Untethered from client briefs and budgets, short films provide a welcome refuge for self-expression and bold experimentation with 2022 delivering an extraordinary variety of fresh work from both students and pros.

All these films were published in The Stash Permanent Collection during 2022 and are listed here in chronological order by their issue of publication.
 
 
 
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“SPRITE FRIGHT” Short Film
Issue: Stash 151

Francesco Siddi, general manager at Blender Studio in Amsterdam: “The goal of the project was to create an internationally appealing horror comedy film, with an entertaining story and a fresh and vibrant art and animation style.

“The main challenges were to develop an entertaining story that would take less than 10 minutes to tell and find the right art direction to make the world feel immersive and believable with an appealing level of stylization, especially for the more gory parts.”
 
 
 

“THE INTERMISSION” Short Film
Issue: Stash 151

Ilya Perevedentsev, creative director at Superdesigners in Moscow: “In our studio, we always try to leave some time for creating art projects. This art film was an internal initiative and involved almost the entire team.

“The main challenge was to express the concept we created in the script in the most accurate way. At some point, we realized the script turned out to be so extensive that it would be a great chance to embody the best technical skills we have.”
 
 
 

“GOOD JOB” Short Film
Issue: Stash 152

Four Gobelins animation students Eric Bradford (Sweden), Techin Chen (Taiwan), Virág Negyedy (Hungary), and Jose Alejandro Segura Mena (Costa Rica), find common ground in a bittersweet story about hierarchies and archetypes in the modern workplace.

From the directors: “With her deadline fast approaching, Mimi the cat panics across the vast halls of a tech company on a mission to gain approval from her uncaring superiors.”
 
 
 

“A TINY TALE” Short Film
Issue: Stash 153

Theophile Coursimault and Maÿlis Mosny, directors in Valenciennes, France: “This film was created by six students from Supinfocom Rubika. Our goal was to create a tiny world of nature for the different characters’ lives to tangle through a fresh and optimistic story.

“There were a lot of challenges putting our creativity to the test. The artistic direction had to combine realistic and cartoonish styles for our characters while the global color scheme of the scenes had to evolve according to the emotions of each sequence.”
 
 
 

“STALKER” Short Film
Issue: Stash 154

Director Ginny Jones and producer Sam Bourner at Persistent Peril in Worthing, UK: “The idea for STALKER was first pitched by the studio as a music video, and although the idea wasn’t picked up, I just couldn’t let it go.

“It was in the first Covid lockdown that we decided to make the idea into a short film instead. We all needed something positive to distract us from the day-to-day, and a short film seemed like a good use of our collective time.”
 
 
 

“THE ULTIMATE SPACE RACE” Short Film
Issue: Stash 154

Jake Wegesin, director at Ambient Press in Bayonne, France: “I have a notebook full of half-baked ideas all ready to be set in motion, so when the time comes to start an internal project it ultimately comes down to what idea grabs our imagination.

“For this project specifically, we wanted to tell a history of the Space Race through ridiculous little vignettes. The history of this period is fascinating and really doesn’t need much embellishment.”
 
 
 

“PASSAGE” Short Film
Issue: Stash 155

Jeremy Dimmock, creative director at Polyester in Toronto: “Our goal was to make a film about our studio partner Bob who passed unexpectedly. The idea is based on focusing on the moment between the body dying and the brain dying and showing an internal journey that would reflect what we envisioned happening when our friend passed away.

“We imagined a dream-like world from that person’s existence is created and they make a journey to find peace with their death.”
 
 
 

“ESCAPE VELOCITY” Short Film
Issue: Stash 155

After a stellar run on the festival circuit, Budapest director/animator Tamás Rebák sent Stash his animated grad film, a space-bound allegory about letting go punctuated by a sweet-natured plot twist.

Tamás Rebák: “The term ‘escape velocity’ refers to the minimum speed needed for an object to escape from the gravitational influence of a massive body. The title uses this technical term for good reason, it also symbolizes a final determination, which is a hard step to take.”
 
Watch all the Best of Stash 2022 Collections.