I’ve been lucky enough to preview many of the SIFF shorts this year, and while there were a few I just didn’t get (and one that made me think “Hallmark Hall of Fame special”), there were also a few that I really loved. Here’s a breakdown of my favorites:

ShortsFest Opening Night
The Herd is a downright adorable story about a deer that thinks he’s a cow, Love’s doomed romance made me completely fall apart emotionally, the animation of Photograph of Jesus was amazing, and the office-worker romantic comedy Post-It Love was super-cute.

The Nightmare Factory
Given that I’m a horror film freak, I was really looking forward to this shorts package – and there were definitely a few standouts. Excision’s story about a girl who goes over the edge to earn her parent’s approval was effectively creepy, the strange animated story of a man whose head is separated from his body in Kanizsa Hill was impressive, and while I was skeptical about Treevenge’s weird Jawa-jabbering trees being cruelly cut down for Christmas at first, I was really loving it by the end.

Shorts before Feature Films
There were two of these I saw that I really liked: Danse Macabre is a fantastically beautiful piece of film about a corpse “dancing” in the morgue (showing with Deadgirl) and Full Employment (which at first I thought was some kind of joke I wasn’t getting) surprised the hell out of me with some classic Zombie action (shows with Dead Snow).

I always feel like the shorts program at SIFF gets ignored a bit, and that's a shame. I really recommend everyone check out at least one of the packages. The thing that’s great about shorts is that the packages always have a good mix of something for everyone – plus, if you don’t like something, you know it’ll be over soon (ha!). Of course, if something blows you away, you want MORE of it, so that could be a problem too…

{Shortsfest Opening Night plays this Friday, May 29 at SIFF Cinema, 7pm and June 2 at The Egpytian, 9:15pm. The Nightmare Factory plays at SIFF Cinema May 30 at 9:30 pm.

Danse Macarbe & Deadgirl play May 28 at the Neptune, 9:30pm, May 29 at the Egpytian, 12am, and June 5 at the Kirkland Perfomance Center at 9:30pm. Full Employment & Dead Snow play May 27 at Pacific Place, 9:30m}