SpelingError's Top 100 Favorite Short Films

tremendous effort.

I look forward to trying some of these.

Here are a couple new favorites which show how eclectic my taste is:



Pretty sure that every joke/spooky scene in this landed. While there has so far been a ceiling as to how much I've enjoyed cartoons of this ilk from the era so far (i.e., Looney Tunes), the comedy in this is so clever and rapid fire I couldn't resist falling in love with it. Even the awkward live action opening had an unexpectedly satisfying payoff.



Not for the faint of heart, but if you can handle graphic sexual imagery, this one has some incredible kaleidoscopic imagery/layered juxtapositions which place it as among the best short film technical masterpieces I've come across. That plus the foreboding operatic score contributes to the sense of watching a nightmarish version of the biblical story it's loosely inspired from.

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I’ve revisited this list and knocked a few more off lately. The Wrong Trouser, Wasp and The Skeleton Dance so far.
I didn’t notice until now, but Looney Toons short films seems to be preferred over Disney Short films.

Yeah, I like a handful of Disney shorts a lot, but I prefer Looney Tunes in terms of quality, overall.

Anyways, glad to see you're still watching films from this.

FilmComment's latest newsletter had a list of their best short films of 2024 and I thought of you!

Speaking in Tongues: Take One (Christopher Harris, U.S.)

Ishmael Reed’s novel Mumbo Jumbo serves as the jumping-off point for a rhythmic collision of dance, riot, and 20th-century American cultural detritus, marking the first iteration of an evolving project from one of the most vital voices in contemporary film. (Listen to a Film Comment Podcast conversation with Christopher Harris here.)

It’s Not Me (Leos Carax, France)

Originally commissioned as part of the Centre Pompidou’s “Where do you stand…” series, which has seen notable entries from the likes of Tsai Ming-liang and Joanna Hogg, Leos Carax’s late-Godardian homage is an autobiographical treatise on history, cinema, life, and simulacrum. If nothing else, watch it to see Baby Annette mimic Denis Levant’s famous “Modern Love” stumble-run from Mauvais sang (1986).

ping pong ping pong ping pong ping pong ping pong (Daphne Xu, U.S./Canada)

The Seward Park ping-pong table becomes a portal for a history of cultural exchange in this playful and bewitching 16mm city poem.

A Radical Duet (Onyeka Igwe, U.K.)

An imagined encounter between Jamaican writer Sylvia Wynter and Nigerian activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti in 1940s London gives way to a look at the collaborative dramaturgy behind its own making.

Camera Test (King Cadbury) (Charlie Shackleton, U.K.)

Conceptual trickster Charlie Shackleton, whose body of work includes a 10-hour record of paint drying (designed to antagonize British film censors), turns the occasion of a routine camera test into an investigation of a mid-century Cadbury’s TV ad, enshrined in his personal family mythology despite there being no proof of its existence.

A Stone’s Throw (Razan AlSalah, Canada/Lebanon)

In this next entry in Razan AlSalah’s ongoing project of digitally mapping the experience of exile, Ghassan Kanafani’s account of Palestinian workers’ attack on the Kirkuk-Haifa oil pipeline in the 1930s dovetails with the story of the filmmaker’s father’s lifetime of labor.

The Deep West Assembly (Cauleen Smith, U.S.)

Visionary filmmaker Cauleen Smith tenders a theatrical retelling of American history inside a manifesto for the Black queer underground.

Banging on Their Bars in Rhythm (Kevin Jerome Everson, U.S.)

One of prolific filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson’s many projects from this year, Banging on Their Bars in Rhythm features footage of the former Ohio State Reformatory; the physical contact between this footage and the projector’s optical sound head affects the rattle of rebellion. The title is a reference to the 1997 film Air Force One, which was filmed at the prison.

One Night at Babes (Angelo Madsen, U.S.)

Multidisciplinary artist Angelo Madsen captures a cheeky oral history of all-inclusive revelry at a community watering hole in Bethel, Vermont.

Dona Beatriz Ñsîmba Vita (Catapreta, Brazil)

A Kongolese Catholic iconoclast also known as “Beatrice of Congo” (1684-1706) comes to abstract, animated life in this gorgeously grotesque allegorical nightmare.

Thanks for the recs! I'll be sure to check them out.