Short of the Week
2023 is done and it was another exciting year here at S/W, as we featured over 200 films on our pages, launched new editorial avenues, introduced competitions to our filmmaker audience and welcomed new team members into the fold. While over on Shortverse we saw 14,000 new members join the platform and introduced a host of powerful new capabilities including searchable festival pages and revamped profiles.
With our eyes now firmly set on the future and what 2024 has to hold, lets put a final line through 2023 with our last Best of the Month round-up for December – Rob Munday, Managing Editor.
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Team Favorites
While December saw our team pick their annual favorites from our 2023 coverage, we added another 21 films to our pages ranging from twisted stop-motions to important documentaries. The trio of films picked as our Best of the Month for December 2023 consist of a meditative doc, a twisted FX piece and a layered coming-of-age tale. Enjoy…
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A Folded Ocean by Benjamin Brewer
Writer/director Ben Brewer’s high-concept short takes the romantic adage, ”two become one”, quite literally in A Folded Ocean, cleverly using an absurd premise to explore a relationship drama with real poignancy. Rather than narrative twists, it’s the visceral reaction the imagery triggers in viewers that leads the film. This clever visual depiction of such an intangible feeling is deeply affecting and also, importantly, remarkably convincing.
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سيمو (Simo) by Aziz Zoromba
The strength of the film is in the portraits of Simo and his family. While they are one family unit, all three male characters are incredibly different, with different interests. Zoromba built his characters from the three “elements that defined that period for me: music, video games, & football”, and while it seems conventional, especially when representing masculinity through those three elements, he also injects each character with an attachment to their Egyptian culture. Ultimately, despite playing with ordinary elements, Zoromba is able to imbue this world with great specificity via the sharply observed authenticity that he brings to these men.
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The Winterkeeper by by Laurence Topham & David Levene
Recent shifts towards mindfulness and a general desire for life to slow down a little suggest a growing acceptance for more contemplative filmmaking in the online sphere, especially when coupled with a meaningful message. Guardian doc, The Winterkeeper by Laurence Topham & David Levene, exudes these qualities, providing a viewing experience that will have audiences yearning for a simpler life.
Shortverse Best of the Month
Click on the image to see the 10 films in our Best of the Month on Shortverse
If you want more recommendations on short films to watch, head over to Shortverse where our team picked 10 shorts as our Best of the Month selections for December 2023, including a couple of new shorts from S/W alums, a topical doc and four very different animations.