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Delphine’s Prayers features a young Cameroonian woman baring her traumatic life story for the camera. In a personal one-on-one interview she recounts the death of her mother, her rape at 13, and her subsequent abandonment by her father which led her too an early life of prostitution to support herself and her daughter. She ended up marrying an old Belgian man that brought her to Europe. She came with some hope of a better life, but that has since dissipated, leaving her in poverty again.
The whole film is shot in one room in Belgium with each of the ~10 segments centering Delphine in the middle of the frame. She’s the only character on camera in this documentary until the very last scene. She’s also the only one who speaks, discounting a few prompts from the director to guide her life stories. Without any other characters, and no cuts away from Delphine, the film’s focus is completely on Delphine, leaving no room for the viewer to get distracted from her storytelling. It makes the documentary feel much more intimate – especially as Delphine is incredibly open throughout the film – but also sometimes a bit intrusive as it feels like her traumatic life story is being exploited to represent a bigger message.
The bigger message is to present Delphine’s traumatic life as one example of a generation of young African women that have been crushed by patriarchal societies at home and abroad. This message is brought together at the end of the film in a short scene in which the director talks over a visual of Delphine braiding her hair, speaking of their friendship in Europe. Because of their different backgrounds, they wouldn’t have crossed paths at home in Cameroon. However, in Europe, they’re both just seen as Black African women – reminders of Belgium’s colonial past.
Whilst it does feel a bit exploitative at times, delving into a wide range of stories from Delphine’s traumatic life, Delphine’s Prayers does give a voice to one Black African woman in Europe to represent a part of the African immigrant experience in Europe.
Watching the 2024 Oscar shorts is the quickest and easiest way to get closer to watching all of the Oscar contenders. So if you’re looking for something to say about this year’s Academy Awards, check out these short films at cinemas near you.
The Animated 2024 Oscar Shorts
Letter to a Pig (Israel)
Divided into two halves, the Animation Is Film Festival winner follows a Holocaust survivor’s story to a classroom of primarily ungrateful students, mocking his age and confounding seriousness when discussing his friendship to an unnamed pig. Slowly, the story shrinks to the focus of Alma, one schoolgirl who breaks the film into high fantasy – a torturous dream that evokes the cruel mob mentality of the past.
The average animation viewer will put a lot of prestige on the more creative visual displays, those films that take place in a dimension unseen to human eyes, whether it be felt or caricature. Letter to a Pig may not be the single most creative concept in the running this year, but it is the most immediately stunning – live action footage overdrawn with an extreme amount of minimalist line drawing. That minimalism, its biggest asset, is unfortunately quickly trumped by a dogged amalgamation of trauma and historical setbacks, resulting in more curiosity than rousing passion. -ST
Ninety-Five Senses (U.S.)
Coy is a senior citizen reflecting on the power and nostalgia that his five primary senses have brought him presented in a curiously dark order. Voiced by Tim Blake Nelson, Coy plays along with a chronology of significant events in his life, milestones marked by entertainment, love, ambition and eventually, death.
The Hess pair of directors & writers, using their Oscar nomination to eclipse their Napoleon Dynamite fame before piloting the upcoming Minecraft adaptation, have created something special with Ninety-Five Senses, a shockingly dramatic story that revels equally in its diverse and various styles of hand-drawn animation as it does its dramaturgy. While fishing for emotion where the wandering tales of an old man seem silly at best, the Hess’ make a sincere and effective plea for compassion and forgiveness within one’s own perspective, a deceiving victory if this year’s short film lineup needed at least one to speak for. -ST
Our Uniform (Iran)
Following a bit of unique structural storytelling, Our Uniform unravels a traditional Iranian schoolgirl’s daily attire to discuss the conventions that present with a young woman’s own identity. By taking the shirt, label, sleeve and linings bit-by-bit, colors and patterns reveal a creative tapestry by which the unnamed narrator contemplates her own femininity while dissecting what details about her past marked her outer shell most permanently.
