We are excited to announce the official Short of the Week Awards 2013 nominees! We’ve nominated the top 10 films in each of our three categories—Animation, Live-Action, and New Media—as the most innovative stories from the past year. These are filmmakers who are breaking new ground in the stories they tell, the techniques they use, and the way they reach an audience. Winners will announced during SOTW Awards Week beginning February 11, 2013.
Animation Nominees
Dark Comedy
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Life & Society
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Animation
Open-source synthetic biology allows a young man to grow his very own action hero. From award winning animator, Tom Judd.
Epic
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Human Nature
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Stop-Motion
Mikey Yes Please / 9 min / UK
Peter has discovered that the longer we live, the faster time passes. Before it's too late, he finds hope for a cure in a curious little beetle.
Experimental
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Corruption
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3D Animation
Louis Lefebvre / 7 min / Canada
Symbolic remix of the world's modern travesties rendered with an incredible level of polish by a new Canadian animation studio.
Drama
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Decay
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Animation
Eamonn O'Neill / 5 min / UK
The indignities of life add up, sometimes more than you can take. But our protagonist is fine thanks.
Fantasy
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Other Worlds
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Stop-Motion
One student's daydream comes vividly to life during Biology class, in this Best Animation Winner from SXSW 2012
Drama
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Love
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Stop-Motion
Christopher Kezelos / 5 min / USA
A strange creature races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life.
Sci-Fi
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Other Worlds
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3D Animation
In the vein of Sci-Fi VFX shorts like “The Raven” and “Rosa”, Wes Ball creates a thrilling and gorgeous CG chase sequence, sure to draw the attention of Hollywood.
Live-Action Nominees
Documentary
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Art
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Live-Action
A towering figure in the art world, standing at 6'7", John Baldessari's epic career is crammed into 5 and a half frenzied minutes. Narrated by Tom Waits.
Documentary
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Community
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Live-Action
Alan Spearman / 13 min / USA
Chris Dean’s heart stopped when he was two. When Chris was five, his father was murdered, riddled by more than 20 bullets in a gang shootout. Chris is a poetic observer with much to say about life in South Memphis.
Drama
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Human Nature
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Live-Action
Jonathan Entwistle / 13 min / UK
Gorillas, Zebras, Lions, and Unicorns party and clash in the jungle that is teenage drama from British short veteran, Jonathan Entwistle.
Documentary
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Loss
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Photography
Robert-Jan Lacombe / 10 min / Switzerland
As a 10-year-old growing up in the small African village of Mandima, Robert-Jan Lacombe, the son of European parents, never thought he would have to say goodbye.
Romance
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Love
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Live-Action
Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart / 14 min / Canada
On a cold winter's night, Lynn's quest for a one night stand is complicated when the guy she goes home with lives two hours away via public transit.
Romance
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Love
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Live-Action
Josh Soskin / 11 min / USA
An ambitious mover is blindsided when he discovers that one of the pieces of furniture left behind for him is a suicidal daughter with 20 minutes left to live.
Drama
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Friendship
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Live-Action
Bernardo Nascimento / 15 min / UK
An air-traffic controller receives a transatlantic emergency signal from a lost plane.
Sci-Fi
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Family
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Live-Action
Stuart Willis / 18 min / Australia
Set in a dystopian future where the lower classes are left on Earth with only a space elevator that connects them with the possibilities of a better life.
Drama
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Love
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Live-Action
Rúnar Rúnarsson / 15 min / Iceland
Two naive lovebirds share a redemptive night in this quiet short from Iceland—NSFW.
Documentary
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Life & Society
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Live-Action
Doug Nichol / 15 min / USA
An American advertising producer in Shanghai tries to sell fast food to the Chinese. An endearing portrait of a modern day "Mad Man."
New Media Nominees
Documentary
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Politics
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Live-Action
Dana O'Keefe / 8 min / USA
A contemporary re-imagining of the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The film explores the idea of history as a contested narrative. Also, it is a comedy.
Documentary
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Nature
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Interactive
The life of a grizzly in a Canadian national park from the perspective of data points and surveillance cameras presents a fascinating look at what it means to be wild in this interactive film from the NFB.
Myth
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Greed
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Interactive
Evan Boehm / 8 min / UK
Tragic tale of human ambition told through an interactive diorama. *Requires a browser with WebGL*
Branded Film
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Growth
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Multi-Media
Christian Carlsson / 4 min / UK
The story of a boy born on the day Pentagram opened and how his life has been tracked (and kerned) by forty years of Pentagram design.
Sci-Fi
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Life & Society
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Special FX
Dennis Liu / 14 min / USA
In the near future, instant DNA identification has created an information grid that makes crime extremely difficult, and anonymity impossible. But, suddenly, the same ID's start to appear in different locations. A pro-level and intelligent Sci- Fi piece about the genesis of a Big Brother State.
Sci-Fi
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Human Nature
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Found Footage
Neil Harvey / 9 min / Australia
Robbie, NASA's sentient robot astronaut, relates his life and times in the space program. A powerful narrative constructed entirely of archival footage.
Sci-Fi
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Life & Society
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Special FX
We've seen futuristic sci-fi before, but remove spaceships from the equation, how will technology affect our daily lives?
Experimental
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Human Nature
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Special FX
Andrew Huang / 10 min / USA
An experimental film dealing with themes of separation and connection, Andrew Huang's latest is a jaw droppingly gorgeous visual symphony in 3 movements.
Sci-Fi
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Life & Society
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Special FX
Stephan Zlotescu / 6 min / Thailand
In a futuristic Bangkok where human cyber modification is the norm, Kaye finds himself on the run for stealing a particular augmentation in this visually stunning science fiction thriller.
Fantasy
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Perseverence
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Multi-Media
From acclaimed indie short filmmakers, the Varava Brothers, comes the whimsical and historically accurate tale of one tumbleweed that did not tumble.
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