The Shirt off Your Back (2025)

Two young boys go off on a walk and meet a weird man in a van who wants their jersey. As happens with these stories it changes every time they tell it so the man’s face keeps changing every time you go back to it.

Was a good one of showing a strange situation you often get when you are younger that turns out differently in your memory than what actually happened. My parents still laugh at me for quite a few things like this.

Also shows you can have a full story from not very much as it was just the two boys and the random man in the van who kept changing and still managed to tell a story with a full range of emotions and felt like it was satisfying.

Film details:

Writer/Director: David Robinson-Smith

Genre: Drama, Thriller, Mystery

Country: Australia

Language: English

Length: 9mins

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSkD8pRaX-c

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God is shy (2025)

Original title: Dieu est timide (2025)

Two friends on a train in the French countryside draw their greatest fears only to be interrupted by a strange woman who says they have drawn her. Turns out she has a story to tell about how she talked to God through her sleeping partner but things got out of hand because of the whole “God is shy” thing. Will it work out this time? Considering this is the WTF shorts program I guess not!

An interestingly animated film as while I do remember a French movie that was live action that involved a dancing bear as God was possessing it, it would have cost too much to do that hear due to the fantasy setting.

It is easier to do more fantastical things in animation than live action so this setting allows the director get away with more things they would not be able to achieve in real life or would not look right. I am being deliberately vague with what that is as it would spoil the whole point of the short.

Well worth a look if you can find somewhere to see it.

Film details:

Writer/Director: Jocelyn Charles

Genre: Animation

Country: France

Language: French

Length: 16mins

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da6Kz8Nd09s

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The Eating of an Orange (2024)

Set in either a private school or prison it is not really spelled out a young woman is offered a forbidden orange and become obsessed with it. Not wanting to give up the taste of freedom when discovered they plant the mouldy orange and climb away on the magic tree that sprouts.

Not really one that makes sense but it has a lot of style and the animation is interesting. More like an abstract artwork with some narrative structure. I am reminded of the song “Open Orange” and the book and screen adaptation Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

Even with no real dialogue it still manages to tell a good story and you don’t get bored with it.

Film details:

Writer/Director: May Kindred-Boothby

Genre: UK

Country: Australia

Language: English

Length: 7mins

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpEDBxP4Ee8

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Last Call (2025)

A woman gets in a motorbike accident and is rescued by a demon who has her own price in helping the woman. It turns out the demon is many times older than the universe and has watched it begin and end many times over. It is not really clear what is real and what is a dream.

Very atmospheric and stylish even if you can’t really tell what is going on from scene to scene. Narrative coherency does not seem to be the point in this one they are going for a vibe more than anything else and it mainly works out here.

Some interesting characters in this one that feels like a shame that they are only going to be in this one and nothing else. Having seem full movies from directors of these shorts appear about 10 years after I would not say never however!

Film details:

Director: Winnie Cheung

Screenwriter: Hillary Andujar, Courtney Andujar, Winnie Cheung

Key Cast: Matilda Sakamoto, Martin Fisher, Celia Au

Genre: Thriller, Fantasy

Country: USA

Language: English, Cantonese

Length: 8mins

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iiON0Zas8A

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World at Stake (2025)

At the World Cup Final a team comprised all of the same player “Patrick 99” seem stuck in a match that never ends with the ball turned into the earth, a golfer is about to tee off on a flooding golf course and the navigator of a rally car has an existential crisis.

Using mods for several EA sports games the scenes tend to loop around on themselves and glitch out so you don’t know if it was ever meant to go this way in the actual game or what the point is.

This one does not really to have a point it just is. More of a technical achievement than anything it seems to have a lot of work put into it.

Film details:

Director: Jona Kleinlein, Susanna Flock, Adrian Jonas Haim

Producer: Bytes + Film Stipend, BMKÖS & ORF III, Pixel

Screenwriter: Jona Kleinlein, Adrian Jonas Haim, Susanna Flock

Cinematographer: Jona Kleinlein, Adrian Jonas Haim, Susanna Flock

Composer: Adrian Jonas Haim

Using game footage from: FIFA 23, PGA Tour 2K21 and DiRT Rally 2.0

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Country: Austria

Language: English

Length: 18mins

Trailer

https://vimeo.com/1072588009

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Loynes (2025)

A body falls from the sky into an 18^th century pit in the English county side and is put on trial at a raucous courtroom with everyone trying to talk at once. It reminded me of the legal system Ankh Morpork but in the supposed real world.

When the body goes missing and another body falls into the court they decide to swap it for that one and it eventually disappears into a much larger hole that leads to modern times.

This one was very chaotic and seemed to go on for longer than it needed to given there wasn’t really much of a storyline except for people yelling over each other. That did seem like a lot of people in a small space to get to coordinate and they all seemed to work well together. Maybe a bit like some of the stranger scenes in the Mad Max movies where they use non-actors who really seem to stand out as they were not in anything before or since.

Not sure this was really that weird apart from the falling body thing. The films in the WTF program seemed a bit subdued compared to other years, no sex stuff or grossness like previous years at all.

Film details:

Director: Dorian Jespers

Screenwriter: Raphaël Meyer, Dorian Jespers

Key Cast: Sheila Breen Rickerby, Elaine Collins, Vicenç Altaio, Margaret O’Kell, Brian Philips, Terry Briscoe, Johan Opstaele

Genre: Drama, Comedy, Mystery

Country: Belgium, France, North Macedonia, UK

Language: English

Length: 25mins

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_TgnwWLPS8