Top Shorts 2019: The Annual Nominees

The 5th annual Top Shorts nominations have just been announced, and over 200 films and screenplays are in the run for an annual award, in 45 categories overall.

Here are the 33 films that earned most nominations this year.

1. TONY

Director: Hugo Diego Garcia

9 nominations

In 80's France, Tony, a young third-generation Spaniard immigrant, a rebel with a heart of gold, fights for a life that he desires despite an abusive and violent father controlling his every move while bonding with a group of reckless immigrants outcasts from the street in whom he sees a family. However, the path he takes only leads to a dark and uncertain future.

2. THE DOLLMAKER

Writer: Matias Caruso

Director: Al Lougher

8 nominations

A grieving mother latches on to a magical surrogate for her lost child. But small miracles come with big consequences.

3. HOLIDAY HOSTAGE

Writers: Abby Walla & David Storch

Director: D.W. Moffett

6 nominations

It’s Thanksgiving night and siblings Abby and David just want to quickly eat their turkey and ditch their overbearing “still has their umbilical cords” Jewish mother. Before they can make their getaway, Gary, a deranged ex-convict, breaks in and takes the family hostage.

Tensions are high, family secrets are revealed, and Gary’s getting so annoyed he’s starting to regret this. At least Grandma is here to calm the family down. Just kidding, she’s batshit crazy. Can this dysfunctional family make peace with one another before they’re offed? Oy vey!

4. DEADPOOL THE MUSICAL 2

Writer: Paul Bianchi

Director: Julian Higgins

6 nominations

He’s back! That “Merc with a Mouth” just can’t stop singing! This time, they've pulled out all the stops with an insane, action-filled medley of some of your all-time favorite Disney movie songs, including loving parodies of classics like “You’re Welcome (Moana),” “Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid), “Belle (Beauty And The Beast),” “A Whole New World (Aladdin),” and “I’ll Make A Man Out of You (Mulan).”Join the R-rated, NSFW, musical mayhem as our favorite singing anti-hero, Deadpool, sings and slays his way through a series of Disney songs and superhero teams, from the X-Men to the Avengers and more. Featuring Wolverine (Brian Danner), Rogue (Jennifer Van Dien), Cyclops (Casper Van Dien), Beast (David “Dax” Bauer), Captain America (Vic Mignogna), Black Widow (Monette Moio), Spiderman (Christopher Troy), and a bevy of other superheroes, including the first live action introduction of Puck (Christophe Zajac-Denek) and Sasquatch (Kristopher Blount). Oh, the places you’ll go and sights that will thrill as our Deadpool sings and literally kills in this fan film short devoted to the musical merc in us all!And just like last time, you’ll want to stay to the very end for some Marvel-inspired surprises!

5. ALONE

Writer: Barbara Riethe

Directors: Barbara Riethe & Inara Leme

6 nominations

Based on the tale "A Woman Alone with Her Soul", by Thomas Bailey A, and based on the play TANATORIUM by Paloma Franca Amorim, the movie ALONE sets the question: What do we think when we are close to death? Angela (Barbara Riethe) wakes up at home with her eloquent husband, Paolo (Douglas Garcia), a very well dressed and good-humored Italian man. She doesn't remember who he is and where she is. Unable to move or speak clearly because of the coma caused by an accident, she has confusing memories surrounding her mysterious sister and the house staff. Stuck in distorted and torturous memories, she struggles with the guilt of the past and the challenges of being a woman that has broken the rules of her time: should we regret for what we have done or for what we haven't dared to do?

6. OUT OF FRAME

Writers: Artem Gutkowski & Jade Orrazini

Director: Artem Gutkowski

6 nominations

Christian, a talented actor, ruins a film shooting because of his bad behavior. Guilt is going to gradually gain on him through hallucinations. The film crew follows him everywhere, anytime.

