Continuing the tradition of showcasing shorts that have qualified for the Oscars (nominations will be revealed in January), TheWrap’s Screening Series puts the spotlight on five live-action and animated films. The filmmakers joined each other for a lively conversation about their movies’ origins, crafting the perfect running time and the unexpected reactions they have received from audiences.
Subjects of the films range from a supernatural Victorian horror tale to a musical drama about a piano student to a sci-fi fantasy featuring a gigantic translucent whale.
But the lineup’s most realistic, contemporary vision is witnessed in “Beyond Silence” by Dutch director Marnie Blok, an actress and writer making her filmmaking debut. The plot concerns a deaf grad student, a victim of sexual assault perpetrated by her professor who pleas for help from the university dean, a woman of an older generation. The 17-minute film won Best Narrative Short at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.
Blok explained that the film’s ideas emerged from the second wave of commentary after the #MeToo movement’s emergence in 2017, as she stated in the clip from the Q&A (watch it above).
“After MeToo happened there was a backlash from an older generation, women my age and older, who thought the whole movement was prudish, humorless and one-dimensional,” Blok said. “And they warned women who came out with stories that it would make them weak again. I thought it was such an inappropriate reaction, because speaking up is actually not weak. It’s quite strong.”
Also focusing on a central character confronting trauma, “Butterfly on a Wheel” marks the directional debut of Emmy-winning Canadian composer Trevor Morris. The short focuses on a Toronto musician, debilitated by obsessive compulsive disorder, who seeks a state of grace through his piano. Superb music, recorded at Abbey Road, dominates the narrative, telling its story largely through sound.
From Canada as well, Jacob Gardner and David Hubert’s “Transferable” goes a step further and presents its plot without a single word of dialogue.
Gardner joined TheWrap to talk about the animated short, which at 8 minutes is the briefest of this lineup and is set entirely in a hospital room at some unspecified date in the future. The focus is on a husband and father who must decide if he’ll make an ultimate sacrifice for his family.
The other animated short is “Shimmer,” a Spanish-language sci-fi from Mexico about an inventor father and his two neglected children, directed by Andrés Palma and executive produced by Andres Buzo. The two discussed the painstaking development of astonishing visuals in the film – and provided a cameo appearance from of the movie’s creatures, an enormous flying whale.
And from Scotland, “The Pearl Comb” is a live action gothic horror film from actor, professional magician and director Ali Cook. The plot begins with the real-world issue of women doctors in the 1890s who were denied medical licenses because of their gender. That’s the leaping-off point for a wild, darkly humorous, unpredictable tale involving a beautiful mermaid and a locked room where scary secrets are held.
Watch the full interview with all the filmmakers here.
