Top 60 Shorts of the 2020s (so far): Part 6
- Brandon MacMurray
- May 24
- 5 min read
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!
There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here (dir. Rainer Kohlberger, 2020)
Rainer Kohlberger’s There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here deals with the romantic idea of the apocalypse by exploiting the spectacular images of destruction in Hollywood cinema, and its emphasis on visual effects. Rather than his normal generative process, in There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here Kohlberger worked with machine learning, reinterpreting found footage from the history of disaster cinema as near-abstract fields of static. There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here explores philosophical questions of consciousness, artificial intelligence and extinction, all found in the secret pleasure of the catastrophe.
What letterboxd users are saying:
-JH
Train Again (dir. Peter Tscherkassky, 2021)
Set to the relentless industrial rumble of train tracks and film leader, Peter Tscherkassky’s avant-garde epic Train Again mounts a frenetic, flash-framed tribute to early cinema’s love affair with trains. Tscherkassky cuts and re-cuts layers of film history into a phantasmagoric journey into the flickering mechanics of moving images. This vision of the filmic history of trains is a centrifuge, a kinetic painting in a thousand shades of grey. Train Again is a riotous history lesson woven out of twitching film frames and flashing light.
What letterboxd users are saying:
Train Again can be steamed on mubi.
-JH
Wander to Wonder (dir. Nina Gantz, 2023)
Wander to Wonder is a delightful stop motion animation short. The production design really stands out by tying the miniature characters and their small set together with the larger room they are trapped in. Wander to Wonder reaches its peak at the short’s conclusion as everything spirals out of control. It is chaotic in the best way possible. Wander to Wonder was a juggernaut during last years fest winning an astounding six qualifying awards at Anima Festival, Tampere Film Festival, SXSW, Hollyshorts, Nashville Film Festival and Chilemonos. Wander to Wonder also won Best Short Subject at the Annie Awards and was nominated for best animated short at the 97th Academy Awards.
What letterboxd users are saying:
Read our full review here: https://www.shortstickfilms.com/post/ten-favourites-from-regard-festival
Watch here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/wandertowonder
-BM
The Windshield Wiper (dir. Alberto Mielgo, 2021)
The 2022 Academy Award winning film by writer-director Alberto Mielgo starts off in a smoke filled busy café, where we hear a man pose the question “What is love?”. Structured like an anthology film of sorts, we see a poetic social commentary on the modern love or the lack thereof. Each scene is intensely rich in detail, imperfect in its humanity - like a phone booth plastered with ads for various types of debauchery. Using conversations that are taking place around the man in the café as a narrative throughline, the messaging is loud and clear even with very few actual words spoken. It is unapologetic, thought evoking and gorgeous.
What letterboxd users are saying:
-RH
Wings of Dust (dir. Giorgio Ghiotto, 2022)
Wings of Dust takes place in the city of Espinar in Cuzco, Peru, a city of 70,000 inhabitants. It follows our subject, 38 year old Vidal Merma, an independent Indigenous Quechua journalist who champions the voice of the indigenous K’ana Nation. Vidal takes his responsibility as a journalist very seriously as defends human rights, spending 15 years fighting to show the negative effect of the exploitive mining activity in the area. Filmmaking like this can be risky, as environmental activists are criminalized by the state. Director Giorgio Ghiotto remains steadfast in his portrayal as he follows Vidal, not only through every step of his battle to get the truth out and protect to his community but also the touching moments of Vidal’s personal life. Wongs of Dust won gold at the Student Academy Awards in 2023 and was shortlisted for Best Documentary Short for the 96th Academy Awards. It was later acquired by Rolling Stone and Documentary+.
What letterboxd users are saying:
Read our full review here: https://www.shortstickfilms.com/post/wings-of-dust-review-and-q-a-with-director-giorgio-ghiotto
-BM
The Women’s Revenge (dir. Hui-Yu Su, 2020)
In the early 1980s before the lifting of martial law, numerous female revenge and exploitation films were produced in Taiwan. The latest in his series of “re-shootings” of lost Taiwanese films, Hui-Yu Su follows the gratuitous nudity of 2019’s The Glamourous Boys of Tang with the over-the-top violence of The Women’s Revenge. A gang of ass-kicking baddies take to the streets of Taiwan to take revenge on the men who have wronged their sisters. eThe Women’s Revenge is brash, colourful, and extremely bloody in the most entertaining way.
What letterboxd users are saying:
-JH
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (dir. Wes Anderson, 2023)
Wes Anderson is no stranger to short film after releasing Hotel Chevalier in 2007 and using short film as a way to promote Moonrise Kingdom with Do You Like to Read and Cousin Ben Troop Screening. Even his first feature Bottle Rocket started off as a short film in 1994. In 2023 he returned to the short film format with a series of 4 short films based on stories from Roald Dahl. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar led the pack with its tight story-telling in Wes’ distinct style. As always with Wes, this short is star studded with some of the best in business, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ken Kingsley. It also brought Wes his very first Oscar by winning Best Live Action short at the 96th Academy Awards.
What letterboxd users are saying:
Watch on Netflix
-BM
World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime (dir. Don Hertzfeldt, 2023)
Animation iconoclast Don Hertzfeldt concludes his masterpiece World of Tomorrow trilogy with the most inventive, most elaborate entry. The plot is a complex web of time-travelling clones, memory harvesting, neural implants, multiple timelines, robot companions, cave worms and Godbabies, all swirling around David and Emily as they—well, it’s complicated. But it’s the style of Hertzfeldt’s third entry that is the real star, as the director maintains his stick-figure characters while expanding his use of space, colour and texture to new extremes.
What letterboxd users are saying:
World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime can be rented on Hertzfeldt’s vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/worldoftomorrow3/
-JH
You're Dead Hélène (T'es morte Hélène) (dir. Michiel Blanchart, 2021)
Perhaps no short on this list blends genre better than You’re Dead Hélène which is equal parts comedy, horror and romance. This short was a member of the Oscar shortlists for the 94th Academy Awards. We are strong believers that it should have made nominations but unfortunately fell short. Rarely is a live action short this original and fun. The scary moments get your heart pumping, the laughs hit and the story is both touching and heartbreaking as this short takes you through this very unique situation in a relationship.
What letterboxd users are saying:
-BM
Yuck! (Beurk!) (dir. Loïc Espuche, 2024)
The film perfectly captures the magic, fear and excitement that many feel during the formative years of childhood. You are trying to find yourself in a place amongst your peers at a time where your days consist of cycling around in the sun and waterslides. The atmosphere throughout this film is truly palpable, and you are left with a warm heart and blushed cheeks. Yuck! was nominated for best animated short at the 97th Academy Awards.
What letterboxd users are saying:
Watch here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/yuck
Read our full review here: https://www.shortstickfilms.com/post/ten-favourites-from-regard-festival
-BM
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