SpelingError's 100 Favorite Short Films
 

Some time ago, I made an effort to expand the number of short films I've seen. Aside from having watched some well‐known classics, I felt the short film format was one I had barely scratched the surface of. After asking for recommendations from a handful of people, watching as much short films as possible from a few decently sized lists I came across, and exhausting the filmography of a handful of filmmakers who largely specialize in short films (even though I typically don't like to do this), I now feel pretty confident with publishing this.

The main hurdle I had to jump over was, though I knew some well‐known classics would inevitably make this list, I also wanted to have a decently high number of surprises throughout it as well, even in the top 20. To achieve this, I kept making efforts to delve deeper into obscure/international releases until I felt confident with my choices, while simultaneously making sure not to hand out high ratings to obscure short films just for the sake of it.

Another big hurdle I ran into when I started was determining how short a film has to be for it to quality as a short film. Some people define a short film as 30 minutes or less, while the Academy defines short films as 40 minutes or less (credits included). I've also seen some people count all films under an hour as short films. In short (heh), I don't think there's a single, universally accepted definition which everyone will agree on. After looking through the pool of films I wanted to give recognition to, I ultimately decided I was most comfortable with 45 minutes or less.

Almost everything in this list can be watched for free on YouTube, but a few films might be harder to track down. Let me know if you need any help.

The List:

100) Allures (1961, Jordan Belson)
99) Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953, Chuck Jones)
98) Talking Heads (1980, Krzysztof Kieślowski)
97) At Land (1944, Maya Deren)
96) Balance (1989, Christoph Lauenstein and Wolfgang Lauenstein)
95) À Propos De Nice (1930, Jean Vigo and Boris Kaufman)
94) Black Ice (1994, Stan Brakhage)
93) 9 Variations on a Dance Theme (1966, Hilary Harris)
92) Inspiration (1949, Karel Zeman)
91) Death and Transfiguration (1983, Terence Davies)

90) What's Opera, Doc? (1957, Chuck Jones)
89) Uncle Yanco (1967, Agnès Varda)
88) A Trip to the Moon (1902, Georges Méliès)
87) The Flat (1968, Jan Švankmajer)
86) Fuses (1967, Carolee Schneemann)
85) The Big Shave (1967, Martin Scorsese)
84) Barres (1984, Luc Moullet)
83) Food (1993, Jan Švankmajer)
82) Visions in Meditation #2: Mesa Verde (1989, Stan Brakhage)
81) A Dog's Life (1918, Charlie Chaplin)

80) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023, Wes Anderson)
79) Lost & Found (2018, Andrew Goldsmith and Bradley Slabe)
78) Goodbye (2015, Tyler Russo)
77) Tango (1981, Zbigniew Rybczyński)
76) Begone Dull Care (1949, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren)
75) Opening Speech (1960, Norman McLaren)
74) Virile Games (1988, Jan Švankmajer)
73) The Brickmakers (1972, Marta Rodríguez and Jorge Silva)
72) The House of Small Cubes (2008, Kunio Kato)
71) Hair-Raising Hare (1946, Chuck Jones)

70) Yantra (1957, James Whitney)
69) The Skeleton Dance (1929, Walt Disney)
68) Forklift Driver Klaus: The First Day on the Job (2001, Stefan Prehn and Jörg Wagner)
67) One Week (1920, Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline)
66) Krakatau (1986, Mariusz Grzegorzek)
65) The Mad Doctor (1933, David Hand)
64) The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1992, Aleksandr Petrov)
63) Early Abstractions (1987, Harry Smith)
62) The Night it Rained (1967, Kamran Shirdel)
61) Duck Amuck (1953, Chuck Jones)

60) Down to the Cellar (1983, Jan Švankmajer)
59) Thunder Road (2016, Jim Cummings)
58) Wasp (2003, Andrea Arnold)
57) Spacy (1981, Takashi Ito)
56) A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy)
55) Cat Skin (1962, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade)
54) OPAL (2020, Jack Stauber)
53) Blight (1996, John Smith)
52) Rabbit Fire (1951, Chuck Jones)
51) Scorpio Rising (1964, Kenneth Anger)

