YEAHHHHH BABEY ITS SUNDANCE TIME!

We're back for the 2024 short films babeyyy! I started with the Animation program this year, and also watching with my mom. Both of the first two films had a bunch of sex and genitals in them, so that was a wild trip, but here we are!

Animated Short Film Program

Bug Diner dir. Phoebe Jane Hart

A dissatisfied marriage, a secret crush, and workplace fantasies come to a head in a diner run by a mole with a hot ass.

This was such a funny film to start out with - especially watching with my mom. It's horny as hell, and the squirrel's boobs actually made me guffaw out loud. "I think I'm in love with you." "NOOOOO!!!!!!!!" *smoke fills the room and a mantis who is actively having sex gets swooped out of the window* Extremely funny, and not just in script or plot but in the actual models as well. The way the lady mantis's mouth would open real wide made me cackle every time she did it. Totally get why this won the jury award.

Drago dir. Daniel Zvereff

A young boy’s dream of becoming a doctor is challenged when war forces him and his mother to flee their village and start a new life in New York City.

Suuuuper impressive economy of visuals here. Not a lick of spoken dialogue yet I followed this person's entire life. Very compelling use of repetition and eye contact/close ups. Really impressive storytelling overall.

Matta and Matto dir. Bianca Caderas

In a time when all interpersonal closeness is forbidden, the hourly hotel Vaip offers wondrous rooms where guests snuggle up to devices built with great skill and let themselves fall into the perfect illusion of human touch.

This one was gross. Like, it was great, don't get me wrong, but I have never been more squicked by a human finger. This isn't something the film can do anything about, but I have a lot of stress around hand/finger trauma from this past year too, so that made it a little harder for me than I think was intended. The world building was great, and the film seemed to delight in itself, which I can always appreciate, even if it's not my thing.

Martyr's Guidebook dir. Maks Rzontkowski

Tony is the ultimate good guy, sometimes to a fault. From nabbing the smallest slice of cake in grade school to guiding lost strangers in the city, his kindness knows no bounds. He also lives with an angel.

This is my top pick of this program, by far. I loved the chunkiness of everything - from the dialogue to the models to the sound design to the movement itself: CHUNKY. The way characters would have reaction shots with intense close ups with no movement or even expression yet still express a huge amount of thought? So exciting, and impressive. Excellent use of alternating white noise as well. Really loved this one. Probably going to watch it again if I can get a friend to come over.

Dona Beatriz Ñsîmba Vita dir. Catapreta

Kimpa Vita fulfills the prophetic mission of leading her people in a racist and unequal society. Set in contemporary Brazil and inspired by the true story of Kimpa Vita, a 17th-century Congolese religious leader.

This one very much made me feel like an American. In that, I could feel that events and cultures were being referenced that I either didn't understand or didn't have context for. Lo and behold, upon reading the description, there was a whole BUNCH of that. The animation style is hard for me to describe, but it made me uncomfortable. Like nose-wrinkling-while-watching uncomfortable. (Not an indicator of quality, but definitely a physical reaction.)

Also, this film gets the award for scariest baby. A+ scary baby mouth.

Baigal Nuur - Lake Baikal dir. Alisi Telengut

The formation of Lake Baikal in Siberia is reimagined, featuring the voice of a Buryat woman who can still recall some words in her endangered Buryat language (a Mongolian dialect).

This is one that made me A) zone out and B) wish that it had some kind of a title card or explanation for what I was watching first. Languages going extinct is something that fascinates me and that I mourn. The art style was also jarring but felt hand-crafted, and lended itself to the slightly hazy feeling of the film (which I only understood in retrospect).

Larry dir. Takeshi Murata

A dog loses grasp of its shape and time while balling like Shaq.

my mom: "Weird, almost to the point of being disturbing." (She was half asleep at the time which I'm sure didn't help.)

This felt like a wild effect demo; lots of afterimages, sliding, looping, falling into one another... It was really bizarre and definitely worth watching, especially if you are interested in the art of visual effects. The model being so darling almost made it worse to look at.

27 dir. Flóra Anna Buda

Alice is 27 years old today. Even though she is suffocating a bit, she still lives with her parents and tends to live in her dreams to escape her dreary everyday life.

Though I cannot relate to a lot of what Alice does in this, I deeply relate to and empathize with the experience of suddenly just... being at home again. It's something that comes up over and over again in my own writing (and, y'know, thinking) and I am so glad that there is artistic expression happening around that uncomfortable confluence of circumstances. Cheers to 27 year olds.


Before we move onto the next thing, I want to reflect on some of the short films from last year that stuck with me and I still think about! (Click that link to see my thoughts at the time. Unfortunately, all of the pages for the films themselves have depreciated... but shoutout to past me for at least saving the director names and descriptions at time of viewing! Hopefully the internet archive has some of them too.)


I'm excited to watch more tomorrow, and find some more films that'll stick with me for a good long time!