Short Films Competition
While these films may be onscreen for mere moments, they make lasting impressions. Limited in length but never in creativity, short films have their very own energy, far removed from the financial constraints of a feature film and often the rules of cinema itself. Whether they embody the start of an idea or the crystallization of one, shorts are one of the most consistently intriguing cinematic forms, a fascinating world unto themselves.
Every short film in the Seattle International Film Festival is eligible for both the Golden Space Needle Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize. Our Shorts Competition jurors will choose winners in the Live Action, Animation, and Documentary categories. Each Grand Jury Prize winner will receive $1,500; winners also qualify to enter their respective Short Film category of the Academy Awards® for the concurrent season without a theatrical run.
ALT Shorts: See and Be Seen
85 min.
Looking through colored filters, found footage, high school memories, or visual effects, this series of experimental shorts will transport you to locations that are real, remembered, abstracted, or simply imagined.
The Animal Inside
88 min.
Dive into a short film program chock full of whale tales, dog rubs, and unexpected animal connections.
Animation4Adults
93 min.
From magic candies to disappearing frogs, this year’s animated shorts take us on unexpected journeys from the otherworldly outer reaches to the inner depths of one’s mind.
Coloring Outside the Lines
93 min.
Through their creativity (rather, queerativity), these stories of performance, sound, and image not only validate that art imitates life, but that it IS life.
Eat Your Heart Out (WTF)
86 min.
A pu pu platter of shockingly delicious shorts with an aftertaste of WTF. Pizza. Dumplings. Milking. Hole.
The Family Picture Show
76 min.
Stamp your cinema passport on a family staycation where you will meet hygienic llamas, sassy guardian lions, a sleepy monkey, and more friends along the way.
FUTUREWAVE: Teenaged Terror
91 min.
What's scarier than being a teenager? Dive into adolescent anxieties, hormonal horror, and the yearning of youth with films made by filmmakers 18 and under.
Love Story (SIFF's Version)
86 min.
From malfunctioning sex robots to towering stacks of emotional baggage, explore the idiosyncrasies of humanity’s greatest (and most complicated) emotion.
Moving Poetry: Indigenous Stories
72 min.
This selection of short, Indigenous-made films exemplifies the poetic language of the body as memory, cultural healing, and relationship to the natural world.
Once Upon a Nightmare…
97 min.
As bedtime approaches, these eight macabre visions will disturb your sleep and haunt your dreams.
Parental Guidance
92 min.
These short films reveal the absurdity and profundity in the choice to become a parent.
ShortsFest Opening Night
84 min.
It is our great pleasure to open our ShortsFest Spotlight with this collection of superb films from around the world: whether narrative or documentary, live action or animation—these films prove short is truly sweet.
Sound Visions
91 min.
From the titillating to the transcendent, this year’s local shorts reveal the adventurous spirit of our talented filmmaking community.
Women on the Verge
92 min.
Whether on the verge of a breakthrough or breakdown, these women-led stories explore womanhood’s ethos.