Netflix has acquired exclusive streaming rights to The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life, an Oscar-nominated documentary short about pianist and Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer. The film will be available April 1. It’s subject, believed to have been the oldest-living Holocaust survivor, died on Sunday at the age of 110. To read more on…
Short film round-up
For something that is at once charmingly fantastical and deeply relatable, check out I Am Tom Moody, a seven-minute animated short from Ainslie Henderson. The film follows a young amateur entertainer struggling with the conflicting voices in his head, one plagued by insecurity and the other aggressively negative. The stop-motion animation is masterfully done, and the…
Short film round-up
For a delightfully whimsical and slightly melancholy treat, take a look at Cicada Princess, a seven-minute short from Mauchi Baiocchi that blends nature and fantasy to stunning effect. Using remarkably detailed puppetry, Baiocchi presents the life cycle of the cicada as a Cinderella story, narrated beautifully by the always excellent Stephen Fry. It’s a gorgeous little…
Short film round-up
If black comedy is your cup of tea, take a look at DEAD…, a brightly macabre little film from Royal College of Art student Joe Bichard. The four-minute animated film takes a darkly gleeful look at death and grief through the eyes of a young boy who has lost his entire family. Bichard isn’t afraid to…
Short film round-up
For a delightfully twisted treat, take a look at Status Update, an 11-minute short from Daniel Reisinger. The film follows a lovesick office worker who suddenly discovers that everything he posts on Facebook comes true. Of course, he quickly begins putting his newfound power to use, with hilarious and shocking results. Reisinger uses the element of…
Short film round-up
As someone who isn’t too fond of Wes Anderson’s feature films, I was pleasantly surprised by Castello Cavalcanti, an eight-minute short commissioned by Prada that stars Jason Schwartzman as a 1950s race car driver who has an unfortunate crash in a small Italian town. Though certainly stylish, it’s a little subtler than Anderson’s usual efforts, and…
Short film round-up
Fans of stand-up comedy will love Omid Singh’s Subway, in which the comedian and filmmaker recounts the tale of an unfortunate public transportation experience. The three-minute short combines shots of Singh telling his story with a dramatization of the event, doubling the humor and delivering maximum impact in a brief amount of time. A winner at…
Short film round-up
For a sweetly melancholic treat, take a look at Reflections, a five-minute animated short from Bosmat Agayoff & Alon Ziv. It’s a sad little coming-of-age story that’s told through the eyes of a man named “Barnie,” whose desire to stay young is illustrated by the childish reflection that taunts him from various reflective surfaces. The sharp 2D…
Short film round-up
One of the highlights of this year’s No Budget Film Festival was Andrew Crabtree’s Planning Ahead, which won the festival’s Critic’s Choice Award. A sweetly acerbic little tale, it stars Emma Fasler and Bill Daddario as an engaged couple struggling to plan their wedding without losing their minds. In a mere seven minutes, Crabtree sends his…
