Short Films
When I started critiquing films, I avoided making some of the blanket statements for Shorts that I freely made for features as there are so many Shorts and it is difficult to see enough to say where each fit in the development of film. However, I found that there are few useful sites (or books) on Short Film so anything I have to say, even if incomplete, is an improvement on the current state of affairs. Besides, I’m very, very clever.
There are multiple types of short film, so let me start by saying what I won’t be talking about. I’m not going to discuss television commercials. While they are the most prevalent type of Short Film, they generally lack artistic value and include little in the way of theme beyond “buy our product.” However, they are often on the cutting edge of film technique and sometimes there is something worth looking at. I’m also going to ignore episodic television, which has a very complicated relationship with the traditional category of Short Film. (The exception is for Christmas shorts.)
So that leaves films under an hour in length, that have appeared on the large screen, or as video releases, on web sites, on television, or in some form of anthology. That’s a lot of ground to cover.
For other categories on this site (Film Noir, Swashbuckler, Science Fiction, British Comedy), I list the 10 most important films. But those are genres or movements; Shorts are a considerably larger group. I will list the most important Shorts, but think of them more as the films to see if you want to discuss Short Film rather than ones that molded the art form.
But the real lack I’d like to address is in critiques of modern Shorts. So, I will list the ones worth your time to seek out. I’m not going to limit myself to 10, but rather create an ever growing database of the current state of the art. These films won’t be the most important, they will be the best.
Take a look at: