Rowan Sullivan, Author at FilmRoot

The Best Short Films at AFI Fest 2025

Outside of the red carpet film premieres and international film festival circuit darlings, there’s a diverse collection of short films screening at AFI Fest 2025. This is the section where you can find up-and-coming filmmakers aiming to make a name for themselves before they try their luck at a feature length film. It’s also the section where you can see the widest range of film styles. From hand-drawn animation to picturesque documentaries, deeply personal stories paired to dark comedies, there’s something for everyone. Plus as AFI Fest is a qualifying film festival for the short film awards at the Academy Awards, you might just see a future Academy Award winner without expecting it.

Here’s our highlights from the short films at AFI Fest 2025.

The Best Short Films at AFI Fest 2025

Pavilhão (Brazil)

I love short films which take you on a journey into another culture. When you’ve finished watching Pavilhão it feels like you’ve taken a small trip to Brazil and immersed yourself in the world of Samba. The visuals guide you from Samba’s African origins through to the joyous dance and music of the present day carnival culture. Watch to become an honorary part of the movement.

Water Sports (Philippines)

Heat exhausts people mentally and physically. In Manila, a group of high school students go stir crazy in this sexualized social-media-influenced fever dream. Short TikTok style video clips fit the physical context perfectly – who can concentrate in a heat wave – whilst disturbingly colored bottles of water paired with TV hosts telling everyone to stay hydrated convey the city’s inability to confront current and future climate disasters. In Water Sports, all you can do in the face of impending disaster is laugh.

Beneath Which Rivers Flow - AFI Fest 2025

Beneath Which Rivers Flow (Iraq)

Some short films focus completely on the cinematography to craft some truly spectacular shots. Beneath Which Rivers Flow is one of those short films. The look of the film reminded me of Notturno – a beautifully shot documentary feature from AFI Fest 2020 that relied on the visual power of the images to move it’s audience. There’s no dialogue in Beneath Which Rivers Flow as it’s power, like Notturno, comes from the carefully framed shots of the drying marshlands and it’s impact on human life.

My Wonderful Life (Singapore)

If carefully framed shots of natural landscapes is not your thing, and you’re looking for a critique of modern work/life balance and the patriarchal pressure on modern mothers with ever-escalating animated body-horror, My Wonderful Life delivers. The South Park-style animation of an overworked Singaporean mum pushes itself into dark comedy to prove its point.

S The Wolf (Egypt)

Simple, hand-drawn animation can be hugely effective. Just see Don Hertzfeldt’s It’s Such a Beautiful Day. Moving away from the pop-art shock-factor animation of My Wonderful Life, S the Wolf‘s simple hand drawn style is the perfect medium for a stream of consciousness journey through a collection of hair related personal memories. Each short anecdote opens a window into the director’s childhood and explores his relationship with his father accompanied with plenty of deadpan banter.

Once In A Body (Colombia)

Have you ever been to hell!? Like S The Wolf, Once In A Body takes you on a highly personal trip through animation. However, this short swaps humor and hand-drawn style for an exploration of trauma in drawings that dynamically transform from faces and bodies to a literal visit to hell as our narrators journey to hell and back.

Petra and the Sun (Chile)

Stop motion puppets are a unique animation choice. They’re not my favorite style as I find something creepy and deceitful about the uncanny way they look and move. For Petra And The Sun, puppets are the perfect choice to add to the creepy story in which a lonely woman hides her necrophilia as the seasons change and the world gets warmer.

We strongly encourage everyone to check out AFI Fest next year. Please find previous coverage of AFI Fest here and check the official AFI Fest website for news on next year’s schedule!

Alla En El Rancho Grande – The Genesis of Mexico’s Golden Age

Alla En El Rancho Grande Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

The Mexican Golden Age of Cinema started with Alla En El Rancho Grande which became the first Mexican blockbuster in 1936. It established the film industry in Mexico and introduced one of the most popular genres in Mexican film history: la comedia ranchera – essentially the cowboy musical – which reinforced Mexican identity at home and abroad.

From: Mexico, North America
Watch: YouTube, JustWatch, IMDb
Next: Enamorada, Maria Candelaria, The Pearl

Alla En El Rancho Grande – Breakdown

1936 was a big year for the Mexican film industry. It saw the release of the country’s first ever blockbuster which put Mexico on the film world map. But how did this film break through and kick off the Mexican Golden Age of Cinema? Two external factors were crucial: revolutionary fatigue and timing.

1. Revolutionary Fatigue

In Mexico, the revolution had been running more hot than cold since 1910. The chaos did not end with Pancho Villa’s surrender in 1920. Multiple revolutionary politicians fought over power for the best part of the next two decades, and a violent religious rebellion (the Cristero War) split the heart of the country in the late 1920s.

