March is the height of awards season in the world of cinema and although the 2022 Oscar ceremony will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, there was lots of great short Film news emanating from the prize-givings. Just over a week before the Academy Awards were handed out, in the UK, we saw the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film presented to The Black Cop – a captivating docu-drama focused on an ex-police officer’s experiences with racism – while prestigious education establishment the NFTS scored another BAFTA win, to add to its ever-growing list, when Do Not Feed The Pigeons won the Best British Short Animation prize.

With S/W alums in each of the three Oscar short film categories, we were keeping an extra close eye on the winners this year, with our fingers crossed that at least one of our previously featured filmmakers would walk away with a statuette and things went better than we could have hoped, with all three awards going to films featured on Short of the Week – and even better, all still available to watch online. Here’s a reminder of the winners, in case you missed them:

• Best Animated Short Film: The Windshield Wiper by Alberto Mielgo
• Best Documentary (Short Subject): The Queen of Basketball by Ben Proudfoot
• Best Live Action Short Film: The Long Goodbye by Aneil Karia

Before the awards, we’d even invited filmmaker Proudfoot, who had been nominated in 2021 with his short A Concerto is a Conversation, onto our site to discuss the demotion of the shorts categories from the live-broadcast. Instead of bad-mouthing the Academy however, he used our invitation to pen an impassioned battle cry for short docs.

TEAM FAVOURITES

Away from all the awards hullabaloo, we featured 19-films on Short of the Week throughout March, ranging from true crime stories to adorable tiny worlds. For the three shorts our team are picking as their favourites of the month we opted for a mixed-media animation overflowing with existential depth, an otherworldy RCA grad film full of happy dildos and flaccid-nosed creatures and an innuendo-filled Badminton comedy playfully exploring modern masculinity. What a weird and wonderful trio! 

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Eating in the Dark by Inari Sirola

I love that Inari Sirola used humour to tackle a really difficult period of her life and that she was brave enough to have that time be the inspiration for her graduation animation at the Royal College of Arts. Eating In The Dark is such a mind-f*ck that you can’t help but get absolutely sucked into the otherworldly weirdness full of happy dildos and flaccid-nosed creatures – Serafima Serafimova

[READ THE FULL REVIEW]

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O Black Hole! by Renee Zhan

Zhan has always had a talent for creating distinct, original and surprising short films, but with NFTS mixed-media piece O Black Hole! she has far exceeded the usual free-spirited approach we expect from her. Blending frantic hand-drawn animation with fluid, tactile stop-motion this film is an absolute treat in terms of craft, but with a myth-like narrative overflowing with existential depth, it’s no slouch in the storytelling department either. An easy pick for my fav. of the month and a film that will be very hard to beat when it comes time to select award winners at the end of 2022. – Rob Munday

[READ THE FULL REVIEW]

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Shuttlecock by Tommy Gillard

Shuttlecock plays into the toxic masculinity commonly found in sport events yet centers around a highly eroticized rivalry between two physically contrasting males lending itself to a thoughtfully crafted and amusing watch. – Kirsten Wagstaff

[READ THE FULL REVIEW]

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MOST VIEWED

Kachalka by Gar O’Rourke

With all that’s happening in the world right now, it only feels right that a film celebrating “the Ukrainian spirit and what makes it truly unique” would be our ‘Most-Viewed’ film of the month. Transporting its viewers to the legendary Kachalka open-air gym in Kyiv this largely observational doc tackles themes of community, resourcefulness and friendship in its tight 10-minute run-time.

[READ THE FULL REVIEW]

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