Shorts »

I was glad I opted to watch the opening night shorts program at this year's Sundance Film Festival because it was packed with four fantastic short films. One of those (arguably the favorite of the bunch) was an animated film called Logorama, written and directed by the French duo of François Alaux and Herve de Crecy. Now nominated for a Best Animated Short Oscar, Logorama takes place in a world full of corporate and brand logos (in which roughly 2,500 appear), and it follows a few different stories that all intertwine with one another. Honestly, it's bloody brilliant, and I guarantee it'll be the best thing you watch all week.

At Sundance, a bunch of us wondered how these guys could get away with making something like this without facing hundreds of lawsuits, and then we wondered whether legal matters would ever stop it from existing in some form online. Perhaps someone with a law background could chime in here, but in the meantime you simply must head after the jump to watch this film. My favorite part is the Joker-esque Ronald McDonald, but it's also the tiniest details that truly make this film a work of art. You may normally not pay attention to the short film categories at the Oscars (partly because they're not as widely distributed as the feature films), but after watching Logorama I think you'll be rooting for it come March 7th.

Check it out after the jump and let us know what you think.

Years ago, there were elimination dances. They weren't like the National Bandstand dance-off at Rydell High, where it all came down to stunning Travolta moves. Rather, a caller (announcer) would call out random, arbitrary disqualifications -- such as "anyone wearing a red hat" -- and the couple would have to leave the floor. Remembering the old days, writer Michael Ondaatje took the idea to its most illogically funny extreme with his book Elimination Dance, detailing a caller who comes up with strange disqualifications that somehow hit the mark.

It wasn't long before the book was made into a short film full of Canadian talent. Bruce McDonald directed and co-wrote with Don McKellar, who also starred alongside oft-collaborator Tracy Wright, with the whole thing edited by Leslie, My Name is Evil helmer Reginald Harkema. Tracy and Don meet just before the elimination dance begins, and on the floor, they dance along happily while others get shoo'd off for mistaking a penis for a loaf of bread, losing a urine sample in the mail, going to court to be a character witness for a dog -- you get the idea.

It's ridiculous in that Saddest Music in the World sort of way, and the perfect diversion during the Wednesday slump. Hit the jump to watch the short for yourself and beware: It's NSFW with brief nudity.

Director Spike Jonze's 30-minute short film I'm Here, which played as part of the Short Films program (number 1, in case you're here and want to catch it), will be airing on IFC sometime later this year, according to EW. The ink probably hasn't dried on the deal yet, or it's waiting to be written, but this is a fantastic little short film that needs to be seen by a wider audience.

Jonze admits he was partly inspired by Shel Silverstein's book The Giving Tree, and it's a lovelorn robot tale starring Andrew Garfield and Sienna Guillory, which you can read all about right here on Cinematical. Or, if you really want to build up some anticipation for this, check out the trailer here. I'm glad the IFC is putting shorts on their channel, and I hope they pick up a few more from the festival, including the incredible Logorama, and the extremely awesome Six Dollar Fifty Man. Come on IFC, in for a penny, in for a pound.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is at Sundance for the fourth time, having previously appeared with the notable films Brick (2005) and last year's (500) Days of Summer. This year he's appearing at the festival in Hesher, and he's pimping his own open-source film project called hitRECord.org. It's an interesting collaboration between artists, where anyone can be the filmmaker, the composer, the effects artist, or ... pretty much anything you want to be. And by artists, we mean you.

Anyone in the world can sign up at the website, and upload their own clips, tweak existing clips, add soundtracks, record new voiceovers, etc. Films can be recorded on anything from a professional grade camera or a cell phone (or anything in-between), and Gordon-Levitt, or RegularJOE as he's known on the website, hopes to produce a full project that will be released in some sort of money-making format (DVD, VOD, small theatrical run, online, etc) where half of the money will go to the artists who were selected to work on the project, and the other half will go back into funding for hitRECord.

