Four days, 135 short films and one very confused robot later, our 16th year is in the books. From October 24–27, 2024, the San Jose International Short Film Festival filled Cinemark’s CineArts Theatre at Santana Row with 135 short films from 19 countries, programmed into nearly 30 screening blocks of drama, comedy, documentary, animation, sci-fi, family films and World Cinema.
Four days of great films, filmmakers from near and far and a whole lot of laughs. Here’s a look back.
Opening Night on the Red Carpet
We kicked things off Thursday night with a red carpet and our Opening Night Premiere Screening, a lineup that ran the gamut from the Australian drama Favourites and The Letter from Gambia to My Week with Maisy, Lichtblick – Glimmer of Hope, We Have Notes and Maggie’s Not Okay, which went on to win Best Comedy.
Four Days, Nearly 30 Programs
From there, the festival covered just about every kind of short you can imagine. Three World Cinema showcases brought films from New Zealand to Norway, our documentary blocks (A Hard Doc’s Life and More from a Hard Doc’s Life) told true stories from around the world, and Return of the Ink & Paint Club was a feast for animation fans. Comedy fans got two helpings with Make ’Em Laugh and Make ’Em Laugh, Again, sci-fi fans headed into The World Beyond and The Alternative Universe, and our Family Films program brought out the youngest film lovers in the audience. We also brought back two Festival Rewind programs of favorites from past years.
And the Winners Are…
Our jury named Victoria Warmerdam’s I’m Not a Robot Best of the Fest, a sci-fi comedy about a music producer who keeps failing CAPTCHA tests and starts to wonder if she’s actually a robot. Other jury award winners included Thomasville (Best Drama), Magic Candies (Best Animation), Medicine (Best of World Cinema), Village of Death: Oradour-sur-Glane 1944 (Best Documentary), LUKi & the Lights (Best Family Film), Maggie’s Not Okay (Best Comedy), Factory Drop (Best Sci-Fi) and Where the Heart Lies (Best Student Film). Read more about each one in our winners announcement.
Sunday’s closing night brought the festival full circle with screenings of our award winners, plus two Audience Award programs of the films you voted for all weekend.
Watch a Few Festival Favorites Now
Missed a screening? A few films from this year’s lineup are already streaming online.
Proof of Concept, directed by Max Cohn and Ellie Sachs, is a funny, meta riff on the movie business starring Richard Kind, and a little love letter to New York’s Upper West Side.
Stills from Proof of Concept.
Stud Country, directed by Lina Abascal and Alexandra Kern, takes us inside the largest queer country western line dancing event in America and the Los Angeles tradition it’s keeping alive.
Stills from Stud Country.
Doorway, Siddharth Gautam’s fantasy drama from The Alternative Universe program, follows a young man named Stephen through a mysterious doorway and a life-altering journey for his whole family.
Stills from Doorway.
Thank You
To every filmmaker, volunteer, sponsor and audience member who made this year so special: thank you. Explore the full lineup and every winner on our 2024 Award Winners page, and we’ll see you next October for year 17.
