A young woman moves into a new apartment and discovers a growth on her wall that mysteriously moves. Each time it does, she covers it with cardboard or a mirror, but as soon as it's covered, it pops up elsewhere. The woman can’t define what she’s seeing, and she can’t pin it down, but it’s there,...

A man recounts the story of a local legend as he travels to the jungle to make peace with his life. “Del Arco Vacío,” by director Micah Van Hove, is a hybrid concoction, something like a joyous eulogy delivered via impromptu walking tour of a small town in Peru. The story of Alex Carlo Delgado is...

An existential struggle to make an elaborate Halloween costume, set to 80's synth beats, carried by Eric Yevak, who exists in the frame without really acting, just goes about his work. A procedural with a simple trajectory: make a costume, go to a party. But the costume isn't some half-baked last...

A man is having the worst week of his life and his two best friends come over to cheer him up. They are all named Michael. “Three Michaels,” the new short by Tom Levin — director of the NoBudge all-timer, “Men’s Thanksgiving” — is almost entirely improvised and self-contained within a Brooklyn ap...

In the rural backwoods, where living in squalor will keep you invisible, two desperate young men venture into the darkness to meet a mysterious but powerful man. The ominous Gentleman offers the nervous men an opportunity but they must go along with a cult-like initiation. An exercise in suspense...

When the mother of his infant son boots him out of her life, Jim wants to go where no one knows his name. So he seeks refuge in the torrent of bodies clogging midtown Manhattan, where he’s safe to unload his bottomless cynicism on that most wretched of creatures, the American Tourist. Cutting an ...

Brad, an uptight office drone, seemingly discovers the perfect vehicle for letting off steam. Directed by Christopher Good.

An eco-warrior gets out of jail and an old friend tries to pull him back into the fray. A mystifying film, a cheap production & awkward, unnatural interactions make it seem like maybe it's a ruse. Either way, it's intriguing & I recommend you watch at least twice. The film is basically one conver...

After the death of her high school boyfriend Lou, Nicole returns home to New Jersey where she finds herself directing Lou’s unproduced screenplay. “The Ultimate (By Lou Fescano),” written and directed by Daniel Jaffe and co-written and starring Michelle Uranowitz, crafts a delicate balance of fun...

A man is caught with his pants down when terrorized by a force outside his bathroom stall. “Someone’s In Here,” directed by Ben Kitnick, is a horror vignette, minimal, well-executed and open for metaphorical interpretation. A man dressed in Khakis, a polo, and a fleece vest, takes care of busines...

An alternate history, or impending future, that imagines a catastrophic meteor strike in Kansas triggering odd disorders for those who breathe in a mysterious green mist. We're given three such stories, one of a Texas man who finds himself with superhuman strength, another, of a Brooklyn photogra...

A very unfunny family history is spun into brilliant comedy from co-directors Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik. They begin with a doozy of a premise and keep pushing. When it all comes together, it feels like a wallop, but it’s largely packaged as a deadpan farce about a group therapy session. Bev is...

Young revelers, Jean and Jacob, vow to stop their crazy lifestyle holding them back in life, but first they must live it up for one more night. An infectious short film about partying in your own world no matter what it looks like from the outside. Waking up hungover by a pool, two friends decide...

Alex’s upscale co-workers think she’s going on a beach vacation. Instead, she descends into New York City in search of the vile. From director William Welles comes this pitch black comedy or tragedy (depending on your squeamishness) about perversity and compulsion. Her motivations aren’t spelled ...

One of the sharpest satirical shorts in awhile, an American portrait of gluttony, tragedy, and cheap entertainment. Guised as a character study, it begins with a large man in a hotel room in Wilmington, North Carolina. Randy Stormberg, host of a TV show called "All You Can Eat" (a fake show in th...

Perhaps most notable for its lead performance by Nora Kirkpatrick, a musician in Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, & an actress who has had supporting roles on "The Office" and others. She turns in a sad, sweet performance taking on the world's troubles by way of worrying about a crying man ...

College roommates / cinephiles in Vancouver discuss cinema, et al, casually planning to make a piece of their own. But they're at the stage where plans blow away so the thing is to capture 'now.' Turn on the camera, point it at the couch, let it roll till the card is full. Or as 'director,' 'acto...

Five bored high school senior girls are planning a party for their friend Colby, who doesn't seem too excited about it. The credits give these girls names, but the film doesn't. Instead, they are identifiable as the bitchy alpha blonde, the sad sack with an eating disorder, the airhead in pigtail...

Linas Phillips continues his Shawnsey series in a quick pic about the man from Boston with bad hearing trying to get his stand-up routine off the ground. Whatever Phillips does, I'm on board with & there's a couple hilarious moments here, as when he's reviewing footage of his routine and tweaking...

Two teens in a small desert city earn cash standing on the side of the street holding signs for cheap loans. They make a game of it, spinning the signs like they’re doing skateboard tricks. “More tricks, more money, dawg,” says the baller white kid teaching a newbie the ropes of the street in a g...

On the streets of Los Angeles, a group of young hustlers spend a night partying and stealing. It's a visceral collection of scenes with a pulsating natural energy and soft-focus gaze on lost innocence. The film centers around Gabriel, a handsome young man, and a gender-fluid set of friends maneuv...

2014 NoBudge Award winner Jeremy Hersh (Best Screenplay, “Natives”) returns with another story of women in love confronting their maybe-irreconcilable differences. Where that earlier film expanded to embrace ideas about place, culture, and identity, what we get here is a marvel of concentration. ...

Jeremy Hersh's impressive short fresh out of NYU is remarkably mature & whip smart. Coming off a strong '13, featuring festival appearances at SXSW, Frameline, and Outfest, etc, the film is off to a running start online, recently selected to Vimeo Staff Picks & featured on Short of the Week. The ...

A lonely man becomes obsessed with a woman on the internet via her emotionally revealing webcam show about her struggles as an actress. It gets weird when the woman (Jenna D'Angelo) moves into his building, immediately making her presence felt. Except maybe it's not real, maybe he's imagining her...