Short of the Week
Eager to hand out our accolades before the Academy hogged the awards spotlight, February at S/W HQ was dominated by the 2024 Short Awards. With five short films praised for their individuality and impact, congratulations, once again, to 🏆 our winners and thanks again to our diligent jury for their involvement.
The awards weren’t the only 🎉 celebration happening at S/W in Feb, as our YouTube channel finally reached the 1m subscriber mark, we gathered live on the platform to mark the moment. An hour long discussion where we invited our audience to interact with the team, play a little short film trivia and win some swag, we hope to introduce more opportunities to meet the people behind Short of the Week in the coming months. – Rob Munday, Managing Editor.
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Team Favorites
Home to Valentines Day, while February is usually a month associated with love and romance, our coverage decided to veer away from these topics and instead featured paranoid fiancées, disastrous couple’s therapy sessions, performing groups of “cucks” and a-hole boyfriends. For the trio of shorts making up our Best of the Month, the team has opted for an inventive reimagining of the migrant story, an AfroFuturist sci-fi and a thought-provoking short inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita.
14 in February by Victoria Singh-Thompson
If you read the synopsis before watching the film, you might be surprised by its subtlety and lack of graphic content, because it’s the imagery and soundscape in 14 in February that give the 9-minute drama emotional impact and take precedence over any sensationalist considerations. By approaching a heavy subject matter with the lightest of touches, and centering the narrative on the survivor rather than the perpetrator, Singh-Thompson has crafted a compelling and accomplished piece with more intellectual meat to chew on than many of the other films which explore a similar topic.
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Neighbour Abdi by Douwe Dijkstra’s
For a 29-minute short to be featured on S/W, we’re always careful to assess its ability to captivate audiences throughout its entire duration. Such films must maintain unwavering engagement, never faltering in their narrative delivery. Neighbour Abdi accomplishes this feat through its inventive production techniques.
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Oba by Femi Oladigbolu
From Tolkien to Disney, the figure of the king has been a mainstay in storytelling since its inception. Often used as a symbol of power and responsibility, in Femi Oladigbolu’s captivating AfroFuturist short Oba, he uses this regal position to investigate themes of destiny and lineage, whilst also exploring his own journey as a filmmaker. A strikingly original film, in terms of both its narrative and its aesthetic, in Oba Oladigbolu transforms his directorial experience, from commercials and music videos, into an impressive debut short.
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Shortverse Best of the Month
Click on the image to see our Shortverse Best of the Month picks for February 2024.
If the three films picked by the S/W team as our Best of the Month have left you hungry for more, the team over at Shortverse have selected a further 10 titles from the February uploads on the platform, which they think are worthy of a little extra love. From an atmospheric horror to a comedy starring Richard Kind, there’s a little something for everyone’s tastes.