Why Watch? In this inspired documentary from Brent Hoff, scientific subject matters have five minutes to love as hard as they can in order to get their neural pathways to spike with oxytocin. There’s the old man committed to his wife of 50 years; the old woman who sees love as an evolution; the middle-aged man who’s been in love many times before; the young woman with a sweet boyfriend; the young woman who wants to see love as a universal; the young man focusing on his ex-girlfriend; and the 10-year-old boy who will try to win by sharing the love of a family member. “I can’t believe I picked a guy that, for fifty years, has just allowed me to be who I am.” Beyond a compelling subject, the documentary is shot in a sleek, modern style with an indie-synth score that wraps the clinical nature of it all in the warm glow of joyous human faces.. It’s fascinating, it’s humane, it’s science. Sweet, sweet science. Watch it and think really hard about someone you love. What will it cost? Only 14 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? With a sketch show premise given the short film treatment, Two Trick Pony delivers a young man trying to pitch his new board game to an eccentric figure that’s part parody and part obsessive. It’s a sadistic version of Mr. Pennybags whose line delivery makes the comedy work. Plus, the sheer amount of ways they toy around with board game rules makes the interview as frustrating as it is funny. There are easy jokes here, but it’s the unexpected ones that make this short shine, and the punch line might be the sweetest of all. What will it cost? Only 3 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? History matters. This is a reminder that sometimes all it takes to make a movie is an important speaker delivering a vital message with the cameras rolling. Plus, it shows off an FDR that looks totally different than this one. What will it cost? Only 3 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? Finnish filmmaker Juuso Mettälä heads under a frozen lake to get all of his shots for a gravity-defying short film that toys around with fluid motion and perspective to beautiful results. What will it cost? Only 4 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? This short from Lawrence Bourke shrugs off the challenges of small talk and quick poignancy as if they couldn’t have possibly caused problems for a quaint story. Although it feels at first a little too French, there’s nothing pompous about it. The result is a soothing look at a boy and girl meeting briefly at a bus stop. Nothing complicated, but still a lot to be found. It could be the beginning of a huge love epic or it could be a brief moment like the last bite of desert that satisfies but disappears forever. It’s strength is possibility, and with a high concept and a cute couple, the camera helps immensely by keeping them separate until they truly make a connection. The result is a reminder that small moments of beauty happen every day – even while waiting for public transport. It’s sympathetic, smile-inducing work. What will it cost? Only 4 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? After Valentine’s Day and the launch of our Dating Site For Movie Fans, it seems only fitting to feature Joops Fragale‘s Date Night. Try to pretend like the director’s name doesn’t already have you interested. In this dreamy trip of a short film, a Tennessee-throated young woman applies a magazine perfume sample and finds a stranger in her house who seduces her with movie lines. The two then float through the elements of their date, but nothing gold can stay. The story takes chances and manages to include elements of horror, romance, comedy and, well, just about everything in between. Definitely one of a kind and worth a look. What will it cost? Only 14 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? This is unbridled awesome. BenDavid Grabinksi‘s sharp short film features Brandon Routh (semi-extending his Scott Pilgrim swagger) and Bret Harrison as two security guards who work for a mysterious corporation that has…more dangerous emergencies than the average OmniCorp MegaGlobal. It’s the kind of movie that demands a standing ovation and should satisfy fans of genre work and dry humor alike.Watch Cost of Living right now, and then watch it ten more times. Then try to help me figure out how to apply for a job at FO Industries. What will it cost? Only 8 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? In 1988, Pixar’s Tin Toy won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. The studio’s history after that is well known, but one of the shorts that it beat out for gold was just about as symbolic as you could ask for. Technological Threat, from Brian Jennings and Bill Kroyer, was a blend of rudimentary computer animation and hand-drawn traditional that told the story of computers taking over all the artist jobs. It predicted the future the very year that it started coming to pass. The movie itself is an homage to Tex Avery-style cartoons, with dogs in suits trying desperately to draw while burdened by exhaustion, sneezing fits, and a need to stay hydrated. The robots, of course, don’t face the same problems, and as the room fills up with them, one dog fights back. Of course, unlike the story, there was no beating the tide of computer animation, making this a bizarre historical object and a hand-drawn crystal ball. Plus, it was nice of them to thank Brad Bird in the credits. What will it cost? Only 4 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? Brilliant concept, thrilling execution. This stunning animation from virtual republic takes the sheet music for the 1st violin of the 2nd symphony, 4th movement by Ferdinand Ries and transforms it into a heart-pounding experience. It’s a cunning way to use the eye to prove how soaring and effective music can be. What will it cost? Only 1 minute. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? Short films weren’t honored at the first Academy Awards in 1929, but it didn’t take long for them to be added to the docket. After all, the film industry owes its origins to short work (which may be part of why Hugo is damned popular this year). In 1932, the award for Best Live-Action Short Film and Best Animated Short Film celebrated work from Laurel and Hardy and Disney respectively. Disney’s contribution was Flowers and Trees – a movie that was supposed to be in black and white, but ended up being the first cartoon made with the three-strip Technicolor process. It bridged technologies, was loved by fans, and got the gold. Plus, it teaches the lesson that grumpy trees shouldn’t play with fire. What will it cost? Only 7 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? With the celebration of classic movies currently going down at the Oscars, it was the perfect year for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore to share its love of silent films, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a familiar cartoon tune. No wonder it was nominated for Best Animated Short. What former Pixar employee William Joyce and co-director Brandon Oldenburg have done here is nothing short of amazing. They’ve used the newest technologies to create a wondrous, incredible, transportational fantasy story that reaches back to the roots of motion picture history. It’s a movie that’s imagination is only trumped by its beauty. What will it cost? Only 14 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? This Oscar nominated short film features a crazed, angry old woman telling a terrifying twist of a favorite bedtime story to a granddaughter that is frozen with fear. Black comedy at its best, mixed animation styles that look great together, and insight into how pissed off the Metamucil Crowd can get. Watch it before bedtime! (Or right now. Or both.) What will it cost? Only 6 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? Despite the amateur nature of the filming here, it’s the last 20 seconds that really count. For added fun, have a friend take a picture of your face when it sinks. Plus, it’s only a minute, and its punchline hits hard. Can someone buy them a camera rig and some sound gear? What will it cost? Only 1 minute. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.  