It's an ambitious project, and you can see one of the completed shorts embedded just beyond the break. If you're a budding filmmaker with an extremely limited budget but lots of imagination, this might be the short-film generating outlet you're looking for.

3D isn't only for the movie theaters and televisions, folks. In commemoration of the first anniversary of their online screening room (yesterday!), the National Film Board of Canada is sending out free 3D glasses and launching two new sections of their site to offer viewers goodies in both 3D and HD. This adds to the 1,400+ titles already available for free viewing on the website.

The 3D section is kicking off with the shorts Falling in Love Again, Drux Flux, Sandde, and Facing Champlain, plus a number of making-of feature for Champlain. On the HD side of things, there's a little more variety. While Cordell Barker got his latest short, Runaway, screening at Sundance (brief review here), his Oscar-nominated 1988 short The Cat Came Back is on the site, along with flicks that include the 1965 short High Steel, Chris Landreth's Oscar-winning Ryan, the 2007 Oscar nominee Madame Tutli-Putli, and The Stratford Adventure, which includes footage of the iconic Alec Guinness.

Best of all, there's none of that darned region-blocking, so everyone should be able to dig into all that the NFB has to offer. Currently, the NFB is offering free Color Code glasses to watch the 3D shorts online. If you live in Canada, the shipping is free, and if you live Stateside, my sources tell me they're still free ... you just have to pay a buck for shipping.

In less than a week from now the 2010 Sundance Film Festival will get underway, and a few of us here at Cinematical (Scott Weinberg, Eric D. Snider, Kevin Kelly, Erik Childress and yours truly) will be heading to sunny Park City, Utah with one mission: to bring back word on what could be some of the hottest (and most worthwhile) independent films of 2010. While we continue our Sundance Primer series through this week and next, we also thought it might be a good time to throw some love at all the short films premiering at this year's festival (because once things get started, the poor shorts always seem to get shafted). Yes, this year's short film lineup does include films from Spike Jonze and James Franco -- and I'm sure you'll see coverage of those two all over these internets -- but what about the others?

We'll definitely try to get you some coverage of the shorts once the festival begins, but in the meantime a whole bunch of them have put up trailers online (and, keep this under your hat, but in some cases you can watch the entire film). In order to make it so you don't have tons upon tons of videos to scroll through, we decided to split this up into two parts. You can check out the first part here, in which we went over the U.S. short films. Today we'll bring you trailers, teasers and footage from the shorts screening in the following three categories: International Dramatic, Documentary and Animated. There's not a whole lot out there for the international shorts, so if you're a filmmaker for an international short and you have a trailer online, definitely contact us and we'll include it.

Head after the jump to watch the second round of trailers ...

In about a week and a half from now the 2010 Sundance Film Festival will get underway, and a few of us here at Cinematical (Scott Weinberg, Eric D. Snider, Kevin Kelly, Erik Childress and yours truly) will be heading to sunny Park City, Utah with one mission: to bring back word on what could be some of the hottest (and most worthwhile) independent films of 2010. While we continue our Sundance Primer series through this week, we also thought it might be a good time to throw some love at all the short films premiering at this year's festival (because once things get started, the poor shorts always seem to get shafted). Yes, this year's short film lineup does include films from Spike Jonze and James Franco -- and I'm sure you'll see coverage of those two all over these internets -- but what about the others?

We'll definitely try to get you some coverage of the shorts once the festival begins, but in the meantime a whole bunch of them have put up trailers online (and, keep this under your hat, but in some cases you can watch the entire film). In order to make it so you don't have tons upon tons of videos to scroll through, we decided to split this up into two parts. Today we'll bring you trailers, teasers and footage from the shorts screening in the following three categories: U.S. Dramatic Shorts, U.S. Documentary Shorts, and U.S. Animated Shorts. Next time we'll show you what's out there for all the foreign language shorts. Oh, and if you're involved with a film and there's a trailer online, but you don't see it on here, then shoot us a note and we'll make sure it gets the proper love.

Head after the jump to watch the first round of trailers ...

