For the second consecutive year, we reviewed all the shorts from the eight program lineups that make up the Short Film selections and narrowed down our top ten best shorts from a total of 57 (out of 11,153 submissions). While last year we discovered several more American gems, this year our favorites are spread across the globe with some fine narratives from Mexico. Here are ten shorts (and their filmmakers) that you’ll want to track, watch, and take note of.
#10. Death Education – Yuxuan Ethan Wu
This documentary short explores what happens when someone passes away and there is no one to honor the life they lived. Centering on a high school teacher and his class of young students, the film follows their efforts to pay respect to the unnamed ashes in a public cemetery. Blending personal reflections with practical action, Chinese-born, U.S.-based filmmaker Yuxuan Ethan Wu invites viewers to confront grief early in life, offering tools to better navigate the inevitability of death later on — hence the title Death Education. Filmed as a meticulously crafted journey and it encourages a deeper understanding of loss and remembrance – one red bag full of ashes at a time. ★★★★
#9. Vox Humana – Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Philippines-born filmmaker Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan returns to Sundance after winning the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival for The Headhunter’s Daughter. With Vox Humana, we embark on a mysterious journey (honestly this could easily be made into feature length) about a man (nouveau type of Tarzan?) who is found in the woods. With no known address and perhaps guilty of creating some large scale havoc, there is this mysterious nature to the short and the collection of characters coming from what we could call different kind of forensic backgrounds that makes this instantly seducing plus the imagery in term of framing and shot composition here is quite alluring. This also premiered at TIFF ’24. ★★★★
#8. Hurikán – Jan Saska
A black & white animated sud-soaked tres punk journey sees a human-like animal trying to get a new keg of beer somewhere in the backdrop of Prague. Hurikán delirious, silly fun – comes from Czech animation director and comics author Jan Saska who last delivered Happy End – a Directors’ Fortnight selection from almost a decade back. In competition in Annecy last year (winner of the Audience Award), this is about the thirst….to impress. ★★★★
#7. Tiger – Loren Waters
Another strong documentary short entry this time about the hardships of grief, loss, tragedy accompanied by the added pressure of building, creating and maintaining a family own business. This screen-printing tee shirt (an actual brand that pumped product into JCPenney) portrait comes alive with its music video clip and family photo book vibes rushed succession of visuals that make for an alluring collage of camera angles matched with our narrator who explores the past and who is currently dealing with her own difficulties in Parkinson’s. An award-winning Cherokee and Kiowa filmmaker, Loren Waters has a lot of fun here with the form — both inventive and imaginative, sadness and hope are part of the same frame. Tiger won The Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing. ★★★★
#6. Trokas Duras – Jazmin Garcia
The Los Angeles based filmmaker whose work focuses on the Mexican-Guatemalan experience in America, there are some shot from below tightly framed with poetic, tricked docu aesthetic that feels so distinctly fresh and alive (take notice of the unassuming accompanying score) in this journey into those who go unnoticed and do the work. Jazmin Garcia moves the different overlapping conversations of what it is to be the “help” — its rather light in tone but the worn out hands and voices in Trokas Duras remind us what it is to dream for just a little extra comfort (via some fish-eye lens dream shots embedded as well). This claimed the The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction. ★★★★
#5. Como si la tierra se las hubiera – Natalia León
We weren’t prepared for what would be a profoundly moving, and at times haunting text tha remains with us post viewing. A debut short by Mexican Paris-based filmmaker Natalia León, this digs deep into the scars of her native Mexico and digs deep into the topic of femicide. Como si la tierra se las hubiera is a penciled, water-color-esque drawing blend that at times plays as a live-action as it feels so human, and lived in. The creativity here allows for a compounded message film — one that serves the idea of memory, and tackles collective violence as death by a thousand cuts. No surprise to us, this won the The Short Film Jury Award: Animation. ★★★★½
#4. SUSANA – Gerardo Coello Escalante & Amandine Thomas
For a second year in a row, Gerardo Coello Escalante and Amandine Thomas provide Sundance with a slice of life of Mexico City — and if there is a common link between two tonally different shorts is the idea of rejection. SUSANA is much lighter than their previous short, and it’s protagonist (Bonnie Hellman Brown) in a middle-aged American tourist is instantly affable and with its collection of endearing yet dumb tourist tongue and cheek moments we also get a purposeful commentary. Escalante has actually been a first assistant director on such notable indie gems as the 2023 Berlinale entry Reality and micro Sundance entry Tendaberry (2024). We look forward to possible feature work in the future. ★★★★½
#3. Entre le Feu et le Clair de Lune – Dominic Yarabe
An arresting cinematography window dresses what is essentially an intergenerational pass me down narrative about survival and memory, this cerebral, reflective tour-de-force is in full-blown playfulness and inventiveness mode. Dominic Yarabe‘s second short film is a calling card of self awareness and self assurance — we find Entre le Feu et le Clair de Lune redefine formal convention codes making reflections of the past almost feel like real-time. An interdisciplinary artist based in NYC, we’ll once day speak about the filmmaker as a boundary-pushing auteur larger contributions in the space. ★★★★½
#2. Upper – Lennert Madou
Among the non world-premiere shorts to be programmed at Sundance, Belgium’s Lennert Madou raised our eyebrows with a film that is poetic, mystery-filled, that matches childhood curiosity with a high degree of abandon and the great unknown. The frame within the frame is playful – not surprisingly the filmmaker is well-versed in creating visual concepts – having worked in photography and fashion with an almost dreamlike approach. This is the tale about pushing the boundaries and a youthful pair wait for the sky to offer answers. With Upper we were thinking of Jeremy Comte’s masterwork short Fauve and Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s feature debut Gagarine.
#1. Hippopotami – Jianjie Lin
One of the most exciting new auteurs in Chinese cinema made it back-to-back years at Sundance this year, following his stunning debut feature with what was arguably the festival’s best-programmed short. Jianjie Lin once again turns his lens to the family unit, this time challenging notions of normalcy and the facades people maintain. Last year’s Brief History of a Family broke out of Sundance and the Panorama section at the Berlinale, and with Hippopotami we have this disruption of the family unit – a clever commentary on secrets and who holds onto them with the smallest member knowing more then she lets on. Deceptively smart and comedic with a touch of irony, this road-trip to the zoo features an unforgettable, way-too-smart-for-her age little girl also hits topics of economics struggles and urbanization. ★★★★½
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). He is a Golden Globes Voter, member of the ICS (International Cinephile Society) and AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).