In 1934 Lazaro Cardenas won the general election and outmaneuvered Elias Calles – the man holding the strings of power for the previous 6 years – to take control of Mexico. Cardenas is one of Mexico’s most popular leaders for establishing wide-spread land reform and nationalizing the Mexican oil industry (Pemex). Less known is that his administration founded the Filmoteca de la UNAM and incentivized domestic film production with tax breaks and grants. Cardenas and his administration saw film as an opportunity to strengthen national identity. After years of revolutionary uncertainty, the country needed to restore national pride to re-unite the country. Alla En El Rancho Grande was just the film to do this. It hearkened back to the ‘simple’ pre-revolutionary days, re-establishing the iconic charro dress and popularizing Mexican ranchera music.

2. Timing

Whilst the film-making wheels were turning in Mexico with the new initiatives from the Cardenas administration, the film centers in the U.S. and Europe were on the road to World War II. Film production in the U.S. and Europe were de-prioritized for the war effort, reducing competition for Mexican films to reach more cinema-goers domestically and abroad. This helped spike the immense popularity of Alla En El Rancho Grande and was the spark that lit up the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.

Building a National Identity

Alla En El Rancho Grande, still had to win the popularity of the Mexican public. So what made this the film to do it?

Similar to Hollywood musicals, Alla En El Rancho Grande built a fictional utopian vision of a romanticized past (in this case, pre-revolutionary Mexico). It features self sufficient haciendas run by benevolent landowners that take care of their workers (even if they are idly drunk all day, everyday) and problems that are sung away in spontaneous song. This conservative romanticized past ran against the progressive revolutionary reform of Lazaro Cardenas. It evoked nostalgia for ‘simpler pre-revolutionary’ days which helped create a post-revolutionary calm. In turbulent times, nostalgia thrives.

The romanticized past was crucial in building national identity. It popularized the ranchera style; charro dress for men and china poblana style dresses for women, and built on this visual style through the songs, especially the guitar playing and rap-battle style singing. These tokens of the Mexican past became signifiers for Mexico throughout the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema and beyond, creating a style and culture that are still used today to express Mexican pride at home and abroad.

What Next?

For something different from the same director behind this film, check out Vamonos con Pancho Villa. Unlike Alla en el Rancho Grande, which tries to blur the memory of revolutionary violence, this one brings the brutality of the war all back without censorship.

For more comedias rancheras, explore the filmography of Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete (Dos tipos de cuidado and Los tres Garcia). These two prolific singers, made huge names for themselves through their musicals at the height of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, following Tito Guizar’s lead.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Zambia) – Break a Culture of Silence

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Director Rungano Nyoni broke into the art-house film world in 2017 with her debut film, I Am Not A Witch. Her second feature, On Becoming Guinea Fowl, builds on her first and puts Zambia on the film map. It’s a chance for you to explore inter-generational trauma and the culture of silence with an anti-patriarchal lens rooted in Zambia.

From: Zambia, Africa
Watch: iMDB, JustWatch
Next: I Am Not a Witch, Moolaade, Monsoon Wedding

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl – The Breakdown

You might be wondering what a guinea fowl is and what this film has got to with them. Don’t worry I’ll help to answer these questions.

Firstly, a guinea fowl is a bird that belongs to the same order as chickens, turkeys, and pheasants. The helmeted guinea fowl is the most famous of the guinea fowl family, as it has been introduced as a domesticated bird around the world, after originating in Africa. It’s iconic because of it’s big spotted body and helmeted head, which isn’t too far from the Missy Elliot costume that Shula wears in the opening scene of this movie, when she finds her dead uncle laying by the side of the road whilst bumping the Lijadu Sisters.

Secondly, as referenced in one of the many flashbacks to a younger Shula, we learn that guinea fowls are highly valued in the African Savannah as an alarm for incoming predators. They are the first to send the alarm when lions, leopards, and other predators threaten them and their fellow preyed upon comrades. This is highlighted by director Rungano Nyoni as it becomes a metaphor for Shula – the first, and only one in her family to have called the alarm on her recently deceased uncle’s predatory behavior.

Shula is not just sending the alarm for her close family anymore, as the film shows her grow close with her community; her cousins from different social backgrounds, the women in her family, and the young and poor family her uncle left behind. Like with the communities that bond in trauma/injustice in director Rungano Nyoni’s previous feature, I Am Not A Witch, and Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaade, Shula emphasizes the strength of women. She also reveals the frailty of the men in charge to show that it is within their power to overturn Zambian society into a classless matriarchy.

What Next?

As mentioned above, Moolaade and I Am Not A Witch are two great places to start for more African films which also feature communities building to overcome the patriarchy. For Indian films with a similar theme – community theme, check out Monsoon Wedding and Parched.

Or for alternative media, follow Kirabo’s quest to find her mother in Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s novel, The First Woman.

Araya (Venezuela) – An Ode to the Global Working Class

Araya Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Neruda was asked to write an introduction poem for Araya, but he chose not to, saying ‘you cannot write a poem about a poem.’ He’s not wrong, this Venezuelan epic is a poetic ode to the global working class, from creation to post-industrialized exploitation. Watch Araya to see one of the best films from Venezuela and the anti-capitalist canon.

