As 2024 comes to an end, Close-Up Culture name our favourite short films of the year.
50. The 21 – Tod Polson
The story of the Coptic men who were brutally murdered by ISIS in Libya in 2015.
49. I Am Ready, Warden – Smriti Mundhra
In the days leading up to his execution, Texas death row prisoner John Henry Ramirez seeks redemption from his victim’s son.
48. Circle – Joung Yu-mi
A girl draws a circle on the ground. Passers-by step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people.
47. Ootid – Eglė Razumaitė
Girls at summer camp raise different versions of what happened to one of their friends who had to leave the camp and go home.
46. A Swim Lesson – Rashida Jones & Will McCormack
An ode to an everyday hero: Bill Marsh, a swim teacher who helps children manage their fears and discover their own power when submerged in an overwhelming unknown.
45. Trapped – David Cutler-Kreutz & Sam Cutler-Kreutz
A high school janitor runs through a series of dangerous obstacles.
44. Father’s Letters – Alexey Evstigneev
One winter day in 1934. Professor Vangengheim, meteorologist, Party member and victim of the Stalinist purges, is taken to the Gulag on the Solovki Islands. To protect his daughter Elya, he pretends to be on a voyage of exploration, sending her letters and herbariums from the islands.
43. Towards The Sun, Far From The Center (Al sol, lejos del centro) – Luciana Merino & Pascal Viveros
Santiago in the shimmering summer heat. High-res images undergo a digital zoom which transforms spaces into surfaces and houses into textures. In between, there are the small gestures of everyday urban life. And two women in search of a place for their love.
42. La Cascada – Pablo Delgado
A man discovers he has been crying for two months. His tears are strangely working in an inverse manner, transforming his interiors into a waterfall. He has to find a way to stop a cry he can’t even feel.
41. Anuja – Adam J. Graves
When Anuja, a precocious nine-year-old orphan, quits school to work alongside her sister at a local garment factory, she finds herself faced with a choice that will determine the fate of her future and her family.
40. Drago – Daniel Zvereff
A boy dreams of becoming a doctor. War forces him and his mother to flee their village for New York City where they struggle to start a new life.
39. Bacata – Fanny Liatard & Jérémy Trouilh
Bacata is the first name of Bogotá: the lady of the Andes, the mountain that lights up. It’s also the name of a tower, the tallest in Colombia, never completed.
38. Instruments of a Beating Heart – Ema Ryan Yamazaki
First graders in a Tokyo public elementary school are presented with a challenge for the final semester: performing “Ode to Joy” at the ceremony for the new incoming first graders.
37. Bottle George – Daisuke ‘Dice’ Tsutsumi
George, a strange caterpillar-like creature stuck in the bottle of alcohol, meets a girl and her cat.
36. Goodbye First Love – Shuli Huang
He pays him a visit in Frankfurt during his work trip in Europe. He talks about their time in Beijing. He listens, sometimes, answers, unblurring those seemingly important details, which do not matter any longer.
35. A Bear Named Wotjek – Iain Gardner
The journey of an orphaned Syrian brown bear brought to Edinburgh, having been previously adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II.
34. Edge Of Space – Jean de Meuron
Set in 1961, during the height of the US-Soviet space race, an ambitious USAF test pilot is recruited by NASA for a daring suborbital mission in an X-15 hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft with astronomical implications.
33. Chasing Roo – Skye Fitzgerald
In the heart of the Australian Outback, a contentious practice happens nightly: hunting kangaroos.
32. We Will Not Be The Last – Mili Pecherer
What if the famous biblical ark, the last refuge of humankind and the animal kingdom during the great flood, was not merely an act of divine intervention but, instead, a meticulously planned programme for professional reintegration?
31. Ella se queda (She Stays) – Marinthia Gutiérrez
Throughout a night out in downtown Tijuana, Laura waits for her destiny to arrive.
30. Planetwalker – Dominic & Nadia Gill
In 1971 John Francis, known the world over as ‘Planetwalker,’ witnessed an oil tanker collision in the San Francisco Bay. The sight of oiled birds on the shoreline caused him to give up motorized transport and rely solely on his own two feet. Months after that he took a vow of silence convinced that listening rather than adding fuel to any fire was the way ahead.
29. The Last Ranger – Cindy Lee
When young Litha is introduced to the magic of a game reserve by the last remaining ranger, they are ambushed by poachers.
28. Percebes – Laura Gonçalves & Alexandra Ramires
With the sea and the urban Algarve as a background, we follow a complete cycle of the life of a special shellfish called Percebes, goose barnacle.
27. Remains Of A Hot Day (Re tian wu hou) – Wenqian Zhang
China at the end of the 1990s, lunch in an extended family. The father works in distant Shenzhen and is rarely home. The grandmother cooks and keeps an eye on the children. The air is filled with levity, longing, worries and exhaustion.
26. Sans Voix – Samuel Patthey
Disconnected from reality, Dan retreats into his apartment consumed by electronic music. Nightclubs provide a solace through techno soundscapes and mind-altering substances. A baby’s curious stare unexpectedly redefines his perception.
