Short film review archive

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A — 108 results

• The ABCs Of Book Banning (2023)

  Review preview for The ABCs Of Book Banning

  It’s a simple film, but more powerful for it: a film in defence of words which doesn’t need many to make its point.

  Children discuss their feelings about the increasing pace of book banning by US school districts.
• Above The Knee (2024)

  Review preview for Above The Knee

  Although Jonas describes his leg as rotting, we get only the briefest hints of what this looks like to him. For the most part, it just looks like an ordinary leg, and our understanding of his position comes from Singh’s performance.

  Amir has a secret. He's tormented by visions of his leg rotting and longs to cut it off, convinced it doesn't belong to him. So, he devises a plan - one that will drag everyone around him into his relentless quest for relief.
• The Act (2021)

  Review preview for The Act

  There's something primal at work here that offers compensation for the lack of narrative structure.

  With the world in suspension Dante meets Ava, a woman who offers him her affection to facilitate his crossing over to the other side.
• Adam And Dog (2011)

  Review preview for Adam And Dog

  It's easy to love this animated hound, with his bouncing and his cheerful barking and his wide-eyed affectionate glances.

  In the garden of Eden, Man meets his best friend.
• Affairs Of The Art (2021)

  Review preview for Affairs Of The Art

  The film is a love letter to the sort of women too often squeezed out of cinema.

  A family is obsessed with everything from drawing to taxidermy.
• The After (2023)

  Review preview for The After

  The performance is everything.

  A grieving rideshare driver picks up a passenger who helps him confront the past.
• Aida (2021)

  Review preview for Aida

  The widescreen of Hanane Abi Khalil's camera manages an intimacy, one born of proximity.

  A woman decides to get married. What is her story?
• Akashinga (2020)

  Review preview for Akashinga

  The emphasis is not on the elephants but on the sisterhood, solidarity and empowerment of the women who patrol the parkland where they live.

  Short documentary about female anti-poaching rangers in Zimbabwe.
• Albatross Soup (2018)

  Review preview for Albatross Soup

  Masayoshi Nakamura's vibrant hand-drawn artwork - based on illustrations by Fiona Smyth - evolves in a fluid, dizzying fashion, playfully drawing out different themes.

  A group of people tries to solve a riddle.
• Albert's Speech (2008)

  Review preview for Albert's Speech

  A rather crummy cop-out ending spoils the good-natured laughs

  A look at a best man's plight from the inside out.
• All In Favor (2021)

  Review preview for All In Favor

  The themes, while highlighting everyday prejudice many people with mental health issues face, are heavily handled.

  A tenants' vote turns sour after a revelation.
• All Movements Should Kill The Wind (2019)

  Review preview for All Movements Should Kill The Wind

  This is experimental documentary that seeps, sidles, creeps, cannot be washed off.

  Man shapes his environment, which shapes his brain.
• All Of A Sudden (2026)

  Review preview for All Of A Sudden

  Hamaguchi’s most pointed provocation is not that the nursing home becomes excessive in its care, but that ordinary neglect has trained us to see basic tenderness as excess.

  The director of a nursing home in Paris has an encounter with a terminally ill Japanese playwright that transforms her life.
• All Of Us (2017)

  Review preview for All Of Us

  Benrath does an excellent job of building tension in double-quick time, also finding room for other, less easily evoked emotions, such as regret and doubt.

  When terrorists attack a bus, the passengers make a choice.
• All Of Your Stars Are But Dust On My Shoes (2021)

  Review preview for All Of Your Stars Are But Dust On My Shoes

  From the colonial to the occupying, this is wide ranging as an exploration of something fundamental to cinema.

  A sensorial meditation on how the public administration of light and darkness became an essential policing tool.
• All Over Brazil (2003)

  Review preview for All Over Brazil

  A thoroughly enjoyable exploration of family life, without mum, and neatly encapsulates an era.

  World Cup summer of 1974 and all 13-year-old Steve wants to be is a glam rocker.
• All The Empty Rooms (2025)

  Review preview for All The Empty Rooms

  For the most part...the rooms speak for themselves.

  A short documentary following correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark on a seven-year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings.
• All The Memory Of The World (1957)

  Review preview for All The Memory Of The World

  The smooth roving camera work - occasionally broken with quick cuts - gives the film a dramatic edge, amped up by the Maurice Jarre's stirring and playful lorchestral score.

