When people take a look back at March 2020, the fine selection of short films we served up on Short of the Week is bound to be the last thing on your mind. It has been a devastating month and though it seems trivial to discuss the best films we featured on our site over the last 31-days, we hope our continuing coverage provides distraction in these troubling times.

With social distancing, self-isolation and lockdowns meaning the Film Festival world has been put on hold for the foreseeable future, we chose to cover the short film selections of SXSW 2020 in an even bigger way than usual with our SXSW shorts week.  A celebration of filmmakers dealt a tough hand and an ode to the festival itself, our coverage included a mix of film and editorial content over nine-days.

SXSW wasn’t the only festival forced into tough decisions in these difficult times, S/W co-founder Jason Sondhi provided an in-depth round-up of how some of the other top festivals were adapting to the Coronavirus shutdown.

With this added coverage for SXSW, March was one of our busiest months in some time. Along with a handful of news posts on the festival, we also featured 27 shorts, including a few I reckon you’ll see in our Short Awards at the end of the year.

With so many films featured, picking three favourites from our coverage proved a tough task for the S/W team. Featuring a meditative character study, a fascinating female coming-of-age story and the first coronavirus masterpiece, let your mind focus on something (anything!) else with this 34-minute playlist.

Play
Documentary Ben Berman

The Follow-Up

What does a filmmaker with a need to tell stories do when they suddenly find themselves and all of the production industry on lockdown? In Berman’s case, start to explore the world of Cameo as a tool for human connection.

Play
Drama Victoria Rivera

Night Swim

3 friends. A closed-off pool. A dangerous threat. A decision that will haunt forever.

Play
Drama Alexander Hankoff

Missing

A meditative character study focusing on Paul Harper, a desperate father whose exhaustive search for his lost son has led him down a path of unintended exile.

Watch past Best of the Month Selections