Sundance kicked off tonight in Park City, Utah. I hadn’t heard any advance buzz about the 10/10 online series, a recent Sundance tradition that we covered last year, and so I sadly concluded that the festival had moved away from online distro for short films to instead focus more on its much-heralded pay per view partnership.

Not the case though! YouTube seems to have scored a coup, stealing the series from iTunes. Coup of course might be a bit strong of a word since, as usual, there seems to be no advance buzz or fanfare for the presence of these films, but the quality is high— I recognize several of them as winners from various worldwide festivals.

This move probably wouldn’t have happened without YouTube’s new video settings—many of these short films are available in drop-dead gorgeous 1080p. 5 of the films seem to reside in the Screening Room, while another 5 can be accessed via Sundance’s channel. For convenience though the film’s are linked below. I haven’t watched them all yet, but I’ll pour through them in the coming days. Let’s try and outsource this a bit though, please go ahead and tell everybody what to watch and what to avoid with your own mini-review in the comment!

Mr. Okra (Private) — 11 min — A portrait of the beloved New Orleans vegetable salesman.

Please Say Something — 10 min  — Cat and mouse tale set in the distant future. A 2010 SotW short of the year nominee. See our full review.

Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No — 4 min  — See our prior review here.

The S From Hell — 9 min — Doc/Horror about the scariest corporate logo in history.

Voice on the Line — 7 min  — Experimental animation on Cold War hysteria.

old fangs — 11 min — A young wolf decides to confront his father. See our complete review

Para Fuera — 9 min — Documentary about a man turning 100.

Charlie and the Rabbit (PRIVATE) — 9 min — 4 year old decides to hunt a rabbit.

Thompson — 10 min — Doc about two friends on the verge of adulthood.

Let’s Harvest the Organs of Death Row Inmates — 2 min — An animated “Provocation”