Indy Shorts International Film Festival: A Top 20!

Due to a careless scheduling error, I was unable to attend this year’s Indy Shorts International Film Festival, but I will correct that in 2025. I live a hop, skip, and a jump (aka…a two and a half hour car ride) from Indianapolis, so I really have no excuse for not attending one of America’s most premiere short film festivals. I was afforded the privilege of sitting on this year’s Animated Shorts jury, and I loved everything that I watched. Fellow AD writer, David Phillips, served on the Narrative Shorts jury.

I loved how Indy Shorts’ programming focused a lot on themes in their selections, and they didn’t limit one program from having docs and animated shorts alongside live action pieces. I saw just under 85 titles at this year’s fest, and, honestly, there wasn’t a bad film in the bunch. Kudos to Indy Shorts’ impeccable programming.

What were my favorite films of the festival? I’m *so glad* that you asked!

Honorable Mention

• I could’ve visited Justine Martin’s Carnaval for hours for how it spied on the people who find family in the summer sun…
• Aaron Lemle’s Bat Boy for showcasing one young man’s persistence and preservation for his favorite animal is enveloped in love…
• The Candy Lady, from director Monique Morton Derouselle, for delivering on its quirky promises…
• VLOG for confirming that I never want to have kids and reminding us of the majesty of Yvonne Strahovski…
• Bright White Light for uniting us with the inevitable and universal experience of death with stark, startling imagery…

20. Wavering
Who knew a floating toilet could cause such a commotion? As the Olympics continue to dominate the world’s news cycle, I couldn’t stop thinking about Fanny Chesnel’s comedic but thoughtful film about a toilet bobbing up and down La Seine. The porcelain protrusion is first noticed by police officers then a feuding family and, finally, a pair of kids trying to go viral with the items they can fish out from the water. It’s the kind of thing that one would see passed around social media, but we are seeing it with our own eyes.

19. Goose
If someone wrote a book–poised to be a hit–and it included a dark passage about your life, how do you think a meeting would go with the author about removing it? In Ethan Edwards’ darkly funny, bite-size Goose, one young woman is frustrated by the idea of her secrets getting out while another, a former friend, is determined to get her to sign over her life to lock in success. Edwards uses quick editing but lets his characters speak for themselves as he pointedly looks at how far we will go for success.

18. Bite
Jorey Worb’s personal film is punctuated with bright colors and hard, shiny surfaces as one woman struggles to overcome her PTSD and newfound trauma. Troian Bellisario’s Alexa makes a hasty appointment to explain her inexplicable jaw pain, but the dentist, played by Bill Morgan, places his hands on her while she is in the chair in a way that she shouldn’t. Worb leans into that claustrophobia that it makes you squirm in your chair. When Alexa begins to tell people in her life about the assault…everyone has an opinion about it, and she struggles with what to do next. Worb’s film is candy-coated to show how Alexa likes to present her identity and her world and it hints that she wants to exist in many realms and spaces. The emotions are so present.

17. Anuja
Compassion centers Adam J. Graves’ Anuja, a film about sisterhood and potential. The young title character works illegally in a a garment back room with her sister, but she has to make a life-changing decision when she is offered the opportunity to attend a boarding school. It raises questions surrounding fear of leaving those we love behind in order to succeed, and Graves gently places that heft on the shoulders of his two young stars.

16. 1UP
I am personally very fascinated with how characters deal with grief, and it constantly makes me wonder how different people use a variety of coping mechanisms to hurtle themselves through darkness. Greg Francis’ films centers on a young man whose mother is losing her senses after the death of her husband. It combines a coming-of-age with the notion that even if we lose someone, we can find parts of them in music and from the love of others.

15. Deep In My Heart Is a Song
There is a pure honesty coursing through the veins of this film by director Jonathan Pickett. A down on his luck musician is struggling to make ends meet when he receives an offer to play a private session as a dying woman’s last wish. Pickett directs with a steady, gentle hand and taps into something humane, heartbreaking, and universal.

14. The Nun Slayer
Incarcerated murderers seem to always find love, huh? No matter how many times we scratch our heads over an inexplicable felon love story (lust story?), Ben Bovington-Key gives his dark comedy a nifty twist. When Ophelia collects her notorious killer of a husband, Donald, from the big house, she is furious when she discovers that he isn’t the bloodthirsty, violent man she thought she married. Lies added up to a false confession, and Ophelia is determined to ask for a divorce while Donald realizes that he will stop at nothing in the name of true love. It’s just batshit enough while balancing genuine shocks and laughs.

13. If You’re Happy
We put so much pressure on mothers to always “know what to do,” and the people around those mothers have loud, vocal opinions on how good of a job they are doing. In a lot of instances, a father will leave for work while a new mom cares for their child, but there is immense fear and stigma surrounding complicated feeling about being a mother. You’re not doing enough, you’re not doing it right–I can’t believe that’s how you would raise your child! Phoebe Arnstein’s short focuses on one mother’s frustrations, and it features a satisfying roar of a finale.

