This article will be updated as more shorts become available.
LA JEUNE FILLE QUI PLEURAIT DES PERLES (The Girl Who Cried Pearls)(Canada 2025) ****
Directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
Stop-motion animation, time-consuming but worth every moment, is animation art in its purest form. In this endearing tale from Montreal, Canada, at the dawn of the 20th century, a poor boy falls in love with a girl whose sorrow is transformed into pearls. He sells them to a ruthless pawnbroker, who hungers for more. Tempted by greed, the boy must choose between love and fortune. The choice could damn his soul. From the Oscar-nominated team of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Madame Tutli-Putli), this meticulously crafted film is a testament to the craft mentioned with handmade puppets, mesmerizing narration by Canadian actor Colm Feore, and a haunting score by Patrick Watson. The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a timeless parable of desire, deception, and the price of innocence. It helps that one can identify with a young, innocent boy down on his luck, without fate having dealt him a bad hand. Watching this cautionary moral taleufold is pure delight!
THE EXTREMIST (Latvia/USA 2025) ****
Directed by Aleksandr Molochnikov
A 17-minute short based on a true story from The New Yorker! On November 16, 2023, Sasha Skochilenko, a thirty-three-year-old artist, poet, and musician, stood in court to give what is known in the Russian judicial system as the “last word”—final remarks of the accused before the judge delivers a verdict. The final remarks form the epic conclusion of this drama. Extremist was written and directed by Aleksandr Molochnikov as a Columbia University student film project, and it won the BAFTA student film award. The film dramatizes the real-life case of Aleksandra Skochilenko and follows a young artist (portrayed by Viktoriya Miroshnichenko) whose act of protest, in which she replaces supermarket price tags with anti-war messages, leads to her arrest and prosecution. Sasha is also shown to be in an open lesbian relationship, with her relationship problems also surfacing because of her activism. Still, her partner vouches and carries on her work, despite arguing at one point that Sasha never consults her on her actions.