At seven minutes, Our Uniform is the shortest Oscar nominee at this year’s induction, though an argument could made that it is also the prettiest – the carry-on textures Moghaddam uses to bring the girls themselves into their own environment, a schoolhouse or a road along which to travel, is immediately captivating. Naturally, with such briefness some a slight narrative, Our Uniform ending on more of a mid-sentence brushaway than anything resembling a punctuating note of contemplation. It is, simply, brief and honest, a meditation on time that has very little of it to spare. -ST
Pachyderme (France)
A young girl named Louise spends a routine summer with her grandparents, playing on swing sets and swimming in the local lagoon. Her small figure is stiff and roughed, overwhelmed by huge locks of hair that gives Louise a fairy-like physicality, matching the ethereal wonder of her painted world. Louise reveals that she thinks a lot about monsters, one in particular, who haunts her holiday trip, disrupting her innocent countryside summer.
Pachyderm is a deeply interesting, though uncompelling, experiment for the same reasons that make its nomination so intrinsic. It feels as though every year at least one animated short beckons a darker form of animation serving as trauma vehicle, small-form character arcs already knee-deep in an uncompromising past. A struggle with subtlety erupts in Pachyderm, the delicacy of Louise’s life at odds with her vague notions to disassociate. Where terrifying stories of childhood instability often layer into the hurt of residual mental warfare, Clément’s route is dark and lonely, a small light in an otherwise clouded vision. -ST
War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko (U.S.)
On opposite trenches at the climax of World War I, two frontline soldiers for the unnamed sides spread their free time out with the least leisurely round of chess ever played. By sending a carrier pigeon back-and-forth without their superiors’ knowledge, the two engage in a bout of metaphors, the escalation of their own board game matching the severity of the embattlements supressing their allies just outside their doors.
With a production credit by Sean Ono Lennon, WAR IS OVER! may win the Oscar on sheer starpower alone. The traces of the short’s development and press tour even go back to herald Peter Jackson, with Unreal animation done by his partner-owned Wētā FX Limited. It makes perfect sense, then, that WAR IS OVER! is easily the most treacly short of the animated roster, a laughable sentiment gone wrong that peace can overcome anything – or, at least that the power of Christmas, when John Lennon is the baron of tidings, is stronger than thought and diplomacy (if you want it). -ST
The Documentary 2024 Oscar Shorts
ABC’s Of Book Banning (U.S.)
Over 2,000 books have been removed from school districts in the U.S. The ABC’s of Book Banning follows the human toll the future will pay for depriving children of their right to read and learn about a complex world. Interviews with children and authors shed light on this ongoing dangerous precedent.
An important message made for screen with the elegance of a PowerPoint slide, ABC’s of Book Banning tries and fails to live up to the urgency and creativity that influencer-activists convey on TikTok. This documentary short interviews recognizable names (Judy Blume, Amanda Gorman) with cute kids, including one with a luscious mullet, to tell us that book banning is bad. Unfortunately, there’s little interest in the interviewees beyond snappy headline quotes, and the same surface-level overview emanates from the films slap-dash presentation. Despite the potential fodder of the polarizing subject, this is arguably the worst short of the bunch. -RS
Island In Between (Taiwan)
The islands of Kinmen sit as a barred entryway for the Taiwanese people to the Chinese mainland, a beachside land of sand and honey that serves as a focal point in the history of the Chinese Civil War. Remnants of that history soak in the seawater while the skyscrapers of modern China loom just miles away, visible over the horizon, as a symbol of the continued tension and growing disparity between the two nations, or so it would visually seem.
As cursory as they come, Island in Between might be the lightest and most immediately forgettable documentary in this year’s nominee pool, an already congested pipeline of nonfiction blandness. Like a teaser for something bigger and greater, Chiang’s story relies heavily on the immediate reliability of his subjects, their island fever boiled into something more sustained, a sunken propaganda-state they know no bounds from. For Island in Between to work, so must the direct shift to the political perspective of the mainland, a porthole Chiang’s film simply doesn’t seem to have the time for. -ST
Nai Nai & Wai Po (U.S.)
Sean Wang’s two grandmothers live in the same household, the best of friends – one from his maternal side, one paternal. They share in most everything together, co-opting each others lives as their own responsibilities for upkeep in this new post-pandemic world they’ve found themselves. With no left to care for otherwise, Wang’s Nai Nai and his Wài Pó confront the rest of their time together with love, fear, and comical sincerity.
