Drone films are becoming more and more popular. While they been around for several years, filmmakers are getting much more creative with their presentations. ‘We Above III’ is a montage of drone footage taking us from the somber desolation of Chernobyl’s ruins to Tibet’s untouched majestic mountains, Siberia’s glacial grounds and Mongolia’s snowy desert dunes. It’s cold, dark, eerie and incredibly beautiful. Presented by Les Orphelins and 5S Visual Content, this film hits our mark in terms of sheer feeling it leaves us with after watching – and all we want to do is watch it again and again.

It was another crazy year in terms of COVID-related themes, but ‘Safety First’ was able to break the mold, especially in terms of presentation. And John Robson got absolutely crazy with it. What started off as a satire piece on social distancing in the time of Covid-19 turned into a much deeper exploration of isolation, anxiety and self doubt. The outcome was undoubtedly the most explosive film we’ve seen all year!

While one film gets creative with colors, another does it through metaphors. Tsubasa Matsumoto leaves us much to unravel in ‘Prelude’ as we see a personification of a sperm falling in love with an egg. Through a series of character vignettes and global imagery, micro and macro blend into a beautiful metaphor of our struggle, similarities, and interconnectedness as a human race.

The theme of AI is still strongly present in 2021, and we don’t think it will be disappearing anytime soon. While the overall concept in ‘Cera’ may seem familiar in some way, it’s the world and setting that John created that truly captures our attention. The film goes beyond the 8 minutes as John has been joyfully creating environments on his @followtherill Instagram account, slowly creating a universe between multiple stories he’s written.

The Black Mirror-esque micro stories live on strongly in the short film format. Justin Giddings and Ryan Patrick Welsh (Outpost, This Is Normal) certainly deliver on the timely bend that so gently questions the blend of moral ethics with technology. The fragmented storyline captures immense emotions that truly makes you think about all the little moments, and how quickly they can all go away.

‘Loop’ is founded on a single bearing question; Can we program a machine to feel?  But it’s more than the question that makes us fall in love with this film. The setting, look and tempo truly gives the story an incredible atmosphere that allows for a deepened psychological experience. Langfield carefully crafts his characters and unique setting in ‘Loop’, to reach an incredible depth in terms of connections

“Misunderstandings” seem to be at the origin of many terrible outcomes lately. Zoo takes on a night out with a group of misfits in the suburbs of Montreal, where an encounter with a troubled man takes an unexpected turn. In the shadows of the Black Lives Matter events, this film sends a stark message that these things happen in Canada as well.

Through a carefully crafted narrative that weaves through time past, time present, and time future, Terra Cene urgently questions who and what will be left to remember? If the end is built into the beginning, it is our responsibility to protect the future. Nono Ayuso and Rodrigo Inada go deep to highlight our planet’s climate change troubles by delivering a hauntingly hopeful message, reminding us of our duty to preserve the beauty of life on Earth.

Sava Zivkovic is no stranger to our Top 10, with a number five spot in 2017 with ‘IFCC 2017 Main Titles’ and an honourable mention for ‘Freight’ in 2019. Sava aimed even higher this year with ‘Irradiation’ using the latest Unreal Realtime Engine, which seems to be redefining the way films are made. The incredible flexibility helped create the fascinating and stark world that truly keeps us in awe from beginning to end.

A musical? Music Video? Short Film? Enough. has it all in fact. Heck, it’s also part documentary. But most of all, it conveys one hell of a message. Using footage captured over 10 years, this surreal cinematic experience unpacks the stormy inner world of Congolese-American Nathan Nzanga’s coming of age in the US.

Congratulations Caleb and your entire crew. 10 years of footage plus an incredible memorable experience will for now be forever imprinted on Film Shortage.