50) The Hand (1965, Jiří Trnka)
49) The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999, Djibril Diop Mambéty)
48) I'm Here (2010, Spike Jonze)
47) The Telephone Box (1972, Antonio Mercero)
46) The Black Tower (1987, John Smith)
45) Boulder Blues And Pearls And... (1992, Stan Brakhage)
44) Zone (1995, Takashi Ito)
43) Neighbours (1952, Norman McLaren)
42) Dog Star Man: Part III (1964, Stan Brakhage)
41) Camera Makes Whoopee (1935, Norman McLaren)

40) The Red Balloon (1956, Albert Lamorisse)
39) Fire in Castilla (Tactilvision From the Moor of the Fright) (1961, José Val del Omar)
38) More (1998, Mark Osborne)
37) Castro Street (1966, Bruce Baillee)
36) Box (1982, Takashi Ito)
35) The Heart of the World (2000, Guy Maddin)
34) Window Water Baby Moving (1959, Stan Brakhage)
33) Geneviève (1965, Michel Brault)
32) Land Without Bread (1933, Luis Buñuel)
31) Dog Star Man: Part II (1963, Stan Brakhage)

30) The Wrong Trousers (1993, Nick Park)
29) Thunder (1982, Takashi Ito)
28) World of Tomorrow (2015, Don Hertzfeldt)
27) Dog Star Man: Part IV (1964, Stan Brakhage)
26) The Man Who Planted Tress (1987, Frédéric Back)
25) Darkness/Light/Darkness (1989, Jan Švankmajer)
24) The Exquisite Corpus (2015, Peter Tscherkassky)
23) La Soufrière (1977, Werner Herzog)
22) Hapax Legomena III: Critical Mass (1971, Hollis Frampton)
21) Sherlock, Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton)

20) Dog Star Man: Part I (1962, Stan Brakhage)
19) The Grandmother (1970, David Lynch)
18) The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes (1971, Stan Brakhage)
17) Hedgehog in the Fog (1975, Yuri Norstein)
16) Apaches (1977, John Mackenzie)
15) A Song of Love (1950, Jean Genet)
14) The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope (1984, Jan Švankmajer)
13) Night and Fog (1955, Alain Resnais)
12) Prelude: Dog Star Man (1962, Stan Brakhage)
11) Pas De Deux (1968, Norman McLaren)

10) La Jetée (1962, Chris Marker)
9) Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (1991, Stan Brakhage)
8) Un Chien Andalou (1929, Luis Buñuel)
7) The Vampires of Poverty (1978, Carlos Mayolo and Luis Ospina)
6) Grim (1985, Takashi Ito)
5) The Burden (2017, Niki Lindroth von Bahr)
4) The House Is Black (1963, Forugh Farrokhzad)
3) Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid)
2) Mirror of Holland (1950, Bert Haanstra)
1) Wavelength (1967, Michael Snow)

I eagerly await the reveals

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

This list is indeed short:D

Posting no films at all would be the ultimate troll move.

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

Also, I'll post #100 later tonight.

My list world be mostly cartoons.


#100: Duck Amok (1952)


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6XvXsuSJ-1A

GASP! My entry was not so far fetched a guess!

Trippy!

I think four of his films are on this list. None of them quite rise to favorite level for me, but he certainly has a handful of very good films under his belt.

Duck Dodgers is indeed a classic. It has a special place in my heart because the convention DragonCon plays it every year during their big costume contest while tabulating the scores.

In 2020, since they had to run the convention virtually, they made a fan tribute to it which ended up being pretty darn funny. Keep your eyes peeled for Eddie McClintock, Mark Meer and Garrett Wang of Warehouse 13, Mass Effect and Star Trek: Voyager fame respectively:

https://youtu.be/8SULGGo3oAk?si=OZLbZBpvhitH6_QO

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

I'm all for this!

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

I, too, enjoy drugs.

I'm still expecting The Travelling Players to somehow show up here.

Sadly, according to IMDb, it doesn't quite meet the 45 minute requirement.

Nice choice!

Yeah, it's a simple tale about greed on the surface, yet the characters in it and the environment feels so alien that it remains fascinating.

That was wonderful! Is never seen that before.