12. Old Lesbians
Did you know that there are only 32 lesbian bars across the United States? That’s not the focus of Meghan McDonough documentary, but I couldn’t help but think about the individuals who don’t have a dedicated speakeasy to visit. McDonough lovingly pays tribute to the work of Arden Eversmeyer who traveled across this country to record the lives of as many lesbians as she could. Being able to tell your own story is powerful and McDonough gives space to the legacy and word of Eversmeyer in the hope that it will not just survive but endure.

11. Jellyfish & Lobster
We can never expect who we connect with, especially when we reach a certain age. For the unlikely pair at the center of this BAFTA-winning short film, looks and our expectations can be deceiving. We are never too old for mischief and self-discovery. We sometimes have to remind ourselves that we must not limit ourselves to what society or our peers’ perceptions. I am being intentionally vague here, but just know that this film–about two people finding one another just in time–is an absolutely gem.

10. The White Rabbit
When a harmless Brooklyn couple, Rachel and Travis, move to New Jersey, they make the mistake of assuming something about their neighbor, a mobster who may not be as harmless. Suburban paranoia comes into play to amusing effect after Rachel stumbles on what she assumes is an accidental murder. Even out of the hustle and bustle of the big city, this mother makes a decision to protect her brood at all costs. Are we more protective and primal than we think we are? Are we truly aware of what we are capable of?

9. Border Hopper
Director Nico Casavecchia mixes frustrations with the United States immigration system with wishful, colorful thinking in his film about a young director desperate not to lose her chance at the big time. Laura lands her big break to direct a Super Bowl commercial but she stops dead in her tracks when she learn that it shoots in Poland, and the proper visas haven’t arrived in the mail. When candy spurts out of her phone, she bites down with a hearty crunch, and she is able to make progress navigating the system. Casavecchia balances his film beautifully.

8. Cold Soup
Sometimes we can only see that we experienced true trauma once we distance from it. In Marta Monteiro’s Cold Soup, one survivor of domestic abuse looks back at her relationship with her husband with a fresh perspective as images from her past color in her memories. Every frame is intellectually and emotionally fraught, and the textures laid over one another paint a tapestry of domestic entrapment.

7. Cycling Without Age
We take for granted the ability to leave our house a moment’s notice, and the seniors featured in Isaac Seigel-Boettner’s documentary are astonished to feel the wind in the hair and the sun on their faces. Thanks to a cycling program that pairs rickshaw drivers with seniors, a simple ride through the park or along a river can change perspectives or quicken the pulse. We meet several senior residents from Heritage House who express not regret about their lives but are thankful for how a little consideration can go a long way. A truly winning film.

6. Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way
My favorite documentary was a film that I didn’t even know it was a non-fiction piece as I watched it. Costume designer Marc Marcos leaves their comfortable, familiar world of Iowa to visit their homeland of Guam where they take a gig as a costume designer for a children’s theater production. As Marc reconnects with his parents, we see the difference between the family we are born with and the ones so many queer and trans people create for themselves. The image of Marc dolled up walking through Iowa are some of my favorites of this entire festival.

5. Crust
“In our family, we get scars,” is the mantra of a father and grandfather as they excitedly bring two youngsters in for an initiation. In a family who prides themselves on overcoming physical pain, young Fabi is scared of being hurt. His younger sister, Bea, is more than enthusiastic to jump the line and climb into a rickety rollercoaster in order to prove herself. Director Jens Kevin Georg tackles masculinity, pain, and family in his film, and it’s clear to see why it won the Narrative Short prize. It’s a bit kooky but never loses its message.

4. Atomic Chicken
In the backdrop of an innocent, storybook-like farm sits a seemingly innocuous nuclear power plant cooling tower. What could possibly go wrong?! It holds the texture and playfulness of any Saturday morning animated program setting with the stakes of HBO’s Chernobyl. It’s absolutely stupid, silly, and hilarious.

3. The Cockroach
When Emily looks in the mirror, she struggles to look at herself. Every reflection, in fact, bothers her–it doesn’t matter if it’s in her own bathroom or if it’s a casual glimpse in a dance class window. After a body-altering accident, she doesn’t see herself as whole, and she evades everyone’s gaze and question. The finale of Mary Pat Bentel’s film took my breath away. Our biggest fears and traumas can transform into our biggest triumphs, and seeing Emily declare her own path is unforgettable.

2. Syncope
The pursuit of art comes to a startling fever pitch in Linus von Stumberg’s stunner about a group of dancers who get in over their heads when they carry out the whims of a demanding choreographer. von Stumberg plays the genius dancer Julius Schanzenbach who brings a new troupe of performers to the brink…and then even further when he assembles dancers for his new piece. You become acutely aware of your own heartbeat, your own breathing–Syncope is a sensory experience unlike any other as these dancers push themselves to a breaking point. It’s Swan Lake meets Saw.

1. The Brown Dog
I will admit being haunted by Jamie-James Medina and Nadia Hallgren’s animated film for how it reached into me and asked me to examine my own loneliness and isolation. The premise is simple: a night watchman spends his nights alone as he tries to keep himself awake. We begin to wonder if we have been abandoned or if we like to be by ourselves. Does it give us peace? With stark, melodic imagery, and a powerful voice performance by the late, great Michael K. Williams, we become aware of life’s fragility and power.