With Sundance Film Festival officially kicking off today, we’ve got a treat for readers who can’t make it to Park City. After an unveiling of the official line-up of short films premiering at the event, the festival has made available 15 of the selections to compete for the YouTube Audience Award, like they did last year.
A wide range of selections from all over the world, perhaps the most notable inclusions at first glance is the 17-minute Gregory Go Boom, which features Michael Cera as paraplegic man who breaks out of his shell, as well as Todd Rohal‘s Rat Pack Rat, following a Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator. Available from now until the 24th, it’s simply the video with the most views that wins the award, so check out all the shorts below in the playlist, and read on further for additional descriptions of each.
Allergy to Originality (Drew Christie; 4 min, U.S.A.)
A humorous animated ‘Op-Doc’ explores the rich history of adaptation, plagiarism, and other forms of appropriation in art.
The Big House (Musa Syeed; 5 min, U.S.A./Yemen)
When a young Yemeni boy ventures out of his cramped apartment and finds a key to the empty mansion down the street, he lets himself and his imagination run wild in the big house.
Burger (Magnus Mork; 11 min, Norway/United Kingdom)
It’s late night in a burger bar.
Catherine (Dean Fleischer-Camp; 13 min, U.S.A.)
Catherine returns to work after a hiatus.
Chapel Perilous (Matthew Lessner; 13 min, U.S.A.)
Levi Gold is paid an unexpected visit by Robin, a door-to-door salesman with nothing to sell. The ensuing encounter forces Levi to confront his true mystical calling, and the nature of reality itself. A metaphysical comedy trip-out with Sun Araw.
Crime The Animated Series (Marcus McGhee) (Alix Lambert and Sam Chou; 4 min, U.S.A./Canada)
From Bank robbers to cops to victims to observers, Crime: The Animated Series explores how crime affects us all. The series is dark, compelling, heartbreaking, and yes – sometimes funny.
Cruising Electric (1980) (Brumby Boylston; 1 min, U.S.A.)
The marketing department green-lights a red-light tie-in: 60 lost seconds of modern movie merchandising.
Dig (Toby Halbrooks; 10 min, U.S.A.)
A young girl watches her father dig a hole in their backyard. Mystified about his purpose, the neighborhood comes to watch.
Funnel (Andre Hyland; 7 min, U.S.A.)
A man’s car breaks down and sends him on a quest across town that slowly turns into the most fantastically mundane adventure.
Gregory Go Boom (Janicza Bravo; 17 min, U.S.A.)
A paraplegic man leaves home for the first time only to discover that life in the outside world is not the way he had imagined it.
MeTube: August Sings Carmen ‘Habanera’ (Daniel Moshel; 4 min, Austria)
George Bizet`s “Habanera” from Carmen has been reinterpreted and enhanced with electronic sounds for MeTube, a homage to thousands of ambitious YouTube users and video bloggers, and gifted and less gifted self-promoters on the Internet.
Notes on Blindness (Peter Middleton and James Spinney; 13 min, United Kingdom)
In 1983, writer and theologian John Hull became blind. To help make sense of his loss, he began keeping an audio diary. Encompassing dreams, memories, and his imaginative life, Notes on Blindness immerses the viewer in Hull’s experience of blindness.
Passer Passer (Louis Morton; 4 min, U.S.A.)
An animated city symphony celebrates the hidden world of background noise.
Rat Pack Rat (Todd Rohal; 19 min, U.S.A.)
A Sammy Davis, Jr. impersonator, hired to visit with a loyal Rat Pack fan, finds himself delivering last rights at the boy’s bedside.
Tim and Susan Have Matching Handguns (Joe Callander; 2 min, U.S.A.)
Love is swapping clips with your spouse.
What’s your favorite short of the batch?