Heh..."Magic helmet..."

What were you expecting out of this list? A happy ending?

Yeah, the animation looks really nice for its time.

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

Since this has started, have you guys had a chance to check out some of the listed shorts?

Not yet, but I have checked them out to see where they’re streaming and added them to the watchlist.
A Trip to the Moon is so good btw. Good choice

Almost everything in this list is available on YouTube, btw.

I don’t watch YouTube.

Fair enough lol.

Fun fact. Chad Hurley, who created Yourube, went to my HS. Graduated about 5 years ahead of me? I was acquainted with his younger brother, Brent

I really enjoyed Talking Heads, At Land and Inspiration the most - my personal favourites so far. À Propos De Nice inspired me to crack open my Complete Films of Jean Vigo Criterion set, and catching A Trip to the Moon was well overdue.

Several. The stop animation ones are my favorite so far, especially Balance.

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

Good list so far.

Yay! I got the Mr Minio approval (so far).

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

Yes, please don't disappoint me with the rest of the list.

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

GO ON.

Oops. That might disappoint Mr Minio. I recall him saying he isn’t much of a fan of Svankmajer.
Unless this is an exception

I better replace it with an Asian film before he reads this thread.

I suggest
Hua Yang De Nian Hu by Wong Kar-Wai

That was a weird one. Reminds me of Brothers Quay.

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

NOTE: There are a couple versions of this film floating around the internet, but the correct one is on Vimeo and is just under 22 minutes. I would recommend muting the soundtrack.

Probably should've mentioned that the short has straight up XXX scenes in it. I was watching it while on break at work.


Luckily, no one was sitting next to me.

Sorry about that. Whenever I watch something in public, I always look it up to determine if I can watch it safely in public or if I should watch it on my own time.

Balance is a good one.

I used it with my students one year when we were learning about theme/morals. Silent films are great for that because there's not as much of a barrier for students who have slower processing.

I'd likely show Tarkovsky in hopes of turning them into cinephiles.

Though yeah, Balance would be a great choice for a younger audience. It's appropriate for pretty much all ages and not particularly subtle about its themes, which would be ideal for a younger generation.

😬

Scorsese should've done more body horror.

That was a lot of fun 😁

This might be the Chaplin film I've watched most often, and I think would be a great introduction to anyone that hasn't seen his films.

Agreed, the short runtime would certainly help in that regard. It's definitely my favorite Chaplin short film. In terms of his filmography in general though, City Lights is his magnum opus for me.

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

A Dog's Life is a lovely short. Good to see it here.

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

LOVE Lost and Found.

Goodbye is really heavy. And quite well made.


I also really liked Tango and Begone Dull Care.

😂

Lots of shorts I need to put on the watchlist. Very interesting. This is a field I’m lacking and, when I eventually turn to to it, gives me a nice list of films to start with

I wonder if any from De Seta or Reiniger will appear? I’ve delved a bit into their films.

Something I like about the short film format is that it's fairly easy to fit them into my day.

I've seen a few of De Seta's films. While I like what I've seen from him so far, none of them were in contention for this list. As for Reiniger, I've only seen The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which I really enjoyed. I'll have to check out some more of her films.

PEOPLE! AAAAAAAAAH!!!

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

Thanks for sharing

Big fan of Skeleton Dance as well. I discovered it in a fan-made music video for one of my favorite songs, Hell by Squirrell Nut Zippers. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/iLYB9pvww2M?si=UtvJjk37xZ-J_K-1

Entertaining and informative! 😆

Absolutely love this. I haven't seen a lot, but this is my favorite Keaton film.

For me, it's The General. Though Keaton's films can unfortunately get racist from time to time, when he's at his best, he's up there with Spielberg as the most entertaining director I can think of.

The General is a lot of fun, and quite an impressive feat from a filmmaking perspective. Still, I would probably have it at #3, below Sherlock Jr..

Sherlock Jr. is also excellent. I'd also vouch for Our Hospitality and Seven Chances as great films.

I need to see those, and Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Re: SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films
 

Just saw this one back in January. Not sure if it was you who recommended it, but at some point I had added it to my Letterboxd watchlist. Good stuff.