Wang gained an immense amount of timely attention for his Sundance Award-winning feature debut Didi, which rose in profile around the same time his short received Oscar attention. It should be noticed, however, that Nai Nai & Wài Pó nonetheless stands as the least tedious of this year’s documentary shorts. Wang is easily able to immortalize his grandmothers’ wisdom and humor within the short’s brief runtime, a contemplation on the inevitabilities of life and beyond that speaks without hesitation to the reality we find ourselves in at the final crossroads – not alone, and absolutely not unfulfilled. -ST
The Barber of Little Rock (U.S.)
The Barber of Little Rock explores America’s widening racial wealth gap through the story of Arlo Washington, a self-made businessman who founds a non-profit bank to uplift a community that has been largely excluded from the financial engines that create wealth.
A pleasing documentary about a man set on uplifting his community – first through the barber occupation, and secondly adapting to a traditionally inhospitable banking community. The portrayal of the protagonists is so positive that it toes the hagiographic line, making you feel a bit skeptical of the many hugs and charitable grants Washington issues to community members on film; “is it all just for the camera?.” This isn’t helped by the style of the documentary which recalls the same inspirational lens flares over-used by political nominees in their TV campaigns. Skepticism aside, the message is an important one and a sign that the traditionally conservative Academy board is evolving. -RS
The Last Repair Shop (U.S.)
The most effective of this year’s doc shorts at giving perspective to the lower class (though, ironically, also the most well-funded courtesy of Searchlight Pictures), The Last Repair Shop dives anthologically into the backgrounds of four supervising craftsmen who maintain the host of instruments used by children across the Los Angeles Unified School District. In the reaches of downtown LA, all four subjects relate their own upbringing to the value they place in music education, both as a tool for extracurricular guidance and the harmonious lives they lead as experts in a career built on service to underrepresented parts of the community.
Bowers has been on a hot streak recognizable to even the most unsavvy Oscar voters – aside from his original score work on Green Book and The Color Purple, he was previously nominated in this same category for A Concerto Is a Conversation, a documentary that distilled the creator’s own legacy as a composer and instrumentalist into the lineage of Hollywood’s history far beyond his own. The Last Repair Shop, a semi-apparent sequel, ties its subjects even more succinctly than Concerto, a more diverse ensemble remarkable not only for earning their career-driven stripes but from how eclectic those stripes are in unison, coming together in uplifting & wonderfully empathetic fashion. -ST
The Live Action 2024 Oscar Shorts
The After (U.K.)
David Oyelowo finds himself in one of the most overly-dramatic Live Action shorts of recent times as we watch him unfold his range of emotions to a cheesy choice of backing tracks.
The After starts off in familiar territory; a father connecting with his daughter, but takes a wildly dramatic turn in an instant. The randomness of the sudden tonal shift is like reading a story written by a kid that has just discovered the art of story-telling; “I like the sand-pit and SHARKS ARE EATING THE FISH.” It’s worth watching for the comic effect the set-up unintentionally produces. To the film’s credit, it does recover the mood for a few scenes in which Oyelowo is silent. Missed calls and everyday conversations symbolize his loneliness. However, the film tries to outdo the dramatic start with an equally dramatic ending, bringing an awkwardly in-your-face crescendo succeeded by a awkwardly comforting song choice. Is this a secret comedy? – RS
Invincible (Canada)
Inspired by a true story, Invincible recounts the last 48 hours in the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old boy on a desperate quest for freedom.
Invincible feels very similar to the films of Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, Mommy). All feature unruly teenagers situated in Francophone Canada struggling with their parents and themselves. The grainy, slightly faded look of the film combined with the abundance of nature emphasizes their angst. There’s too much natural physical space around them to make themselves feel significant. Invincible is an unusual pick for the Academy Awards, but a worthy one. It’s well-made and captures the unsettled mind of young Marc-Antoine authentically, even if the style and subject matter isn’t wholly fresh. – RS
Knight of Fortune (Denmark)
The loss of a loved one, the grief, the risk of yellow skin, and a coffin, this is too much for Karl to face. It is much easier to fix a broken lamp. A chance encounter with a stranger will help him face his pain.
