We take a look at the newly-announced 2024 programme for Show Me Shorts Film Festival.
Show Me Shorts, Aotearoa’s biggest short film festival, returns to cinemas across the motu next month (10 – 28 October) boasting yet another grunty line-up of short film goodness. Putting on 126 screenings spread over 40 venues, the 19th edition of the Oscar-accredited and BAFTA-qualifying festival is armed with 85 shorts from all over the globe—including 26 New Zealand shorts—handpicked from 2,400 submissions.
The programme includes eight world premieres: six from New Zealand (Pack Rat, New Followers, Morning Hate, Cold Feet, My Dying Place, The Journey of Cooking); one from Mexico (Trapped); and one from the UK (Rock Paper Scissors). Tickets are now on sale for the opening nights in Auckland (10 Oct), Christchurch (11 Oct) and Wellington (16 Oct) + a neat special screening called Hallo Stranger (12 Oct). Aspiring filmmakers in Auckland will also want to put the Industry Day in their diary.
Show Me Shorts Festival Director, Gina Dellabarca says: “I believe short films have a magic to them, distilling a story down to its essence. That is why this format is so popular and filmmakers continue to embrace it. This year’s festival provides a wealth of inspiring ideas, quirky characters and surprising bursts of laughter. I can’t wait to introduce audiences to the shorts, meet the filmmakers and share their stories.”
This year’s programme is split into 11 themed sections. Read on for a breakdown of each screening and a highlighted film.
My Week with Maisy
The Sampler
It’s exactly what it sounds like: a sample of what Show Me Shorts has to offer in one tasty screening. You’ll get laughs, you’ll get thought-provokers, some British stories, a couple of local flicks, and one short each from Ireland, Norway, and Aussie. A great choice if you’re new to SMS or only have one opportunity to partake in the festival.
The great Joanna Lumley stars in one of the shorts in the line-up, director Mika Simmons’ My Week With Maisy, as a woman starting chemotherapy. She befriends young Maisy, somewhat reluctantly, only to discover her anxiety easing up as the pair go through treatment together.
LUKi and the Lights
Whānau Friendly
An annual hit, this 52-minute screening is filled to the brim with kid-friendly animated tales from around the world. You’ll see French atomic chickens, space travellers looking for food, an ode to New Zealand birds, and heaps more. From the States, director Toby Cochran’s LUKi and the Lights follows a happy-go-lucky robot whose life takes a turn when he’s diagnosed with ALS.
Lea Tupu’anga (Mother Tongue)
Aotearoa – Ka Awatea
“Ka pō, ka ao, ka awatea. From within the darkness comes light and a new day.” That’s the thread that runs through this selection of New Zealand-made film. Included are two very different kinds of payback films, a couple of documentaries, a family drama, and a 2-minute comedy with the world’s simplest synopsis: “Two men meet, but struggle to greet.”
This section also includes director Vea Mafile’o’s Lea Tupu’anga (Mother Tongue), which played at the Whānau Mārama New Zealand Film Festival and won Best Film at the New Zealand’s Best showcase. The short follows a young speech therapist who, disconnected from her Tongan heritage, struggles to connect with her patient—an older Tongan man whose life is at risk.
Forever Yours
German Focus
Every year, Show Me Shorts dedicates a section to a country of focus. This year, we’re treated to a collection of glorious German cinema, co-curated by Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. This includes a few animated shorts—one of which is considered a “cinematic lullaby”—a 7-minute mystery flick, and a coming-of-age tale set on a remote island. Another film, director Elliott Louis McKee’s Forever Yours, follows an obsessive relationship centred on a young woman who vows to care for the love of her life left paralysed after a devastating accident.
PleasureDora
Dystopian Dreams
Alternate futures near and far collide in this collection of science fiction shorts—three from Aotearoa, two from France, and one each from Germany, Belgium and Australia. Stories include unqualified astronauts, painting prohibitions, a cat v robot rivalry, anti-aging pills, imaginary friend pills, and witnessing the end of the world in a fish costume.
In the Kiwi contingent is director Mark Prebble’s PleasureDora, which delves into the getting-pretty-close-to-real idea of humans having romantic AI partners. The 9-minute film revolves around an AI love companion who’s close to expiring and her final, lonely customer.
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
Deeper into Love
This one’s all about the obstacles that love overcomes: selling a mattress, reasoning with your own vagina, dealing with the nature of time, getting stuck in an elevator… love truly conquers all. Included in this section is directors Julia Aks and Steve Pinder’s Jane Austen’s Period Drama—there’s a double entendre in that title, and I’ll leave it at that.
Māori Time
Generational Threads
The stories in this section are anchored by family ties and bonds: an elderly Indian couple, a Haitian father and his daughter, a young mountain man and his aging father, an Indigenous refugee and her grandchild, a deportee’s tough return journey home, and two siblings reflecting on their childhood home.
This collection also includes a film called Māori Time, a 17-minute drama from director Tim Worrall following a Māori property developer who digs up an ancient skull. He must call on a tohunga while also confronting his fear of death.
Search for Hawaiki
Finding Your True North
Everyone loves a story about someone chasing their dream. This collection gives you seven of ‘em. You’ll follow France’s only female bull-jumper, a mermaid’s jump to womanhood, an inventive farmer with a lion problem, and more. This section also includes director Fredrick Pokai’s Search for Hawaiki, a 19-minute drama about a man released into the care of his younger brother. To find inner peace, he goes on a journey that will see him embrace his past.
WOACA
Slashers and Splatter
This is the horror collection. No need to beat/slash/stab around the bush. It covers a wide interpretation of the genre including a demented take on children’s TV, a hitchhiker horror, a home invasion thriller, found footage on the Milford Track, a stop-motion music video, alien pregnancy, and a monster movie about lab-grown meat. You’ll also want to keep an eye out for WOACA, written and directed by Speak No Evil star Mackenzie Davis, about a woman practicing self-care.
Rock Paper Scissors
Lives in the Firing Line
This drama-heavy section’s dedicated to stories around the world set in conflict zones. Ecuador, Ireland, Palestine, Iran, France, Aotearoa and the UK all feature in this collection. One such film, director Franz Böhm’s Rock Paper Scissors, centres on a makeshift hospital on the front line. With a platoon of soldiers closing in, a father and son must find a way to protect their patients.
Yeah The Boys
Defy Expectations
As the name suggests, the films in this collection are all about the many ways social norms are bent and broken—whether that’s the rules of Swedish handball, Swiss train etiquette, or a girl trying to be “one of the boys.” That leads us nicely to Yeah The Boys, an 8-minute Australian flick from director Stefan Hunt, which observes masculine identity’s connection to drinking culture via the medium of dance.
Tickets for all screenings and events nationwide are now available to book at showmeshorts.co.nz. Following the in-cinema festival, Show Me Shorts’ online festival will run for three days during Labour Weekend via their On Demand platform.
