Shorts Program 01 Highlights @ TIFF 2025

Jazz Infernal 

First and foremost, let me get it out of the way that I just adore jazz music, so this short always had a bit of a bias in my books. Nevertheless! Bias put aside, this is still an undoubtedly cinematic jazz journey (giving "Whiplash" during certain scenes) that deals with the struggles of your past following you even when you try to move away from them, and discovering yourself outside your parents' shadow. Will Niava has created a world that I'm eager to see more of.

Agapito

A beautifully shot and skillfully constructed short following the realities of responsibility, saying goodbye, and the bond of family (whether that be by blood or founded). Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Danelle Romero directed a film that's competence shines in a subtle sense, specifically regarding the acting performances, which are all beautifully complete yet not overbearing at any moment. 

Healer 

Chelsea McMullan manages to capture that classic grainy retro cinematography, followed by a complex mother-daughter relationship that explores the pain you can and can’t escape. This short follows an unwell mother seeking alternative healing methods and a caregiver daughter who may be benefiting from these methods more than she’d like to think. This short is occasionally camp, momuntarily experemental and undoubtedly nostalgic.

Ramón Who Speaks to Ghosts 

A mockumentary of ghost listening that I admittedly thought was completely satire at first, and although these comedic tones continued throughout the short, a more profound and serious tone of recovery and remembering the past settled firmly behind it in a seamless transition. Asking the question of whether relationships have to be physical for them to have an impact (do you have to see someone to have a connection with them?). This, alongside its beautifully shot scenes, specifically the ones of him hunting for his haunted noise on La Palma Island, Shervin Kermani directed a short I was drawn to within the first minute.

DISC

Truthfully, I never could have expected what the conflict of this short would be, and admittedly, I'm still a bit gagged at the resolution of it. Yet I confess, I loved it (even if it made me cringe and wince numerous times). Blake Winston Rice's comedically awkward and suddenly intense short manages to progress the typical hookup to catching feels pipeline in an undoubtedly odd but memorable way that I simply have to applaud.