breath of fresh air in its humane approach.

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-BM

The Seine's Tears (Les larmes de la Seine) (dirs. Yanis Belaid, Eliott Benard, Nicolas Mayeur, Étienne Moulin, Hadrien Pinot, Lisa Vicente, Philippine Singer and Alice Letailleur, 2021)

The Seine’s Tears is a personal favourite of mine and holds a place in my heart, not only on this best of the decade list, but one of the greatest animated shorts of all-time. The Seine’s Tears is a student film that got bronze at the Student Academy Awards and unfortunately missed out on the Oscars shortlist (one of the biggest shortlist snubs ever in my opinion). At last count, its resume includes 249 selections to festivals and 102 award wins including 4 Oscar qualifying awards. The Seine’s Tears uses puppet-like stop-motion animation to tell the devastating story of the massacre of Algerian workers in 1961 who were protesting in the Parisian streets. The Seine’s Tears starts off with telling the story through the eyes of a handheld camera and ends with an emotional finale of trumpet song and dance.

What letterboxd users are saying:

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBGlptfCvBg

-BM

Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice (dir. Zacharias Kunuk, 2021)

In Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice, a young shaman must face her first test—a trip underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill. Facing dark spirits and physical challenges, she must trust her mentor's teachings and learn to control her fear. Inuk master director Zacharias Kunuk (whose Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner was named the greatest Canadian film of all time) tries his hand at animated filmmaking in this breathless stop-motion adventure. A traditional story, told in a bracingly modern way.

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Available to watch in Canada on CBC Gem

-JH

Sierra (dir. Sander Joon, 2022)

Sierra uses a deeply aesthetic colour palette paired with surreal 2D animation to create a masterpiece of an animated short. Perhaps even stronger than its animation is its absurd story that packs an emotional punch and is loosely inspired on the directors own childhood. It centers on themes of toxic masculinity and fathers pushing their kid to follow in their footsteps, sometimes to the detriment of the child. It holds a strong message to allow your kid to form their own path in life and to love and support them nonetheless. To tie it all together, throughout the short it shows the directors father’s own stop motion film making made during Soviet Estonia. 

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Watch here: https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/1035359933 or on Criterion

-BM

The Sower of Stars (dir. Lois Patiño, 2022)

Tokyo at night is dazzling, a fantasy of hypnotizing lights; observed with distance and stillness, if you let yourself be carried away by them, you can find a meditative atmosphere there. Celluloid visionary Lois Patiño captures this peaceful feeling in The Sower of Stars, a Zen landscape painting with the futuristic feel of Blade Runner. His superimposition of images creates a limbo space where borders blur to make the spectral and dreamlike emerge and combine, while the oblique dialogue, inspired by the mystical teachings of Zen Buddhism reads like a book of jewel-coloured aphorisms.

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The Sower of Stars can be streamed on Patiño’s vimeo: https://vimeo.com/634599036

-JH

Stud Country (dirs. Lina Abascal and Alexandra Kern, 2024)

Stud Country shows what building a community means. The documentary narrates the history of the gay line dancing bars in Los Angeles and how they allowed a new generation to find their true selves. It is a beautiful document for those who contributed to shaping a newer meaning of these bars, usually linked to country traditions. The dichotomy presented by Lina Abascal and Alexandra Kern welcomes us to reflect on the fight by the LGBTQIANP+ and how we should fight for their rights in dark times, such as the ones we live in.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTPb__AaPKY

Read our full review here: https://www.shortstickfilms.com/post/palm-springs-international-shortfest-review-roundup-part-1

-PL

The Takeover (dir. Anders Hammer, 2023)

The Norwegian journalist and documentary filmmaker Anders Hammer got an Academy Award nomination for his film, Do Not Split. It became news during that award season for being one of the reasons why China would not air the ceremony live. The film portrays the Hong Kong protests in 2019. He maintains his cinema verité roots in The Takeover, the second chapter of a trilogy about contemporary political events. Hammer documents the takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan, by the Taliban. It is an impressive journalistic piece about a truculent authoritarian government that took away women's rights in the country. Hammer's camera is a witness to history, and the reason he was jailed and beaten by the terrorist group. Yet, it is a capsule of a dreadful event in modern history, and a crucial documentation for posterity.

Read our full review here: https://www.shortstickfilms.com/post/reviews-from-doc-nyc-part-2

What letterboxd users are saying:

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YR57QxYL78

-PL

Taurophilia (Asterión) (dir. Francesco Montagner, 2022)

Francesco Montagner’s totally silent documentary uses a rhythmic re-composition of surreal fragmented images, in its observation of a man’s obsession with a powerful black horned bull, and the Spanish process of taxidermy through which he attempts to embody its beauty and strength, turning into a Minotaur. Moving from a dim basement space in which the man meticulously studies the motionless flesh of the animal to a sunlit, empty arena in Spain, where the bull is presented in its full glory before facing man, Asterión is a sensuous study in image- and myth-making.

What letterboxd users are saying:

Watch here: https://americas.dafilms.com/film/15587-asterion

-JH