Short of the Week
Short films are the playground where features are born. In the past, we’ve seen big-screen adaptions of Short Term 12, Whiplash, and Curfew, in a show that Hollywood is increasingly turning to short films for their next big film ideas. Now, a new generation of filmmakers are looking to short films as their ticket to a larger opportunity and learning from those who came before them. Here are some of the top feature films that first began as short films.
Short of the Week Films
From Scandinavian horror to US indies, these are the shorts films that we featured on our platform that went on to become feature adaptations.
Alive in Joburg / District 9
by Neill Blomkamp
Discovered by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and originally chosen to helm the Halo adaption that never happened, Neil Blomkamp’s debut feature District 9 was an adaption of his masterful effects-driven 2005 short, Alive in Joburg.
Read the full review / Watch on Netflix / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Brian and Charles
by Jim Archer
Archer’s instantly likeable low-budget short about an isolated man who builds his own robot for companionship won our hearts when we featured it back in 2017. The odd couple are back now in feature form, set for release in June 2022, which promises a ‘humorous and entirely heartwarming story about friendship, family, finding love, and letting go’.
Read the full review / Read our interview / Watch the feature trailer
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Cargo
by Ben Howling & Yolanda Ramke
Post-apocalyptic, zombie-filled landscapes have proven popular across all forms of storytelling, but Howling & Ramke found a fresh angle for their tale of the living dead, by having an infected father desperately trying to save his daughter before he turns fully-fledged flesh-eating monster. An emotion-packed film, rewatching the short it’s easy to see why it got the greenlight for feature development. With that original short now unfortunately offline, the feature, starring Martin Freeman, was released in 2017 and can be watched on Netflix now.
Read the full review / Watch on Netflix
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Dennis / Teddy Bear
by Mads Matthiesen
Premiering at Sundance in 2008, Mads Matthiesen’s Dennis – the powerful story of an introvert bodybuilder – soon found itself in line for feature development after impressing festival audiences worldwide. Taking his original story and expanding into a longer version called Teddy Bear, the director’s 93-minute feature sees the short’s central character journeys to Thailand to find love.
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Dog Altogether / Tyrannosaur
by Paddy Considine
When actor Paddy Considine decided to try his hand behind-the-camera, he created hard-hitting BAFTA-winning short Dog Altogether. That film was so well received Considine later developed it into Tyrannosaur (which also won a BAFTA), an equally powerful feature with impressive performances from Peter Mullan and Oscar-winner Olivia Coleman.
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Emergency
by Carey Williams
With Williams’ 2018 short winning awards at both Sundance and SXSW, the director returned to the festivals four years later (picking up another award at Sundance) with his feature adaptation of the short. Expanding the premise of that original short, which follows a group of young Black and Latino friends as they carefully weigh the pros and cons of calling the police when faced with an usual emergency, the film has been lauded for playfully blending the comedy feel of a college party movie with the impact of a socially aware thriller.
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Five Feet High and Rising / Raising Victor Vargas
by Peter Sollett
Picking up two years after award-winning short film Five Feet High and Rising left off, Sollett’s debut feature Raising Victor Vargas extends the stories of characters Victor and Judy from his 29-minute NYU Film School short.
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Larry / Come Play
by Jacob Chase
One of the many horror shorts adapted in recent years, Chase’s 2017 short Larry was acquired by Amblin Partners and developed into the feature Come Play in 2020. The story of a monster named Larry which manifests itself through smart phones and mobile devices, the short was a scene from the longer version, which introduced the premise and the monster of the storyline
Read the full review / Watch Trailer
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Les Misérables
by Ladj Ly
A favourite of the festival scene in 2017/18, Ladj Ly’s explosive short Les Misérables immersed its audience in the Seine-Saint-Denis region, just outside of Paris, as we join a trio of police officers as they patrol the streets, consistently overstepping the line. With the short currently offline, the feature lets us returns to those very streets, with the same officers, as we once again witness them abuse their power.
Read the full review / Watch on Netflix
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Magpie / The Survivalist
by Stephen Fingleton
Intentionally created as a prequel to his feature The Survivalist, Stephen Fingleton’s Magpie is a 16-minute short that introduced audiences to the world of his longer narrative and the main players in it. Starring Martin McCann and Mia Goth, Fingleton’s dark, captivating inauguration into his bleak universe is an enticing precrusor of what to expect from his award-winning debut. It’s a short that really sets the tone for the film that follows.
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Mary Last Seen / Martha Marcy May Marlene
by Sean Durkin
Making a splash at both Cannes and Sundance back in 2010, Durkin would get the chance to expand his tale of a young woman unexpectedly recruited to a cult into a feature just a year later. Released in 2011, Martha Marcy May Marlene proved even more popular than its predecessor on the festival circuit.
Read the full review / Watch on Disney+
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Piggy
by Carlota Pereda
An instant hit with the S/W team, Carlota Pereda’s Spanish horror short is a twisted tale that explores the consequences of body shaming within a genre framework. The film proved a hit over on Alter and was quickly developed into a feature based around the same premise, which is set for release later in 2022.
Read the full review / Watch the trailer
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Prospect
by Chris Caldwell and Zeek Earl
A coming-of-age story set on a toxic alien planet, the potential in Caldwell and Earl’s 2014 SXSW short was evident upon first viewing the film and a feature adaptation felt inevitable. Released in 2018, the longer version follows a father and daughter team mining elusive gems on a moon and starred Jay Duplas, Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Rare Exports Inc.
by Jalmari Helander
This dark and twisted Christmas tale might not have seemed like an obvious choice for feature development, but it certainly proved a popular one with a strong festival run seeing Jalmari Helander’s short of the same name picked up for expansion by Oscilloscope Pictures
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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She Paradise
by Maya Cozier
A story of sisterhood, sexuality, and self-discovery, Cozier’s 2019 proof-of-concept short proved successful in its quest to launch the longer version, with the feature being released a year later. Released in 2020, the film is now available to rent from all your favorite VoD suppliers..