From: Venezuela, South America
Watch: IMDb, JustWatch
Next: Lucia, Eldorado XXI, Faya Dayi

Araya – The Breakdown

Araya opens with an epic creation sequence. We’re shown the sea, sky, and earth in sequence, just as God created the world in the book of Genesis. Then we’re introduced to sea life and birds, as a brass orchestra and xylophone start playing in the background. The carefully edited introduction crescendos with a vertical camera pan over the top of a pyramid of salt, revealing a community of salteros (salt workers) mining the salt marshes. Every shot draws us in, setting the scene for an epic tale of humanity, represented by these hidden people in Venezuela.

These forgotten people are all workers. They all make their living from the sea, working constantly to sustain themselves from the salt and fish it provides. The director, Margot Benacerraf, emphasizes the struggle to survive by focusing on their movements. The routine actions of each person living off of the sea appear like a well oiled machine, in tune with nature, and each other. The salteros follow each other up the salt mountain to weigh, sell, and deposit their salt; the fishermen bring back their fish for their families to salt. No time is wasted and each movement reinforces their struggle and their community.

Whilst we see the community working tirelessly together, we never fully identify with them. The director deliberately maintains a distance between the audience and the subjects of the film to keep their lives symbolic and poetic, in a similar way to the Soviet films of the USSR (Man with a Movie Camera) and Cuba (Lucia, Soy Cuba). She does this by using a narrator to emphasize their hardships as opposed to interviewing the workers directly. By telling their story through images instead of through their voices, they become representatives of the global working class, and not just exploited Salteros in Venezuela.

This sets up a final scene in which industrialization arrives, overtaking the manual labor carried out by the workers with a greed for profits. As machines take over, the salteros vanish – turning from hidden workers to hidden unemployed. At the same time, nature is replaced with exploited land. It’s a threatening message for workers and all citizens of the world.

Conclusion

Araya is a poetic epic. Through images, it tells the story of mankind from creation to post-industrial exploitation. It’s a art-house warning for workers and citizens of the world and an incredibly important film to add to your anti-capitalist viewing list alongside Soy Cuba and Salt of the Earth.

Travel to Saint Lucia With These Three Short Films

The first things you think of when you hear Saint Lucia are probably pristine beaches and tropical paradise. Tourism is the #1 industry in this small island nation of approximately 200,000 people – a population smaller than any of the largest 100 cities in the U.S. Despite it’s small size, Saint Lucia has attracted Hollywood productions in the past (see Superman II and Doctor Doolittle). However, as with many similarly sized island nations, Saint Lucia has yet to form its own film industry.

What you can find, are smaller, self-financed film projects like the three short films we’ve uncovered below, each spanning a different genre. The production quality might not match what you’re used to, but they each give a brief glimpse of a Saint Lucia that differs from the country presented by Hollywood and travel guides.

Soucouyant

It helps if you’re a fan of horror films before you watch Soucuoyant. There’s so little to grasp from the limited dialogue and film shots stitched together that you will need to use your own imagination to connect the thin story.

The short is centered around the myth of the Soucouyant, an ancient vampire-like spirit that possesses her unfortunate victims to keep on living. She’s brought to life in blurry shots of her roaming through the jungle to convey her eeriness. In contrast, her aging male victim is in a bright urban area, hinting he’s normal. The footage of these two characters don’t quite fit together to tell a clear story, however, the juxtaposition of the two leads us to assume that this aging man is her target. The short staggers to a final ‘aha’ moment which obviously inspired the recent Smile Hollywood horror hit.

Too Late

Too Late features two friends that set a time to meet up early the next morning. One of them is skeptical of his friends ability to arrive on time, and sure enough, he’s on a completely different schedule to his friend. Cutting between one friend waiting at the cafe and the other silencing his alarms and taking his sweet time getting ready, hours pass and our punctual friend gives up.

Too Late is everything you might expect of an amateur film that makes fun of ‘island time.’ The joke is amusing, but it’s not pushed beyond the single scene, making this short film a bit one-note. The biggest weakness, however, is the poor sound quality which distracts viewers from fully engaging in the visual gags.

The Fruit of Life

In The Fruit of Life, multiple generations of a Saint Lucian community are connected through their knowledge of the multiple uses of the coconut. We’re shown how coconuts (the fruit of life) can heal and nourish everyone.

Like Soucouyant, The Fruit of Life jumps between different characters quickly and without much dialogue, making it difficult for us to follow the knotted narrative thread which links them. It jumps from a girl having her bruise tended to by her grandmother with coconut oil to images of a old man (her grandfather?) hunted by a group of men with machetes. The words “strength,” “wisdom,” and “perseverance” link these scenes to the future in which the same girl is leading a business pitch selling the humble benefits of the coconut to the government/corporation(?). It’s a wild leap from kids playing to trauma to a business sales pitch, but one that represents that you can achieve the Saint Lucian dream (and success) through perseverance and sharing your ancient wisdom.