USA Tag Archive

Film Festival

13 Standout Short Films from Sundance 2026

From familiar names to emerging voices, we dive into the 2026 Sundance lineup to spotlight thirteen must-watch short films.

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Live Action, Premiere

Mylissa Fitzsimmons Navigates the Messy Territory of Performing Adulthood in Two-Hander Motel Drama ‘I’m Not Sure’

Mylissa Fitzsimmons unpacks crafting a predatory game, blocking actor movement in a cramped motel to amplify the tension of every glance and approach.

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Live Action, Premiere

Annika Chavez Turns a Shared Bathtub Into an Uncertain Stage of Fluid Friendship in Her Wry Short ‘Three Minutes’

Annika Chavez breaks down how experimentation within an organic shoot helped her capture the unspoken weight of a life-changing moment shared in a bathroom.

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Live Action

Temperatures & Tensions Rise as a Grifter Faces the Music in Chelsie Pennello’s Hectic Comedy ‘Cherry-Colored Funk’

Orchestrating a symphony of controlled chaos, Chelsie Pennello & Corbett Blair reveal how they used the tiny confines of an ice cream shop set to full effect.

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Live Action, Premiere

Amandine Thomas & Gerardo Coello Escalante Capture the Uneasy Nuance of the Tourism Economy in Drama Short ‘SUSANA’

Amandine Thomas & Gerardo Coello Escalante explain why they broke the fourth wall to implicate viewers in the uncomfortable economic realities of mass tourism.

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Live Action, Premiere

Gus Reed Choreographs a Delicate Dance of Discontent in His Enigimatic Disquieting Short ‘Losing Season’

Gus Reed breaks down the precise blocking used to map a psychological power struggle when a woman's stagnation is disturbed by an uninvited visitor.

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Live Action, Premiere

Jessica Barr Blurs Performance And Personal Trauma In Her Intimate, Visually Claustrophobic Acting Short ‘Private Moments’

Jessica Barr discusses using the meta-narrative of an acting class to explore the pressure on female filmmakers to mine personal trauma for their art.

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Live Action

A Grieving Man Confronts Unconscious Desires in Jacob Samuels’ Dark Suburban Comedy ‘I Want My Mommy’

Jacob Samuels guides us through the delicate tonal tightrope of his unconventional tale of grief, cringe-inducing confession and existential woe.

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Animation, Premiere

An Aspiring Accordion Player Falls Prey To Insidious Exploitation in Eva Louise Hall’s Stop Motion Horror ‘Mira’

From a modest thesis project to a celebrated festival short, Eva Louise Hall reveals the unexpected journey of her dark tale of abusive creative relationships.

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Live Action, Premiere

Matthew Rollins Blends Cosmic Seeking and Earthly Comedy in His Spiritual Sci-Fi Short ‘Stellan and the Stars’

Discover how Matthew Rollins harnessed a kinetic, handheld visual style to place us directly inside a jaded DJ's chemically-assisted, disoriented headspace.

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Animation, Premiere

Feelings of Tenderness and Dread Collide in Amanda Bonaiuto’s Surreal Animation ‘Confetti’

Animator Amanda Bonaiuto joins us to discuss how tone and direction has guided her distinct approach to filmmaking and why she's wary of the trap of 'style'.

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Live Action

A Bottle to the Head Fractures Reality in Theodore Collatos’s Surreal Slamdance Winning New York Short ‘Palookaville’

Theodore Collatos discusses reflecting the fractured reality suffered following sudden head trauma through the associational editing of his surreal short.

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