Before you watch the video embedded in this post, I must warn you that you'll most definitely get your cry on. So if you're surrounded by people and don't really want them to see you wiping away tears and sniffling up a storm, you might want to wait until you have some alone time before diving in. Directed and edited by Eliot Rausch, Last Minutes with Oden is a short documentary about a guy who's saying goodbye to his best friend Oden -- a dog that helped bring more love into his life than he could ever possibly imagine.

Throughout the six-minute doc we learn little bits and pieces about Jason Wood, whose dog Oden is sick and needs to be put down. We know Jason spent some time in prison and has been around drugs for a good portion of his life. We also know that Oden came into the picture at a time when Jason really needed to feel a connection, be it spiritually or emotionally, and now we're following the two as one journey ends and another begins. There's something incredibly powerful and personal about this tiny slice of life, and I'm sure pet owners will connect with it immediately. I also find it somewhat fitting to watch this as the holidays approach, possibly as something that will help you tap into the importance of family and friendships in all our lives.

So, yeah, this one is gonna hurt a little. But it's pretty damn beautiful, and I'm sure everyone will take away something different after watching it. Check out Last Minutes with Oden after the jump.

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival has just announced its slate of short films, broken up into several sections (U.S. Dramatic, Documentary, Animated, International Dramatic, Documentary, Animated and New Frontier). Unlike previous years where one narrative film opened the festival, Sundance will be switching it up in 2010 and premiering one shorts program, one documentary and one narrative film all on the same night, Thursday, January 21. Said shorts program will feature shorts from Spike Jonze (I'm Here), Rory Kennedy (The Fence), Patrik Eklund (Seeds of the Fall) and François Alaux and Hervé de Crécy (Logorama).

Most notable among this year's batch of shorts is that Spike Jonze and James Franco both have films screening. Jonze's short, titled I'm Here, is a robot love story starring Andrew Garfield, whereas Franco's -- titled Herbert White -- stars Michael Shannon and is based on the poem of the same name. But aside from the celebrity short filmmakers, I've highlighted 10 shorts that sound pretty damn enticing. Check them out below, and the full list after the jump.

TUB (Director and screenwriter: Bobby Miller) -- It's just your typical story about a guy who can't commit to his girlfriend...who then jerks off in the shower...and accidentally impregnates his tub.

Logorama / France (Directors and screenwriters: François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain) -- Spectacular car chases, an intense hostage crisis, and wild animals rampaging through the city, change a world constructed by heavy corporate sponsorship.

My Mom Smokes Weed (Director and screenwriter: Clay Liford) -- After a loyal son comes home to visit his aging mother, she assigns him some chores -- one of which involves a road trip to help satiate her desire for a certain special herb.

NEW MEDIA (Director and screenwriter: J.J. Adler) -- Living in the lap of luxury through no achievement of his own, an out of touch, middle-aged poseur tries to make good by getting in on the 'viral video' craze.

Dark and gritty have become the keywords for comic-based movies, but it's not a trend that's confined to the big screen. A lot of comics are saving studios the trouble, and spinning their own gloomy version of a popular tale, and Hollywood is responding by optioning them all up. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the latest to sign on the dotted line is Zenescope, who will be helping to bring The Piper to the big screen.

The Piper is a four-issue series by Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco, and is part of Zenescope's Grimm Fairy Tales line that puts a lot of emphasis on the grim. (That's not hard given most original fairy tales.) Piper takes the story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin, and turns him into a bogeyman that is revived by high school student Sean. Tormented by bullies, Sean seeks someone to help him exact revenge. But if you've seen any film where a figure is revived by the Book of the Lost, you know things will get a lot bloodier than anyone imagined. You can check out the first few pages online. As usual with Zenescope's books, the art is pretty special.

Persistant Entertainment has the project open to writers, so if you're a screenwriter who is feeling a little bloodthirsty, you can give it a shot. The rest of us will have to wait to see if it comes together, and if it's a strong enough tune to carry us into the theater.