Cinematical

I like watching all kinds of short films, but I have a particular liking for very short shorts -- microshorts, I suppose they're called. I've been moved and impressed by 20-minute and even half-hour long short films, but give me a film under five minutes in length and I'm easy to please. Let's not forget that one of the best-known short films ever, the 1969 classic Bambi Meets Godzilla, is only two minutes long, including credits. So when I found out DepicT!, a competition for shorts under 90 seconds, and learned that the competition's website includes many of the winning shorts, you know I was in short-film heaven. The competition is currently accepting entries through Sept. 3, so if you've got a short film that qualifies, send it to them ... and to me too!

This week's list of shorts (after the jump) also includes a couple of robot-themed films, for no other reason than that someone sent me one and it made me think of another one I liked. I could do a whole week of nothing but robot shorts ... maybe next time. Remember, if you've got a short film available online (or have seen one you like), whether or not it contains robots, please email us the URL to shorts AT cinematical DOT com.

• How to Tell When a Relationship is Over -- Short and funny, this film contains 90 seconds of clues about how you can tell -- well, what the title says. One of the shortlisted finalists in the DepicT! short film competition.
  
• Flighty -- The 2006 animated-film winner from the above-mentioned DepicT!, and deservedly so. It's about the short life of butterflies, depicted as speed-dating. Those 90-second shorts on the DepicT! site are like potato chips -- once you get on there and start watching the films, it's hard to stop. Don't blame me.
  
• Guest of the Nation -- Be prepared to slow down a bit for this film, which takes its time (less than 6 minutes) to present a compelling portrait of one man in a strange country.
  
• Avenged -- Animated short about robot wars, with a human twist. I liked the animation style -- very clean and almost minimalist at times, or at least minimalist for robots.
• Alive in Joburg -- Speaking of robots, have you seen this film from Neill Blomkamp yet? (I know we've mentioned it before, but it's that good.) The copy posted on Google isn't best quality, but it's still worth watching. It's a documentary-style drama about robot-like creatures who appear in Johannesburg, South Africa. After making this short, Blomkamp was slated to work on a slightly longer and bigger-budget film, Halo, until production was halted last year.