To grow, you have to be willing to fight against yourself in the hopes that it will make you that much better. In the directorial debut short Butterfly on a Wheel from Emmy-winning composer Trevor Morris, one young adult living with OCD and anxiety must face his fears to overcome his struggles. Set…

There have been about 75 school shootings in the United States as of December 2025, according to CNN's analysis of reports by Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety. Forty-three were on college campuses while 32 were on K-12 school grounds. The high risk of injury or death…

The price of freedom is steep, but Russian award-winning filmmaker Aleksander Molochnikov wants to get you inspired by showcasing one woman who bravely paid the price. Molochnikov's Extremist, backed by Ben Stiller and John Lesher, is a resonant anti-war short that shows what happens when activism…

Trying to figure out who you are can be a complex process. It gets even more complicated when identity politics prevents you from fully assimilating into the culture you were born into. It's a frustration that Japanese Brazilian filmmaker André Saito knows all too well, despite being a…

In Africa, Albinism affects 1 in 5,000 to 15,000 people according to UNICEF researchers. In Senegal alone, an estimated 10,000 people live with the condition, which results in reduced amounts of melanin pigment in the skin, eyes, and hair and can contribute to harm not only from exposure to the sun…

Creating the perfect fairytale is no easy feat, but the Montreal-based animators Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski are used to a challenge. Five years in the making is the expertly and beautifully crafted The Girl Who Cried Pearls. Narrated by Colm Feore and James Hyndman in the English and French…

Perhaps it's true that the way of water has no beginning and no end – at least this is the case for the record-breaking French swimmer Alfred Nakache. Florence Miailhe's latest short film Butterfly (also known by its French title Papillon), produced by Ron Dyens, showcases the real-life story of…

In the game of war, there are no winners, no losers, only casualties. Both unsettling and tender is Franz Böhm's BAFTA-winning short film Rock, Paper, Scissors, which follows the true story of Ivan (Oleksandr Rudynskyi) as he helps his father (Sergey Kalantay) run a makeshift hospital near the…

Meyer Levinson-Blount is already having an impactful new year. The 24-year-old New York native, now a decade-long resident of Israel, has finished up film school at Tel Aviv University, created his first short film, won a silver medal for narrative film at the competitive Student Academy Awards for…

Sometimes inspiration can come from the most unlikely of places. In the case of the Oscar-nominated multihyphenate filmmaker Sam Davis, motivation came from an old Russian short story and the social media juggernauts Instagram and TikTok. Davis's short film, The Singers, based on the Ivan Turgenev…

It's OK to let go of the past, but to heal fully, it's important to remember the lessons that your experience taught you. No theme rings more true than in Ariel Mahler's short film Re-Entry, a masterclass character study that artfully weaves the tender and cerebral in a tale of reconciliation with…

When it comes to depicting raw, emotional honesty about the societal expectations placed on trans women, Geena Rocero is not playing dress up.  In her debut short film, Dolls, an endearing term for a trans woman or transfeminine person within the community, something strange is afoot. Featuring…