While we can only dream of competing with the likes of the BAFTAs or the Academy Awards, here at Short of the Week we believe our Short Awards occupy a distinct and valuable space within the film industry’s prize-giving calendar - recognizing the most innovative and exciting short films released online over the past year.

Each year, our celebration of originality and innovation in short filmmaking sees the team select a small number of standout works from our annual curation and honor them with one of a limited number of Short Awards.

With our selections finalized, deliberations concluded by our jury - Liza Mandelup, Esteban Pedraza and Renee Zhan - and the Audience Choice votes counted, it’s time to announce this year’s winners.

These choices invariably spark conversation, so if you have personal favorites among the films we featured in 2025, we encourage you to share them in the comments or across social media.

🎉 Congratulations to all of our winners.

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Jury Award for Best Short

Beyond Failure by Marissa Losoya

Jury Statement: What we loved about Beyond Failure was, first and foremost, that Marissa is a star. The short is a portal into the modern anxiety of being a “better” version of yourself, while also revealing the deeper vulnerabilities of life. We felt that it was both of the moment, and a beautiful opportunity to platform an artist like this. Beyond Failure struck us as a film that would be relatable and deep while also doing well on the internet - speaking to Short of the Week’s mission.

[Read the Full S/W Review]

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Animation Short of the Year

[caption id="attachment_42082" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Retirement_Plan_John_Kelly

John Kelly's Retirement Plan is available to watch on the New Yorker in the US and Disney+ in Europe[/caption]

Retirement Plan by John Kelly

A cheeky yet quietly profound piece of animation, John Kelly’s Retirement Plan is a gentle reminder not to postpone living for a future we may never get a chance to see. The film begins with a light touch, but beneath that humor lies an acknowledgment of a truth we often avoid: we don’t have all the time in the world, and devastatingly, some people have less than others.

In exploring the inevitability of mortality, Kelly’s film paints a portrait of a man in his final act and is both surprisingly amusing and poetically narrated. A short that will have you on the verge of tears and laughter, Retirement Plan encourages its audience to reflect on both the present and what’s still to come. This is a film everyone should watch, because the lasting impact it’s had on me and those I’ve shown it to, is really something special - Chelsea Lupkin

[Read the Full S/W Review]

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COMEDY Short of the Year

The Piss Saga by Derek Milton

The Piss Saga is that rare breed of short film that manages to be intriguing, chaotic, and profoundly silly all at once - teasing the viewer with the grotesque mystery of spontaneously appearing bodily fluids while also functioning as a tightly wound comedy of errors.

Its brilliance lies in the fact that Milton is little more than a passenger in his own story, dragging us along on a careening bus ride where neither the passengers nor the driver seem to know where the brakes are - or what the final destination might be. It’s precisely this lack of control and direction that keeps viewers glued to the screen, laughing at the escalating absurdity of the puzzle and uncovering fresh layers of comedic gold every time you return to witness the madness unfold - Mariana Rekka

[Read the Full S/W Review]

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Documentary Short of the Year

Last Resort by Bren Cukier

It is unfair to compare any short to Aftersun, a film widely proclaimed as the best feature debut of the century, but the superficial similarities between it and Bren Cukier’s family documentary are inescapable: an adult woman reflecting back on a youthful seaside resort vacation, attempting to recontextualize the figure of her father and reconcile it in her memory while haunted by the specter of his loss. These are striking commonalities. The two films even interweave lo-fi DV home video aesthetics, braiding the past with the present.