7. EDEN

Writer & Director: Kristian Bakstad

5 nominations

A scavenger discovers a valuable artifact deep within an abandoned facility on a desolate planet. Hoping for a big payout, he ventures inside, only to find something much more sinister.

8. ANACRONTE

Writers: Raúl Koler & Sabrina Pace

Directors: Raúl Koler & Emiliano Sette

5 nominations

Anacronte and the Sorcerers of Evil, without any emotion and fulfilling their destiny, they put to test humanity's happiness in a struggle that, in short, has each of us as winners and losers.

9. TELL HIM

Writers: Virginia Bach & Jean-Marc Culiersi

Director: Virginia Bach

5 nominations

Why can't Maxime visit his mother at the hospital? Why can't his father tell him?

10. NOTES FROM MELANIE

Writer & Director: Chris Stuckmann

5 nominations

A screenwriter known for ripoff "mockbusters" asks his successful former colleague for feedback on his first serious script.

11. KINGSPIN

Writer & Director: Kasey Lum

4 nominations

A series of events leads to the demise of an underground Romanian gang. In the midst of the chaos, unintentional partnerships seem to form.

12. OLD HOUSE

Writers: Sihang Lu & Kunlin Wang

Director: Kunlin Wang

4 nominations

A former band member wants to save his bar from closing so that he has to suppress his feeling and talk the former lead singer, also his ex-lover, into doing another show.

13. A FRIEND IN NEED

Writer: Matt Carrell

Director: Matt George Lovett

4 nominations

The deadliest secrets start with the smallest lie.

Three couples, confident their friendship is indestructible. But sometimes people come into your life and the impact they have is way beyond your control. Chris has told Laura all about Mike. The firm's number one client, a war hero whose marriage is in tatters and whose mental state is fragile. Their comfortable existence and that of their closest friends depends on everyone making sacrifices. When it appears that Mike wants to ruin them, all loyalties are called into question, every relationship is stretched to breaking point, because whoever is trying to hurt them, Chris knows it can't possibly be Mike.

A Friend in Need is a story about trust, friendship and the ultimate betrayal.

14. WHOSE CRIME IS IT ANYWAY

Writer & Director: Isabella Jacqueline

4 nominations

A rehearsal taken too far leaves young actress, Stormy, dealing with victim guilt and tasked with taking the matter into her own hands.

15. ANYWHERE BUT HERE

Writer: Hana Aluna

Director: Wyatt Mitchell

4 nominations

Fed up with the expectations from her emotionally abusive family, Charlotte runs away for a night with a boy from her past. But what will happen when the sun comes up and reality sets in?

16. WINDOW TO THE WORLD

Writer & Director: Martijn Schinkel

4 nominations

Window to the world is a short film about a photojournalist Eva. How far will she go to get that perfect photo? A photo that perhaps can dominate the news channels she works for.

In a war zone, journalist Otto, and photographer Eva flee into a building as it gets bombed. While Otto is fatally hit, Eva sees a little girl covered in dust. A perfect picture! Later, on her way to Otto's funeral she gets haunted by guilt.

17. SYLVIA

Writer & Director: Richard Prendergast

3 nominations

A loving family set off in their car on what seems like a carefree family outing. As Mandy drives, they sing along to a favourite song, stop for ice- creams and play eye-spy. However, it gradually becomes clear that this isn’t a family outing after all, and that their destination isn’t a happy one. In fact, their destination is the house of a man, due to buy their car, and only once the car has stopped does the actuality of the narrative fully manifest.

18. MOGU AND PEROL

Writers & Director: Tsuneo Goda

3 nominations

A story about two friends living on Yummy Island, where delicious food can be found everywhere! Whenever Mogu is cooking, Perol just pops up and eats the yummy meal. One day Perol finds a very tasty looking Brrrr-berry that Mogu was about to pick. Perol doesn't wait for a second to taste the berry which brings about an unexpected quarrel between the two.

