Short of the Week
From nearly 20 years of speaking with filmmakers about making short films, one challenge consistently stands out: a lack of support. Whether it’s financial backing, creative guidance, or promotional help, emerging filmmakers often struggle to bring their visions to life. More often than not, it takes large, nationally recognized organizations to give them the boost they need – organizations like the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
For over two decades, the NFB has served as a launchpad for some of Canada’s most exciting animation talent through its Hothouse program – with alumni including S/W alums Eva Cvijanovic and Malcolm Sutherland. Each year, the 12-week residency at the NFB English Animation Studio selects six filmmakers from hundreds of applicants (more than 240 this year) for a paid mentorship. The program culminates in six one-minute films, this year created around the theme of ‘people watching’.
With the latest collection now released, here are the six films from Hothouse 15:
Get a Grip by Abbey Collings
Gus MacDuffin longs to fly like the other puffins. But when he finally takes the leap, he falls—straight down into a fisherman’s bucket. There, Gus makes a shocking discovery: his wings are actually hands. With the help of his fisherman friend, he embraces his unique abilities and brings home a skill no other puffin has.
Director’s Statement: Inspired by the Bird Islands in Nova Scotia, Get a Grip shows how observing others shapes our beliefs, influences our interactions and ultimately helps us define who we are. The film explores the balance between learning from the world around us and staying true to ourselves.
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I Want to Go Home by Mégan Dupont
This deeply personal and visually experimental short film explores the disorienting experience of sudden, unexplained vision loss. Using layers of distortion and clarity, and blending medical chaos with childhood memories, it weaves a haunting tapestry of fear and beauty. The moment of rediscovery in the film reveals all the preciousness of a sense we take for granted.
Director’s Statement: This film is my way of processing a time filled with fear, confusion and unanswered questions about my vision. Through chaotic visuals and quiet moments of beauty, I wanted to share that journey and offer a different perspective on something we often take for granted.
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Panoptic by Katie Finn
A prison security system detects an explosion. All systems engage to contain the jailbreak. Every decision matters. Every millisecond counts. Panoptic is a kinetic visceral experience that unfolds entirely from the point of view of an unfeeling computer system.
Director’s Statement: My short is a prison break told through the point of view of the prison’s own security software. It’s a fast, compressed narrative—with an aesthetic shaped by the same efficiency protocols of the systems it depicts.
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Springrise by Mitchell Keys
The sun rises over a planet deep in winter, bringing light, life and togetherness. It is a reminder, even in the darkest moments, that there will eventually be light.
Director’s Statement: This project was inspired by our planet and all the ways it holds us, takes care of us and keeps us together. I’ve always been inspired by the beauty of our world, and I remain optimistic that, despite all the turmoil and terror, there is a brilliant sunrise ahead.
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Intruder by Max Ma
A man tries to direct his own dreams, but nothing goes as planned. While sculpture-like props and dreamlike soundscapes swirl around him, he’s swept into a world where he is a prisoner of his own subconsciousness. In this dreamscape, his deepest feelings and desires have a life of their own. So, who is truly in control?
Director’s Statement: I gravitate towards filmmakers like Edward Yang and Mia Hansen-Løve, who write characters in conflicts that are at once mundane and consuming. The tenderness they show these characters is what I kept in mind when writing my character: a man who finds himself not the auteur but the audience of his own dreams. Visually, the surrealist and sculptural designs are influenced by the works of Robert Wilson and Eiko Ishioka.
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Super Mr. Woods by Aerin Wu
Super Mr. Woods is a surreal animated short that blurs the line between reverence and ridiculousness, offering a glimpse into an absurd world spiralling into consumer chaos. A mystic forest creature becomes a brand, a god, a myth, who serves as a mirror for our own consumer-driven culture.
Director’s Statement: Our world feels chaotic and overwhelming. People are always too busy working, creating and consuming to imagine a better tomorrow together. From a distance, this constant motion feels frantic and absurd, and that inspired me to create Mr. Woods, a mysterious creature who represents the tension between such hope and frenzy.