25. An Orange From Jaffa – Mohammed Almughanni
Mohammed, a young Palestinian, embarks on a tense journey to cross an Israeli checkpoint with a temporary Polish identity card. After being turned down by other drivers, Farouk, a well-meaning taxi driver, offers him a ride.
24. Magic Candies – Daisuke Nishio
Other kids at the park never ask Dong-Dong to play, but he’s fine playing alone. When he accidentally buys a bag of colorful, marble-shaped candies, he gains the ability to hear voices.
23. On The Way (Rruges) – Samir Karahoda
Father and son are on their way to the airport to pick up a gift sent from abroad by the boy’s godfather. Amid bureaucratic hurdles, with little or no hope for real political and social changes in the country, they find comfort and strength in their shared optimism for the future.
22. The Masterpiece – Alex Lora
Leo and Diana, a rich couple, bring a broken TV to a recycle point. They meet Salif and his son, two scrap dealers. Diana asks them to come to their house to get more objects. Once there, Leo looks at them collecting objects with mistrust, until they see the scrap dealers have something they want.
21. Dreams Like Paper Boats – Samuel Suffren
Edouard has been living in Port-au-Prince with just his daughter Zara for five years. Since his wife left, his daughter and him have only received a cassette from her.
20. The Special Sunset 2 – Nicolas Gebbe
This exclusive luxury cruise presents itself as the perfect holiday and family utopia. However, all artificial facades of this attractive consumer product dissolve, as a psychedelic dream world unfolds, illusions break and the crude reality beyond superficial comfort is unveiled.
19. Vox Humana – Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
In the aftermath of an earthquake, the police find a man in the woods. A zoologist, a sound recorder, and a news team grapple with the truth that he may be the cause of all the natural disasters that devastated this small mountain town.
18. In The Quiet Cold – Kemi Anna Adeeko
Two Nigerians meet in Communist Bulgaria and discover a spark neither of them expected.
17. One Day This Kid – Alexander Farah
An exploration of silent struggle and unspoken tension as Hamed, a first-generation Afghan Canadian man, navigates an undefined future with his father.
16. Sanki Yoxsan – Azer Guliev
When Samir and Leyla decide to flee their families’ discord, Samir disappears the next morning. Leyla’s quest ensnares her, entwining her fate with his mysterious disappearance, becoming part of the mystery herself.
15. Maybe Elephants – Torill Kove
Three rebellious teenage daughters, a restless mother, a father struggling with potatoes, and maybe some elephants, find themselves in Nairobi. What could possibly go wrong?
14. The Ugly Chickens – Mark Raso
Upon learning that the supposedly extinct dodo bird might still exist, ornithology professor Paula Linberl sets out on a cross-country expedition to unravel the mystery.
13. Tea – Blake Rice
While rehearsing asking out the girl of his dreams, a lonely and highly allergic Circuit-Shack employee gets stung in the throat by a hornet.
12. Death By Numbers – Kim A Snyder
Four years after being shot with an AR-15 in her high school, Samantha Fuentes reckons with existential questions of hatred and justice as she prepares to confront her shooter.
11. A Move – Elahe Esmaili
Against the backdrop of the Women, Life, Freedom protest movement in Iran, filmmaker Elahe Esmaili is helping her parents to pack up the family home. As the boxes stack up, discussions flare between the generations.
10. Clodagh – Portia A. Buckley
A lonely priest’s housekeeper encounters a young Irish girl of exceptional promise.
9. Bye Bye Turtle (Adieu Tortue) – Selin Oksuzoglu
Inci’s mother died during the night. The five-year-old wanders alone through the vast hilly landscape by the Black Sea. She meets a young woman in a red sweater and is fascinated by her
8. Dissolution – Anthony Saxe
A woman is forced to confront her elderly husband’s physical deterioration when they meet to sign their divorce papers.
7. The Distance Between Us – Léo Fontaine
Yalla leaves her night shift without her boss’ permission and boards a bus, carrying a single bag filled with clothes. The city is still asleep; her son is waiting for her.
6. Dovecote – Marco Perego
An unnamed woman experiences her last moments as an inmate at a Venice seaside prison.
5. Perfectly A Strangeness – Alison McAlpine
In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe.
4. Me – Don Hertzfeldt
A 22-minute musical odyssey about trauma, technology, and the retreat of humanity into itself.
3. An Odd Turn – Francisco Lezama
A museum security guard has a premonition of a theft. When consulting with her pendulum, she foresees a sudden climb in the dollar’s value. An unexpected dismissal and the ensuing severance package leads her to connect with a currency exchange house employee.
2. The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent – Nebojša Slijepčević
February 27, 1993, Strpci, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A passenger train from Belgrade to Bar is stopped by paramilitary forces in an ethnic cleansing operation. As they haul off innocent civilians, only one man out of 500 passengers dares to stand up to them. This is the true story of a man who could not remain silent.
1. What We Ask Of A Statue Is That It Doesn’t Move – Daphne Heretakis
Nothing seems to be moving in Athens and the people are as still as statues. But elsewhere in the city, a Caryatid escapes the museum and a small groupuscule demands the destruction of all antiquities. Perhaps filming is the only way to avoid turning into stone.