  Documenting France's national library.
• Alma (2009)

  Review preview for Alma

  Splendidly put together.

  A girl is enchanted by a mysterious toyshop.
• Almost (2020)

  Review preview for Almost

  There’s a blatant challenge here to common expectations about the lives of Deaf and hearing-impaired people.

  A woman meets the girl of her dreams in a library. Everything seems perfect - almost.
• Alone (2017)

  Review preview for Alone

  Bradley has a feel for emotional moments, knowing when to push in close and when to step back.

  An investigation into the layers of mass incarceration and its shaping of the modern Black American family, seen through the eyes of a single mother in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Americanized (2021)

  Review preview for Americanized

  What makes the film interesting is that it goes beyond simply depicting Eng’s struggles to explore how far she’s willing to go to fit in.

  A teenager struggles to fit in, finding herself caught between the Chinese and American aspects of her identity.
• American Sikh (2023)

  Review preview for American Sikh

  The animation used, accompanied by a zippy score from River Nason, fittingly takes its inspiration from superhero comic books.

  Short documentary profiling cartoonist Vishavjit Singh and outlining his unique form of activism.
• Aamir (2017)

  Review preview for Aamir

  Asaad's performance is astonishing.

  A well meaning but thinly stretched British volunteer becomes the last hope for a young teenager alone in a refugee camp.
• Anarchism At Two O'Clock (2023)

  Review preview for Anarchism At Two O'Clock

  There's real delicacy within the performances.

  In 1940s Spain, two young seamstress sisters have their lives changed during the Civil War. In resistance to the Franco dictatorship, the anarchists leave their house every day at two o'clock.
• Anastasia (2022)

  Review preview for Anastasia

  Although Denis Sinyakov’s camera takes an intimate position within the trip, there’s a constant sense of collaboration with all three generations that means although raw emotion is captured, the filmmaking never feels intrusive.

  A Russian activist and her family prepare to say a last goodbye.
• Ancestral Beasts (2026)

  Review preview for Ancestral Beasts

  The realist approach that [Riedel] takes to the film as a whole means that when it slips out of that space, the result is truly unsettling.

  A troubled Métis woman commits to finally facing the figurative demons in her past only to uncover a literal demon living within the bowels of her rural home that she must battle before it kills her and everyone she loves.
• Angela (2018)

  Review preview for Angela

  As gentle and as enjoyable as a sunny afternoon in the park , but perhaps as ephemeral.

  A Cuban immigrant tries to find her place in New York City.
• Angelou On Burns (1966)

  Review preview for Angelou On Burns

  This is Angelou at her most magnetic.

  A documentary which follows Maya Angelou on a visit to Ayrshire where she explores similarities between Robert Burns’ life and her own.
• Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison (2022)

  Review preview for Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison

  Although Northern shows the powerful nature of Peterson's play, he is less successful at illustrating its impact on the prison itself.

  The story of playwright Liza Jessie Peterson's performance of The Peculiar Patriot at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary and its impact.
• Anna (2019)

  Review preview for Anna

  Barandich's down-to-Earth charm and brusque humour anchors a film which finds absurdity in the commonplace details of life.

  A single mother living in war-torn Ukraine is tempted by the chance to attend a party where she could meet American men looking for wives.
• Anuja (2024)

  Review preview for Anuja

  Although we see the girls struggle, we also see their agency, their humour and their wit.

  When a gifted 9-year-old girl, who works in a garment factory, is offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend school, she is forced to make a heart-wrenching decision that will determine her own and her sister's fate.
• Any Wednesday (2018)

  Review preview for Any Wednesday

  Delicately judged and interspersed with moments of gentle comedy, what may sound like a saccharine story of friendship against the odds manifests onscreen as something much more intelligent and nuanced.

  An octogenarian with dementia meets a PTSD afflicted homeless war veteran after choir practice and gives him a ride instead of going home.
• An Asian Ghost Story (2023)

  Review preview for An Asian Ghost Story

  Wang’s affection for his subject matter is clear, but he also seems to delight in inviting the viewer to question what’s relayed.