Why Watch? If it’s part creepy and part endearing, it must be from Jim Henson, right? io9 keenly celebrated this find from the ATT Tech Youtube channel – a short created by Henson in 1963 for a business owner seminar from The Bell System. Even without seeing his name on the work, you could have guessed it. His unique artistic sense is on display here in a fantastic, desperate monologue from a robot that loves ingesting vast oceans of information smoke. Adorable and unnerving. Yeah, it’s Henson alright. What will it cost? Only 3 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? Like the title suggests, Denis Chapon drew 12 drawings everyday for 3 years. That also means he made 1 second of his movie every day. He did this without a definite plan, but he was clever enough to include a title sequence in his work. The result is a piece of dedicated doodling that seems to come alive from the guy in class bored by the science lecture. It’s half-accident, but it’s full of imagination and a playfulness aided by Chapon’s use of scratch paper and a fluid style that lends itself to one image dissolving into the next. If you don’t already have a smile on your face and an awe for three years of hand-drawn hard work, get ready for both to overtake you. What will it cost? Only 4 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? In this bizarre work (half authored by the internet), artist and academic Sebastian Schmieg loaded a transparent image into a search engine, nabbed the top result, searched with that new image, and repeated the cycle. Almost 3,000 images later (2,951 to be exact), he created a 12 frames per second flip book that is both stunning, confusing, and somehow also banal. It’s our everyday extrapolated and turned into what might be called Found Object Short Film. Or it might just be true Found Footage filmmaking. How do you go from images of the universe, to breasts, to Rage Comics, to Google (the search engine itself), to graphs? Let the internet do the directing. Ingenious. What will it cost? Only 4 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? The formidable Kevin Pollack shows off his drama and dead pan as a psychologist whose life is about to shift – which just might be the best thing for him and his troubled clients (a long list of faces you’ll recognize). The sessions ebb and flow through each other with sharp dialogue, and the solutions are as cathartic as they are funny. Should it be seen purely for Lost‘s Hurley (Jorge Garcia) playing a pot-enthusiast gardener? Yes, but it should also be seen because it’s a full human story told with humor, humility, and head cases. What will it cost? Only 14 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? This animation work from Brendan Cook is directly pulled from the dreams your nightmares have. The US is on the cusp of discovering internationally-loved musician Gotye (specifically the infectious, xylophone-heavy “Somebody That I Used To Know“), and this video for “Hearts A Mess” is a cinematic display of animated work that would cause Tim Burton to lose bodily function. It’s a darkly dreamlike voyage with a group of monsters marching through a digital wasteland, and Gotye’s haunting, pierced vocals help the short subdue the eyes, ears and the brain. Get ready to avoid work all day re-watching this and looking for more of Cook’s and Gotye’s work. What will it cost? Only 5 minutes. Skip Work. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films.

Why Watch? The sheer blue brilliance of it all. If you’d like to see cursing and monologues taken to a higher art form, feast your eyes and ears on Lance Reddick‘s (Fringe) work here and worship your new deity. It’s Colonel Kurtz after missing his morning coffee as owner of a crappy toy store. It’s a madman who will shit in places that will leave you confused. It’s crazy, and it’s funny as hell. Begin laughing and bowing down now. What will it cost? Only 5 minutes. You’ve Got Time For More Short Films

Why Watch? Gorgeous gore, an exploitation grain, and a last shot that’s supremely disturbing (and not at all safe for work, which is why this one is embedded after the break, due to YouTube’s unfortunate pause placement). This little chunk of horror from Damien Leone is not afraid to deliver the goods. It sags slightly in the middle, and it could use a pinch more backstory, but it features a soul-smashingly fearsome new icon in Art the Clown. With his beaming black-toothed smile and tiny top hat, he really is the stuff of nightmares. Enjoy seeing him when you close your eyes at night. He’ll be waiting for you there with his rusty tools and indomitable will to stay alive. What will it cost? Only 19 minutes. Special thanks to Brad McHargue for suggesting this bad boy.