Film Festival Coverage Hub - Reviews & Recaps

126

Paris 13th District – AFI Fest 2021

If you’re a secret fan of love triangles but actually an art-house film snob, Paris 13th District is for you. You have your art-house credentials, with Jacques Audiard directing and Celine Sciamma writing, as well as a smooth black and white film. But you also have a light, free-flowing script with lots of sex that doesn’t slow down, making it an easy watch for anyone wanting to tune out.

Paris 13th District isn’t deep. There doesn’t appear to be any hidden subtext to either of the character’s narratives. Some of the scenes even feel a little contrived, particularly the scene in a university lecture hall in which all of the students start watching videos of a chat room girl and making fun of Nora for looking just like her. In an otherwise relatable film of 20-30 somethings, this scene stands out – making you think that the writers might actually be a bit out of touch with the young adult’s reality. But luckily the depth isn’t needed thanks to the lightness of the film. It flows so smoothly that you won’t have time to think about why it was made.

The lightness comes from a range of things. Firstly, there’s the clean simplicity of the black and white film that takes away any noise. This is supported by the simple soundtrack with synth bursts that cleanly separate the breaks between each narrative. Secondly, there’s the free characters. Even though each one has their own problems – Emilie has family drama, Nora is bullied, and Camille has his own grief – they never feel serious. Instead they appear free to do anything they like – each one quickly changes their career as if it were starting a new day. Camillie suddenly becomes a real-estate agent after dropping out of his masters, Nora starts her law degree in her 30’s before dropping out to rejoin a career in sales, and Emilie doesn’t even feel burdened to work. Their free-flowing careers comes across as a bit of a jab at millennials from the older screenwriters of the film. All of them are played as fragile characters that change their mind and lack commitment. However, it does make the film feel lighter – they all live in a city in which their troubles don’t feel that serious and in which they can change their direction in an instant.

So if you’re looking for a light relationship drama with art-house credentials, Paris 13th District is worth a watch. Whilst it’s arguably a bit out of touch, it is an easy watch for anyone looking for a break from the more challenging film festival fare.

Head to our AFI Fest 2021 Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2021.

127

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!

128

The Pink Cloud – Sundance Film Festival 2021

Honestly, before I saw The Pink Cloud, I thought that The Dog Who Wouldn’t be Quiet was the best film related to the pandemic that I’d seen at Sundance. But then I saw The Pink Cloud. Like Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, it’s amazing to watch something reflect reality so well before that reality comes into place. And before you ask, this film was written in 2017, way before COVID times.

In the case of The Pink Cloud, Giovanna and Yago’s one night stand turns into a long quarantine together as an unknown pink cloud of poisonous gases shrouds the city. Anyone who steps outside for more than 10 seconds dies from the pink gases. Other people less lucky that Giovanna and Yago are stuck in supermarkets and other public buildings. It’s also not just their city in Brazil that is affected either, as like the big Hollywood disaster movies, the news shows a montage of cities around the world with the same ominous pink clouds hovering over them. Like the current pandemic, everyone is forced to adjust quickly to a new life.

After it sets up the premise, The Pink Cloud focuses on Giovanna and Yago’s relationship stuck together throughout the indefinitely long quarantine. As time progresses, the bucket lists from their single lives become a checklist of things to do in a relationship. They start doing chores, cook and eat with each other, and talk about their future together. The allure and excitement that initially drew them together fades as the permanence of their new life inside sets in. As this happens, the allure of the outside, and nature, represented in the pink cloud grows. Slow montages of the cloud frame it as pretty and tempting. Then the cloud starts to be shot with a slow zoom as if the characters are being drawn to it when they look outside. Now that they’re stuck inside, the everyday world they’d taken for granted becomes alluring. It’s a reversal of their relationship which goes from desire to boredom.

Maybe if there wasn’t a worldwide pandemic right now that mirrors The Pink Cloud’s narrative, it would resonate differently. Perhaps it would have been viewed as a warning to climate change deniers, or to those taking life for granted. In it’s current context, the quarantine comparisons are hard to avoid. It’s one of the most accurate portrayals of a relationship on lockdown.

129

Zepon (Martinique) – Pan African Film Festival 2022

Viezo and his daughter Victorine have spent happy years on the road, taking their prime fighting cocks and snake oil wares around the island. However, with the best chicken he’s ever had, Viezo wants to try his luck in the big ring one more time, reigniting past rivalries and old problems.

You shouldn’t be surprised to find a well-made film from Martinique. After all, one of the World’s most famous female directors, Euzhan Palcy, made her renowned Sugar Cane Alley on her home island. Whilst Zepon doesn’t follow the same post-colonial themes of Palcy’s most notable films, it is at least very well made, likely helped by the path that Palcy created. If you have a good eye you might even recognize actress Jocelyne Beroard (who plays Titine) from Euzah Palcy’s Siméon.

The plot, whilst colored by Martinican flavor, does stick to one of the classic tropes of World Cinema; the clash of modernity and tradition. Not, in this case, a juxtaposition of the modernity of the city vs. the country the two protagonists have been touring, but of the modern progressive symbolism of Victorine vs. the conservative traditional views of the island. As an independent young single woman, Victorine is progressive in her existence. She runs her own snake-oil style stall to fund her dreams of dancing abroad in America. Meanwhile, her father, and the rest of the island, are all stuck in an old honor code dictated by drunken handshake deals that play out in the cockfighting ring. The battle between Victorine and the island culture is unique to Martinique, but the modernity vs. tradition trope the conflict follows has played out many times before.

The highlight of the film is the cockfighting, which is portrayed brilliantly. From the intimate stands of the cockfighting ring to how the director chose to shoot the cockfight itself. For both fights, the director deliberately cuts away from the fight itself. Instead of showing the chickens fighting, the director firstly cuts to an impressionistic animation that captures the energy of the chickens in the first fight, and secondly, cuts to shots of enthusiastic spectators cheering for their bets. Both create two of the film’s most memorable visual moments and manage to capture the energy of the fighters and the crowd without showing any real violence.

For a well made film from Martinique that gives a sample of Martinican culture Zepon is worth a watch. Whilst it falls into some tired World Cinema tropes, there are some brilliant moments in the film that is supported by a light humor that carries it from start to finish.

Check back to our Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for more reviews coming out of the 30th edition of the festival.