Read the full review / Watch the trailer
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Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade / Sling Blade
by George Hickenlooper / Billy Bob Thornton
Whilst Billy Bob Thornton might be more famous for his acting career (and of course that marriage to Angelina Jolie) he’s also an Oscar-winning writer and an award-winning director. Picking up an academy-award in 1997 for his debut feature Sling Blade, this memorable tale of a man trying to rebuild his life after spending time in prison began life as the 28-minute short Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, which Thornton wrote and starred-in (but didn’t direct) three years earlier.
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Thunder Road
by Jim Cummings
It feels like only yesterday when Jim Cummings’ breakout short Thunder Road was wowing audiences and juries (it won awards at Palm Springs, Sundance and SXSW in 2016) alike on the festival circuit. Since directing the feature version in 2018, Cummings has gone on to helm another two features The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) and The Beta Test (2021)
Read the full review / Watch on Amazon Prime
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Wyrm
by Christopher Winterbauer
A short to feature adaptation that slid under our radar a little, Winterbauer’s 2019 film is set in an alternate universe where school kids wear electronic collars that will only detach after they experience their first kiss. The feature is set for release in June 2022.
Read the full review / Watch the trailer
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Yes, God, Yes
by Karen Maine
No stranger to the short to feature path, having taken writing duties on the both the short and feature versions of Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child, Karen Maine followed the same journey with her directorial debut Yes, God, Yes. The 2017 short, a firm favourite with the S/W team, was expanded into a longer piece in 2019, with the feature playing SXSW 2019 before being released digitally in 2020.
Read the full review / Watch on Netflix
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Others
9 (9 dir: Shane Acker)—Tim Burton was said to be so impressed with director Shane Acker’s artistic vision in post-apocalyptic animated short 9, the Beetlejuice filmmaker (who also started his directorial career in the world of short film) went on to produce the feature-length version of this revered short.
12 Monkeys (La Jetée dir: Chris Marker)—This 1962 short film constructed almost entirely of still photos and narration inspired the apocalyptic world of Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys.
Boiling Point (Boiling Point dir: Philip Barantini)—Set in the high pressure environment of a top restaurant kitchen, Barantini’s one-take short was developed into a taut feature starring Stephen Graham
Boogie Nights (The Dirk Diggler Story dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)—Anderson’s film career started at 17 when he made this mockumentary short film that he later adapted into the feature film that made his name.
Bottle Rocket (Bottle Rocket dir: Wes Anderson)—Anderson developed his unique style with this short film that inspired the feature film and has returned to create a number of additional short films since.
Host (I’ve been hearing strange noises from my attic… dir: Rob Savage)—A director who was destined to enter the feature arena sooner rather than later, we expected Savage’s first step from short film to be an adaptation of short Salt or Dawn of the Deaf. However, it ended up being a “prank” video recorded during the COVID lockdown that propelled the director to make the 60-min Host. Centred around six friends who hire a medium to hold a seance over Zoom, it was considered by many to the breakout hit of 2020.
Lights Out (Lights Out dir: David F. Sandberg)—Originally created for the “Who’s There” Horror short film challenge, Sandberg’s highly-effective three-minute short propelled the director to dizzy heights after racking up millions of views online. After creating that original short in 2013, the Swedish filmmaker went on to create a feature version in 2016, before going on to direct Annabelle: Creation and Shazam!
Mama (Mama dir: Andres Muschietti)—Described by Guillermo Del Toro (who went on to produce the feature) as one of the scariest scenes he’s even seen, Mama is a 3-minute horror from director Andrés Muschietti might not have had a lot of meat on its bones, but it did enough in its brief run-time to convince the Mexican filmmaker that it had more to say.
Napoleon Dynamite (Peluca dir: Jared Hess)—This cult indie hit from director Jared Hess and actor Jon Heder started as a 2002 student film shot in black and white.
Office Space (Milton dir: Mike Judge)—Before Beavis and Butthead, Mike Judge made the animated short, Milton, and returned to it when he made his live-action directorial debut for the cult-classic, Office Space.
Pixels (Pixels dir: Patrick Jean)—One of the more unusual short to feature adaptations on this list, when Jean launched his three-minute VFX piece online, while we imagined it launching his career, we certainly weren’t expecting a big budget feature version starring Adam Sandler, Michelle Monaghan and Peter Dinklage. Unfortunately, it was one of those shorts that was probably better left alone, with Rotten Tomatoes labelling it “much like the worst arcade games from the era that inspired it, Pixels has little replay value and is hardly worth a quarter”, Ouch!
Pleasure (Pleasure dir: Ninja Thyberg)—With Thyberg’s 2013 short offering a behind the scenes look at a porn shoot and the pressures involved, her fictional narrative certainly turned a few heads on the festival circuit. The features takes its audience on a journey into the Los Angeles porn industry, as we follow a young newcomer determined to become the best in her field.
Relic (CRESWICK dir: Natalie Erika James)—A director we hold in very high-esteem, after featuring her short Drum Wave, James proved her quality as a director with debut feature Relic. A horror with heart, her “haunted house” film touches on some relatable themes and it’s clear to see how short CRESWICK was inspirational in its creation.