19. KOMMANDO 1944

Writer & Director: Derek Quick

3 nominations

July 1944, An Asian American soldier Corporal Soo is thrown into a Nazi work camp on a farm in Germany as his family back home in America are forced into an American Japanese concentration camp in Manzanar California. The allied soldiers think Soo is a Japanese soldier and segregate him. Soo must fight to let go of the past in order to be set free.

20. PASSÉ

Writer & Director: Mengyuan He

3 nominations

A single mom Andrea struggles to take care of her son and her father diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

21. LA TRAIN•HER

Writer & Creator: Meagan Fulps

Director: Olivier L. Gagnon

3 nominations

A'LA Train•her' is a scripted dramedy web series that follows trainer Charlie Wyatt as she navigates a parodied version of the Los Angeles fitness scene in pursuit of a job.

22. BEAUTIFUL CAKE

Writers & Director: Brian McWha

3 nominations

Two high school students sneak into the seemingly abandoned mansion of the neighborhood legend 'Donny'. Believing him to be gone or even dead, they soon find that he is very much alive when he locks them in his basement.

23. SMALL PIECES

Writer & Director: Glenn McGarry

3 nominations

After a car accident costs Ben the life of his daughter, he meets a boy named Elliot in the hospital who holds a special secret that changes his life.

24. THE WAITING PLACE

Writer & Director: Karishma Jhalani

3 nominations

Set in a mystical village in the desert, The Waiting Place is a barren, Orwellian landscape of uniformity and blandness.

Two children catch each others attention and go on adventure to discover colour, music and magic.

25. LION

Writers: Shae Poulin & Fernanda Estrada De La Rosa

Director: Shae Poulin

3 nominations

After a traumatizing event at the end of his final college basketball game, Leo struggles with his self-image and doubts his manhood.

26. DEEP WATER

Writer: Lumi Akinmurele

Director: Xiao Ni

3 nominations

Deep Water tells a story of a young Alison, who is struggling with serious problems at work and in her personal life. Her addictions and a rise of escalating sexual advances from a work colleague are beginning to come to a head in this thought provoking short.

27. BOUNCE

Writer & Director: David MacLean

3 nominations

'What if you're so low you can't bounce back. Your friends hate you, and your dealer is trying to kill you, but you've got to get to your daughter’s birthday party. -You just have to.' A busker in desperate need of redemption has to fight his way through a surreal mix of reality and drug-induced nightmares in order to finally show up for his daughter.

28. ECHO

Writer & Director: Mårten Melinder

3 nominations

Told through two young athletes perspectives, Adrian (22) and Sam (15) struggle to come to terms with a different side of their sexual identities within the judgemental lifestyles they find themselves in. Set in a peeled locker room and a Catholic, working-class household, we follow Adrian’s and Sam’s challenges as they oppose their sexual identity in order to be accepted. Two different stories - same struggle.

29. UNCLE GRIOT

Writer & Director: Paul Charisse

3 nominations

A young girl takes her uncle for a walk.

30. INTEGRATION: THE UPDATE

Writer & Director: Matthew Harris

3 nominations

In this spec pilot, a naive computer programmer builds a highly anticipated software update under the command of his ethically questionable CEO.

31. ABSENCE

Writer: Valentina Romanelli

Directors: Valentina Romanelli, Maxime Rochat

3 nominations

This film describes a moment in life where the present and the past are hazy, where a painful but universal event allows the protagonist to recognize herself as a human being. And then her childlike gaze dissolves time, through the magical power of a gesture.

32. THE OCEAN

Writer & Director: Sinead McDevitt

3 nominations

One woman's universe expands the more she connects with her lover. A same-sex love story brought to life in dance and light.

33. SOUND LANGUAGE

Writer & Director: Scott Poiley

3 nominations

In the beginning, words lead to hate, hate to war and war to destruction. Words were outlawed and soon forgotten. Giving birth to the language of sound. Centuries later, land is scarce, consumed by an endless storm. Distant tribes have gathered in the hopes that an outcast can heal the world through the power of unity..