That Last Resort shares these qualities with its more celebrated cousin is coincidence, and in more meaningfully ways they are very different films in terms of technique and aim. But, perhaps due to those superficial similarities, Last Resort, like Aftersun, is able to instill a tremendous degree of emotional resonance with little overt plot - the elements combining in a super-powered dose of nostalgia, regret, and melancholy. Cukier supports this with an audio-visual mix of artsy handheld photography, hyper-attuned to stray moments, and a lilting soundtrack of ethereal samples played in reverse. In some ways, this short feels like a proof-of-concept for a larger treatment of this very personal familial drama, but the essential thrust - a crisis of meaning in the face of the profound unknowability of life, love, and loss - comes through potently - Jason Sondhi

[Read the Full S/W Review]

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Drama Short of the Year

Far Away by Emily Murnane

One of the great pleasures of being a short film programmer - and part of the S/W team - is the chance to follow the trajectory of exciting filmmakers as their careers evolve. One aspect that I personally admire is the ability of filmmakers to build on their own cinematic sensibilities while evolving as an artist within their own style. I was already a big fan of Emily Murnane’s previously featured short Outside, and her latest gem, Far Away, marks another powerful collaboration with her close friend and muse, actress Alyssa Limperis.

Similar to Outside, Far Away uses minimalist filmmaking to maximum effect, delivering a low-budget two-hander that fully showcases Limperis’ talents - this time opposite Caroline Cotter. True to Murnane’s strengths as a writer/director, the film focuses on specific, deeply felt human experiences within a limited setting to tell an almost uncomfortably honest story that lands with a real emotional gut punch. Without revealing too much, there's one particular scene that stands out as among the most affecting I’ve seen in all my time watching shorts.

It’s especially fascinating that both Murnane and Limperis are perhaps better known for their comedic work- whether in improv, stand-up, or their collaborative comedic skits. It may sound like a cliché, but they once again demonstrate that some of the most heart-wrenching dramas are made by comedically attuned storytellers - those who look for humor in the darkest places and, in Far Away, uncover profound emotion within the complexities of close female friendship. The film is also a reminder that you don’t need big budgets or similar trappings to create something remarkable - just emotional honesty, great performances, and a filmmaker with a distinct voice - Georg Csarmann

[Read the Full S/W Review]

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The Trailblazer Award

I’m Really Scared I’m Dying TBH by Lindsay Calleran

I will admit to somewhat pulling rank in awarding this year’s Trailblazer Award. As the prize that most directly reflects our curatorial aims - "great stories that brave new territory" - it was difficult to look beyond Lindsay Calleran’s strikingly inventive and deeply affecting short, I’m Really Scared I’m Dying TBH.

Commissioned through the Modern Silent Shorts initiative, a grant program aimed at reimagining silent cinema through a contemporary lens, Calleran’s film immerses the viewer in the increasingly unstable mental state of its anxious protagonist. The absence of dialogue working not as a limitation, but instead an expressive device, amplifying the character’s fragile interiority and making the silent format an ideal vehicle for the work.

Through the use of split screens, intertitles, and a pulsing soundtrack - one the director first experienced during the film’s premiere - I’m Really Scared I’m Dying TBH initially appears to be a film that shouldn't work. Yet it's to Calleran’s credit that these elements cohere so effectively. Rather than collapsing under their weight, the film emerges as one of the most distinctive, resonant, and enduring shorts we encountered in 2025 - Rob Munday

[Read the Full S/W Review]

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The Audience Choice Award

A Body Called Life by Spencer MacDonald

Blending fiction and documentary, Spencer MacDonald's A Body Called Life adopts a hybrid approach that immediately draws viewers into the interior world of a solitary young man obsessed with microscopic worlds.

It’s an immersive experience - one our programmer Céline aptly described as offering "tender look at the metaphysical question of our place on Earth". Through its striking aesthetic, meticulous sound design, and quietly fascinating subject matter, the film moves beyond portraiture to become something more self-reflective. It invites us not only to witness one man’s refuge in the miniature ecosystems beneath his microscope, but also to consider our own scale within the vastness of existence.

Given its visual flair and lingering emotional impact, it’s no surprise that our audience connected with it so strongly - ultimately voting A Body Called Life as our 2026 Audience Choice Award winner.

[Read the Full S/W Review]

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