Best of the Fest — Friday
Gay Boyfriend
USA, 2003, 2 Minutes
This music video is about the joy of, well, having a gay boyfriend. He’s everything a girl could hope for. He likes to shop, cuddle and watch romantic comedies. At just two minutes, the fun goes by fast.
Tanghi Argentini
Belgium, 2007, 14 Minutes, Subtitled
The winner of multiple major awards at festivals worldwide, including the Audience Award and Best Comedy Award at Clermont-Ferrand, this sublime delight introduces us to André, a man who convinces a reluctant co-worker to teach him the tango in order to win the heart of a woman he’s met online.
Oktapodi
France, 2007, 3 Minutes
Two Octopi, in love, fight for their lives with a stubborn restaurant cook in a comical escape through the streets of a small Greek village.
Full Disclosure
USA, 2005, 16 Minutes
Tired of wasting time on relationships that break up when one person discovers something they can’t stand about the other, Everett decides to reveal all his terrible habits, attitudes, and hang-ups on the first date. Shockingly, women don’t respond as he expects... until he meets Brinn, who’s willing to play his game and try for Full Disclosure.
This Way Up
UK, 2008, 9 minutes
A.T. Shank & Son have a bad day at the funeral parlor when a falling boulder flattens their hearse. Emotional and literal pitfalls lie in wait for the odd couple as they make their way to the grave site. This short, animated caper puts the fun back into funeral. Nominated for 2009 Academy Award for Best Short Film, Animated.
Our Time is Up
USA, 2004, 15 Minutes
Dr. Stern, a clinical psychologist, leads a well ordered life, self-contained, neat, precise, and scheduled. We watch his appointments with eight patients, as he asks questions, listens, and advises them that all will improve in due time.
Then, he gets a call from an oncologist who gives him very bad news. Suddenly, "in due time" becomes "right now": Stern’s therapy methods change, and so do the fortunes of his patients.
Les Maison En Petit Cubes (House of Small Cubes)
Japan, 2008, 12 Minutes
As his town is flooded by water, an old man is forced to add additional levels onto his home with bricks (cubes) in order to stay dry. But when he accidentally drops his favorite smoking pipe into the lower levels of his home, his search for the pipe eventually inspires him to relive memories from his eventful life. This beautiful film is the winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Short Film, Animated.
Intermission
The Savior
Australia, 2005, 18 Minutes
Malcolm, a young Church elder, has been seeing a married woman, but tells his walking partner, Paul, that he must continue to see the woman one-on-one because she’s shy. When the woman breaks off their relationship, Paul struggles with his faith and his feelings for their "most promising prospect".
Spider
USA, 2008, 10 Minutes
“It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.”
— Mum
Enough said about this one.
Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers
Sweden, 2001, 10 minutes
An award-winning short about six drummers who participate in a well-planned musical attack on the suburbs. As an elderly couple leave their apartment the drummers take over. On everyday objects they give a concert in four movements: kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and living room. The drummers perform on everything from dog dishes and slippers to toilet brush and microwave oven. The hidden music in the household objects is just waiting to be brought to life.
West Bank Story
USA, 2005, 21 Minutes
An Oscar winning musical comedy set in the fast-paced, fast-food world of competing falafel stands on the West Bank. David, an Israeli soldier, falls in love with Fatima, a beautiful Palestinian cashier, despite the animosity between their families’ dueling restaurants. Can the couple’s love withstand a 58-year-old conflict and their families’ desire to control the future of the chick pea in the Middle East?
Best of the Fest — Saturday
The ChubbChubbs!
USA, 2002, 6 Minutes
The ChubbChubbs introduces the alien inhabitants of the Planet Glorf, including Meeper, its earnest but oh so awkward hero. In this debut short, Meeper valiantly tries to warn the patrons of the Ale-E-Inn of impending danger, only to find himself face to face with the toughest creatures in the universe. The film won the 2003 Oscar Winner for Best Animated Short.
In God We Trust
USA, 2000, 17 Minutes
Many people first discovered Jason Reitman in 2005 with his feature film debut Thank You For Smoking. And even more people discovered Reitman with the 2007 film, Juno, which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and won Best Screenplay.
In 2000, he directed an award winning short called In God We Trust. The film follows Robert, who is killed by an on-coming SUV while standing in the middle of the street contemplating the motto on a quarter. In the waiting room of the afterlife, the desk clerk tells him that his combined life score is negative, and he is going to hell. When Robert somehow escapes back to Earth, the desk clerk and his colleagues must bring him back to the afterlife. Jason Reitman’s film is about how the little things in life add up.
The Danish Poet
Norway, 2006, 15 Minutes
In The Danish Poet, filmmaker Torill Kove asks whether our lives are just coincidence – or do little things really matter?
The film follows a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet a famous writer. As his quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry goats and other seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all.
Fortune Hunters
Seattle, USA, 2007, 22 Minutes
Arthur Yu has problems. His girlfriend, Megan, is leaving to study abroad in China for a year, leaving him to waste another college vacation working at his dad’s fortune cookie factory. Instead of telling Megan that he’ll wait for her, Arthur makes the biggest mistake of his life and dumps the girl of his dreams.
As he suffers through another summer at the factory, writing fortunes, Arthur’s cookie messages become more and more depressing: You will die alone. Two words: colon cancer. It doesn’t take him long to nearly ruin his father’s business. Finally, at wits end, Arthur decides that the only way to get Megan back is to write her a love letter before she heads overseas. But when his e-mail gets mixed up with his fortunes, suddenly every cookie at every restaurant reveals a piece of Arthur’s broken heart.
Intermission
I Think I Thought
USA, 2008, 7 Minutes
Joe’s life threatens to come apart when he begins thinking too much: at home, at work, on the train, in the bookstore. Luckily, he discovers Thinkers Anonymous where he learns that thinking is best left to professionals like politicians, religious leaders and the news media. After all, they’re the ones who know what’s best for everyone, right?
The Tonto Woman
United Kingdom, 2007, 36 Minutes
Based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, this brilliant film recounts the fateful meeting of a cattle rustler and a singular woman on the harsh frontier of the American West.
The white woman had once been kidnapped from her home by Apache Indians. Traded to the Mojave Indians, she lives as a squaw for 11 years until she is found by her husband. Seen as unfit for society, he keeps her in a shack in the desert. Her solitary existence is transformed with the arrival of an understanding man.
Même les pigeons vont au paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
France, 2007, 9 Minutes, Subtitled
On a moonlit fall night, a priest races to the home of Mr. Mouton running a motorcycle off the road and arriving just in time to catch the old man as he falls from a chair on which he stacked books in order to reach a bottle of cognac.
Mr. Mouton is a miser with a sock full of money that the priest would like to appropriate by selling the old man a space capsule that will take him to paradise. After a test drive and some negotiation, the deal may be struck, but then, there’s a knock at the door.
While the Widow is Away
USA, 2005, 20 minutes
A New York building superintendent makes himself at home in the posh Manhattan apartment of a lonely widow.