Surprisingly, the makers behind Knight of Fortune have no apparent connection to the last Danish Live Action Short nominee, On My Mind (maybe there are just a lot of loyal Danish filmmakers on the voting committee). Both are about widowers confronting their grief in unique ways – On My Mind with karaoke and Knight of Fortune with an intriguing stranger. Knight of Fortune is better than On My Mind. Firstly, it’s not manipulatively holding back a reveal, and secondly it’s odd-ball humor comes much more naturally with the chemistry between the two leads. – RS
Red, White, and Blue (U.S.)
Rachel is a single parent living paycheck to paycheck. When an unexpected pregnancy threatens to unravel her already precarious position, she’s forced to cross state lines in search of an abortion.
Heavily influenced by Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, this follows another woman that heads on the road in search of abortion rights. It has a similarly grainy look and even the lead actors look similar. However, Red, White, and Blue hides an ace in its hand in the third act. It’s an ace that gives the short its oomph, but also leans into the extreme to convey a simple message; abortion rights should be protected. – RS
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (U.K.)
A Road Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.
The A-List short of this year’s nominees. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar features Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade. It’s also directed by Wes Anderson, who surprisingly, has never won an Oscar. As the clear favorite, this might be the way he finally gets his Oscar recognition, and it would be deservingly so. It features the trademark Wes Anderson style – heavily curated production design and color schemes, with quirky storytelling – but is backed by quality source material from a bonafide story-teller. This is the Oscar shorts; we’ve seen Two Distant Strangers knock out Oscar Isaac, but surely this is Wes Anderson’s time. -RS
Wild Indian kicks off with a scene of a dying Indian covered in small pox ‘some time ago’ before it jumps forward to the 1980’s. The scene contextualizes the trauma of the present, experienced by two friends, Mukwa and Ted-O, situating it within years of pain, suffering, and oppression. It shows that the cycles of trauma are nothing new for this Ojibwe community, and the Indigenous community as a whole.
Moving forward to the scenes in the 1980’s, the trauma is inflicted on the children by their parents. Mukwa’s dad is ruthlessly violent, beating him up each night for nothing, whilst other kids are raised by parents lost to their drunkenness. Thanks to his Dad, and we can infer thanks to the generations above his Dad, it’s the trauma he inflicts on Mukwa that turns him violent. And whilst Mukwa’s not violent towards his son later in the film, his lack of warmth indicates that his trauma will be passed on. All of this stems from the widespread suffering of the Indigenous community referenced in the opening scene.
Mukwa tries to escape his trauma by exiling himself from his roots. He changes his image, becoming ‘Michael Peterson’ and cuts his hair. He goes all in on white corporate culture – becoming a wealthy businessman that plays a lot of golf, lives in California, and has a trophy white wife. The only signs of pride in his heritage is an overcompensation of Indigenous art on the walls in his house. Otherwise, he appears like a different person. His life contrasts strongly with his old friend Ted-O, who carriers his identity tattooed on his face and neck as he’s released from prison. Despite appearances, Ted-O is the warmer character. He makes time to bond with his nephew, whilst Mukwa shuns his wife and son.
Mukwa is one sinister character. He’s created brilliantly through Michael Greyeye’s acting and the style Lyle Corbine (the director) imbues into the film. The atmospheric music, that plays behind most of Mukwa’s scenes, combined with the slow camera movements (slowly creeping right to left and zooming in) creates a sense of eeriness surrounding Mukwa from the start. It reminded me a lot of the slow burn thrillers of David Fincher.
There’s also one recurring image that the director uses to create a lot of tension. He captures Mukwa’s evil side in moments where he has people’s lives in his hands – such as holding a knife by his sleeping father, and aiming a gun at his friend. Throwing these shots into the early part of the film makes us fear Mukwa’s unpredictability. It feels like he’s going to lash out violently and get revenge for the trauma inside him. This unnerving unpredictability makes him and the film so hard to look away from.
If you’re looking for a slow burning thriller along the lines of David Fincher’s Gone Girl with an unpredictable character like Pablo Larrain’s Tony Manero, set within the Indigenous Ojibwe tribe, Wild Indian is the film you need to watch this year.
In Bantu Mama, a French-Cameroonian woman is arrested in the Dominican Republic for attempting to smuggle drugs back home. However, she’s rescued by the Dominican underworld, sheltering in one of Santo Domingo’s notorious neighborhoods with a semi-orphaned family until she can make her escape.
