Short
see all genres ›Short films are exactly what their name implies: they're shorter than a feature! They can be as brief as a handful of seconds or they can approach as much as a half-hour (or more). Genres like silent comedy and avant-garde film thrive in the short format.
Watch Short Films
Genres / Short
SUB-GENRES · Narrative · Non-Narrative · Documentary · Performance · Amateur · Ephemera · Actuality · Trick
-
The Phone Call
Winner of the 2015 Academy Award® for Live Action Short Film. THE PHONE CALL follows Heather, (played by Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins), a shy lady who works at a helpline call centre. When she receives a phone call from a mystery man (played by Oscar® winner Jim Broadbent) she has no idea...Watch Movie
-
Debra Paget, For Example
Debra Paget was a contract player for 20th-Century Fox, whom they groomed and coached for stardom. But she never quite caught on. Maybe the movies weren't interesting enough. Or maybe she didn’t stand out from the rest of the pack. Or the studio didn’t take enough care in...Watch Movie
-
Becoming Anita Ekberg
BECOMING ANITA EKBERG is an exploration of how the construct of "Anita Ekberg" became an internationally famous sex goddess as a result of the careful cultivation of her image in various movies, both in Hollywood, by Frank Tashlin, and in Europe, by Federico Fellini. It's an...Watch Movie
-
Time Piece
Very simply, TIME PIECE is the story of Everyman, frustrated by the typical tasks of a typical day. In Jim Henson's Academy Award®-nominated short, the narrative is presented without dialogue. The man's experiences, actual or conceptual, are visualized through stream-of-consciousness editing,...Watch Movie
-
Take Off
Freaky and not a little transcendent, TAKE OFF takes the strip tease well past its usual climax. By sprinkling a little Georges Melies magic over the peep show motif, Gunvor Nelson simultaneously revels in cinema's earliest forms while exploding the medium's customary reliance on (and...Watch Movie
-
Jerry's Deli
JERRY'S DELI is a testament to a bygone era when shrieking lunatics could run successful (even popular) businesses. Shot on film-stock leftover from television cameramen, Tom Palazzolo's portrait of Jerry Meyer offsets sequences of the tyrannical deli owner (seen berating his employees and...Watch Movie
-
Meshes of the Afternoon
One of the most important films in the history of American avant-garde cinema, Maya Deren's MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON is captivating and dream-like, filled with tinges of psychodrama, murder mystery, and film noir. In a seemingly ordinary Los Angeles home, the film's...Watch Movie
-
The Vanity Tables of Douglas Sirk
A video essay exploring the frequency and meaning of that particular prop in a wide variety of Sirk movies. Is it a device that traps and keeps women in an artificial world with a limited point of view? Or is it a gateway to the past and the future, and a distorted but...Watch Movie
-
The Double Life of Paul Henreid
Paul Henreid, perhaps most famous for his roles in CASABLANCA and NOW, VOYAGER became a star at Warner Brothers during World War II, as the exotic lead with the European accent. After the war, his contract was cancelled and he was left to his own devices. He continued acting...Watch Movie
-
Memory Box
A dreamlike drama about gender and power. A young mother works at a memory recreation facility (where actors recreate clients' memories). A client pushes her to break the rules, crossing lines and jeopardizing her job. She's forced to decide how far she's willing to go. Dreams and fantasy become...Watch Movie
-
John Garfield
Mark Rappaport completed his concise portrait of the legendary John Garfield in 2002, comprised (like much of his filmed essays) from existing film footage of the actor. Exceptionally engaging, Rappaport's extraordinary short contains more insightful observations of its subject than many...Watch Movie
-
Dottie Gets Spanked
Another dazzling suburban phantasm from writer/director Todd Haynes, DOTTIE GETS SPANKED (made post-POISON and pre-SAFE) is a stylized, bittersweet nod to his childhood fascination with I LOVE LUCY. Deep in the heart of pre-hippie 1960s America, young artistically-inclined...Watch Movie
