Adam Banks / Cincinnati
Contributor / @akbanx

With each passing year, life seems to get busier and busier, and with this escalation of busy-ness comes an annoying choice: you can either sacrifice something you love doing because the other thing takes up too much time, or you can say “fuck it” and double down on both. For me, Thing 1 was screening and writing about films for Short of the Week (my favorite sidegig ever), and Thing 2 was working as a crew member on feature films (a massive timesuck that I very much love being a part of). In my case, both things involved film, so it was an easy decision to choose the latter option–both.

Towards the end of summer, I started forcing myself to screen more short films (and thus write more) for S/W, and I’m glad I did, because watching more shorts makes you a better filmmaker, or at the very least, a more knowledgeable film nerd. Plus, it’s getting easier to tell the difference between films that are good and films that are great (though the words “good” and “great” both suck as words).

So, what do these shorts have in common besides being featured on our site? They are unique, playful, and surprising. Their creativity warrants multiple viewings. They feature characters that jump off the page like kids closing their books on the last day of school before summer break, and there’s an admirable style to each film that is sometimes hard describe, but works nonetheless. Most importantly, these films are made by filmmakers with a strong, unique voice. In a world where the lowest common denominator is the biggest marketing strategy for getting butts into movie theater seats, a strong voice is refreshing, and it’s what I look for when watching films of any length.

Also, we got Short of the Week sweatshirts this year. Hell yeah.

Adam’s Top 10 Shorts of 2017

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Dark Comedy Jim Archer

Brian and Charles

After isolating himself from the rest of the world, Brian forges an unlikely friendship.

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Drama Henry K. Norvalls

Sweet Things

A woman finally get the job she's been waiting for, but a sweet offer never comes without a bitter aftertaste.

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Fantasy Dianne Bellino

The Itching

In this handmade collaboration, a shy wolf tries to befriend a group of hip, party-loving bunnies but finds her body is in revolt.

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Comedy Drew Van Steenbergen

A Lack of Dating in Brooklyn

An unromantic comedy. Sam begins to have a horrifying realization: her romantic discontent is due to her own laziness and not, as she had previously assumed, the fault of every other human being.

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Drama Jared Anderson
ma

Unremarkable

A woman is shot and killed. What happens to her next is extraordinary in its ordinariness

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Dramedy Andrew T. Betzer

I Turn to Jello

A metropolitan nightmare unfurls as a nervous cellist cracks under pressure at an audition—again, and again, and . . .

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Comedy MP Cunningham

Ford Clitaurus

An aspiring artist struggles to find his voice, his sexual identity, and the meaning of creativity.

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Documentary Will Mayer

Sea Pilgrim

A meditative film on Brazilian solo sailor Tassio Azambuja

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Drama Matthew Puccini

The Mess He Made

In a mundane strip mall, a man awaits the potentially devastating results of a simple medical test. The next 15 minutes will be the longest of his life