This is a collection of great shorts that I have come across that are available online, separated by genre.
Study and enjoy, they are amazing examples of what can be done with the short form.
Links come and go in the short film world, if you find one isn’t working, feel free to email me at info@jasonbkohl.com
Drama
Sikumi – Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (2008)
An Inuit hunter drives his dog team out on the frozen Arctic Ocean in search of seals, but instead, becomes a witness to murder.
Winner of the Jury Prize for Short Filmmaking at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
Crossbow – David Michôd (2007)
A kid. His mum and dad. The sex and drugs. And the boy next door who watched the whole thing unravel.
Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Schwarzfahrer – Pepe Danquart 1993
A young black man is harassed by an older woman on a streetcar. While the other passengers remain silent, he finally exacts his revenge.
Oscar Winner
9 – Shane Acker (2005)
A rag doll fights a monster that has been stealing the souls of his people.
Winner of the Student Academy Award.
I Love Sarah Jane – Spencer Susser (2008)
Ah, young love. The air seems clearer. The sun seems brighter. There’s a spring in the step.
Too bad about the zombie apocalypse.
Spider – Nash Edgerton (2007)
Five Feet High and Rising – Peter Sollett (2000)
Victor, a twelve year-old boy growing up on New York City’s Lower East Side experiences what growing up is all about.
Won Sundance, SXSW and Cannes.
Plastic Bag – Ramin Bahrani (2009)
Struggling with its immortality, a discarded plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog)
ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker.
Comedy
Dock Ellis and the LSD No No – James Blagden (2010)
In celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey, No Mas and artist
James Blagden proudly present the animated tale of Dock Ellis’ legendary LSD no-hitter.
Drunk History Volume 5 – Derek Waters (2010)
Watch the story of how the friendship of Abraham Lincoln (Will Ferrell) and Fredrick Douglass (Don Cheadle)
overcame the slavery movement and the racism that existed in their day. Won Sundance 2010.
My Wrongs 8245-8249 & 117 – Chris Morris (2002)
A haunting black comedy about a man who no longer uses his name because he’s decided he’s ceased to deserve one,
and a dog called Rothko who says he is the man’s lawyer.
BAFTA Winner
Feelings – Todd Solondz (1984)
Feelings is a two and a half minute movie made as an NYU film school assignment in 1984.
Solondz himself takes the lead role of a sensitive young man who finds he can no longer endure life without his beloved.
Dramedy
Pinkerton – Aleem Hossain (2005)
A violent cop out for revenge meets an unexpected obstacle…
Hello, Thanks – Andy Blubaugh (2006)
Filmmaker Andy Blubaugh documents a year spent looking for love in the personal ads.
Premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
Documentary
The Children of Leningradsky – Hanna Polak and Andrzej Celinski (2005)
AIDS, drug abuse, police brutality, and other social ills in post-Soviet Russia.
Nominated for the Oscar.
Peter and Ben – Pinny Grylls (2007)
Peter and Ben is a touching and quirky story of how two “black-sheep” form an unusual and enduring bond.
Best Documentary – Aspen Shorts Fest 2008
Animation
Old Fangs – Adrien Merigeau (2009)
A young wold decides to confront his father, who he has not seen since he was a child.
Screened at Sundance 2010
Please Say Something – David O’Reilly (2008)
A troubled relationship between a cat and mouse set in the distant future.
Winner of Berlin’s 2009 Golden Bear.
How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels – Craig Welch (1996)
Craig Welch takes viewers inside a surreal, meticulously crafted world to meet a mysterious protagonist and
his otherworldly visitor.
Chonto – Carson Mell (2008)
In 1977 Bobby Bird attempted to literally buy a friend when he adopted a chimpanzee from a South American zoo.
Things did not work out as he’d planned.
From the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
Rejected - Don Hertzfeld (2000)
An animator’s commissioned works, rejected because of their increasingly absurd and violent tone (reflecting the animator’s
own progressive breakdown), eventually find their entire animated world collapsing in upon itself.