It’s clear from the start that Bantu Mama is meant to appeal to the audiences at Western film festivals. Like European film festival fare, the images look dark and gloomy, and they carry the bulk of the narrative weight, with the sparse dialogue only covering the basic gaps the images can’t provide. There’s also a lot of movement in every shot, with no tripod or steadicam shots, and the short shot length and fast cutting verges on the speed of montage, especially in the opening. All these stylistic choices match the lean, moody looking standard of the big film festivals in Europe and North America, contrasting with the slower paced, dialogue focused African films that dominate the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
This is not to say that Bantu Mama is unoriginal; it is. Firstly, it’s incredibly efficient, telling a complete story with limited dialogue in just 77 minutes. Secondly, it’s propelled by a brilliant soundtrack of regional African music and Dominican trap. Both genres mesh together to represent the cultural dialogue with Africa that Emma, the French-Cameroonian fugitive, opens to the Afro-Latino children that shelter her. The soundtrack also creates one of the film’s most memorable moments – a visual example of this cultural link – in which Cuki is transformed into a Maasai dancer with the help of African music and Emma. In this moment, the music transports them from their dangerous neighborhood to an imagined Pan-African utopia. This is just one moment in a handful in which the soundtrack and Emma link the Dominican Republic with Africa. The cultural dialogue they create make Bantu Mama unique.
If you’re a fan of film festivals in North America or Europe and want to see a lean, music-powered cultural exchange linking the underworld of the Dominican Republic to Africa, Bantu Mama is the film you need to watch.
Here’s a quick round up of three shorts from SBIFF.
1. Tribes – SBIFF Shorts
Tribes is a short film in which an African-American man, an Arab-American man, and a white man rob a subway car in New York. Problem is, they don’t want to rob people from their own race.
It’s a funny concept, but the tone is diluted. Tribes starts off seriously before breaking into a funny argument between two of the robbers. However, their hold of their hostages and the credibility of the film quickly dissipates when the passengers start adding to the robbers debate. It feels like they’re interrupting the film by adding unnecessary quips.
The rest of the credibility is seriously lost when one of the robbers starts siding with the hostages and starts a long monologue. Monologues can work, however, unfortunately this one is backed by a crescendo of uplifting music that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Pepsi commercial. It just makes it feel fake. It’s a good message but it feels way too preachy and fake like the ‘I voted for Obama’ dad in Get Out.
That being said, I believe this script is perfect for the stage. The setting, monologues, and arguments would fit it perfectly. Plus it would feel much more authentic without the music.
2. Kopitiam – SBIFF Shorts
Kopitiam is a short documentary about a coffee shop owner in NYC and her experience living as a Malaysian in the U.S.
It’s interesting to hear about how we live through food. The coffee shop owner raises some interesting points about how everyone has a cooking blueprint which allows cooks to live on after their death. Also how food and how you cook it is one way of passing down your culture – but you have to accept that your work will be adapted
However, I wish Kopitiam focused on one thing. You hear fragments about her shop, her dad, her partner, growing up, cooking, maintaining culture, but they’re only communicated in short sentences. It doesn’t give her enough time to truly share her life and experience. Because it’s quick, we don’t get enough time to identify with her and walk in her shoes.
3. Mochitsuki – SBIFF Shorts
Mochitsuki features a Japanese American family in California getting together for New Years to partake in Mochitsuki – an annual gathering to make mochi. Like Kopitiam it features an Asian American family using cooking and food as a way to pass on heritage, legacy, and maintain their link to Japanese culture.
However, in contrast to Kopitiam, Mochitsuki passes on tradition through their own family gathering, rather than by sharing it with anyone interested. It shows the eldest generation of the one family partaking in the ritual with the newest generation of the family – old and young working together to show the direct transmission of culture from generation to generation. It’s a testament to the strength of Japanese culture in this family that has survived through the adversity of internment. Maybe that shared hardship has created a stronger culture.
Mochitsuki is engaging because it focuses on one thing (the mochi making ceremony) and uses it to tell a brief story about this Japanese American family instead of trying to cover lots of different stories.
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