  Documentary exploring the haunting memories of Asia’s late 20th-century modernisation through the large-scale export of wigs during the Cold War.
• An Avocado Pit (2022)

  Review preview for An Avocado Pit

  Sara Marques’ editing … is simply brilliant. It’s this which elevates the film beyond conventional storytelling and makes it about living and breathing in the moment.

  A trans woman and a cis man meet one night in the streets of Lisbon. Two people, two realities, who dance their differences away till morning light. In challenge, in surprise, in awe and in recognition.
• An Exercise in Discipline: Peel (1982)

  Review preview for An Exercise in Discipline: Peel

  Jane Campion’s debut short thrives on unpredictable rhythms.

  A battle of wills breaks out on a car journey.
• An Incredibly Elastic Man (2014)

  Review preview for An Incredibly Elastic Man

  Gorgeous to look at, and listen to.

  The animated tale of a man born without his own shape, who keeps being shaped by others.
• An Irish Goodbye (2022)

  Review preview for An Irish Goodbye

  Despite a strong performance from Martin it feels a half-hearted black comedy, never quite finding its pitch.

  In rural Northern Ireland, a pair of estranged brothers reunite following their mother's untimely death.
• An Ostrich Told Me The World Is Fake And I Think I Believe It (2022)

  Review preview for An Ostrich Told Me The World Is Fake And I Think I Believe It

  Addresses existential terror with a pleasing whimsy.

  A young office worker uncovers the flaws in his stop-motion universe with the help of a mysterious talking ostrich.
• Aqueronte (2023)

  Review preview for Aqueronte

  The deliberate, measured pacing and sparse dialogue contribute significantly to the film's emotional resonance.

  A foggy journey by ferry sees the passengers grapple with existential questions.
• Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud (2025)

  Review preview for Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud

  The film is a little haphazard in structure, but is anything, this is an asset, reflecting he chaotic nature of Brent and Craig’s lives.

  An intimate chronicle about documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, the first American journalist killed while reporting on the Russo-Ukrainian War.
• Arthur & Merlin: Knights Of Camelot (2020)

  Review preview for Arthur & Merlin: Knights Of Camelot

  Alderson's film acquits itself better than some entries in the genre by dint of the fact that it has an idea of its own.

  A much older King Arthur returns home after fighting the Roman Empire. His illegitimate son has corrupted the throne of Camelot. Now King Arthur must reunite with the wizard Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table and fight to get back his crown.
• Ashley (2020)

  Review preview for Ashley

  Crewe's success lies in managing all this uncertainty whilst maintaining a sense of directional narrative and keeping the film interesting to watch.

  A troubled individual searches for understanding on a weekend away in the wilderness.
• Ashmina (2018)

  Review preview for Ashmina

  With an intense central performance from newcomer Dikshya Karki, this is a film about the people whose lives pass by unseen.

  A 13-year-old girl spends her working life helping others have fun, but longs for more.
• The Astronomer's Sun (2010)

  Review preview for The Astronomer's Sun

  Served well by David Aston's sound work, the machinery and the small quantity of voicework, and by Peter Wright's music, it's technically excellent.

  A man and a mechanical bear head to an observatory to confront his past.
• Asylum Birds (2005)

  Review preview for Asylum Birds

  Asylum Birds is one of those rare cinematic gems which marks the appearance of a truly remarkable new talent.

  A poetic exploration of the concept of freedom.
• As The Earth Turns (2019)

  Review preview for As The Earth Turns

  For those with an interest in the history of special effects, it's compelling viewing.

  An apocalyptic future war that could destroy the planet is explored in this silent film, shot in 1938.
• Atomic Hubbub (2009)

  Review preview for Atomic Hubbub

  Irwin's film is populated by an assortment of creatures who seem not quite human in the first place.

  Helpful advice on what to do to survive a nuclear attack.
• Attack On Paradise (2026)

  Review preview for Attack On Paradise

  Director Bob Colaers shows us the strain in the way that Boumazoughe fights, which is its own kind of impressive.

  Newly released after seven years in prison, Suleyman only wishes to return to Antwerp’s Paradise apartment complex and spend time with his ailing mother, but to protect her, he's going to need to fight cops and criminals alike.
• At Land (1944)

  Review preview for At Land

  The fact that At Land works so well reminds us that Meshes was no accident.

  Surrealist avant-garde classic following a woman's journey of discovery.