Some Like It Short

A few thoughts on this year’s edition of the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur

Photo by Felix Mooneeram on Unsplash

Since 2016, one of my favorite events on the festival calendar has been the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, taking place every November in Winterthur, near Zurich. The 28^th edition (November 5-10) was, as usual, a well-attended affair, with multiple sold out screenings (the festival’s website explicitly recommends reserving your seat in advance, and not just because it’s the norm in post-2020 times).

As suggested by the name, the festival is devoted to the short film form, and treats it like an artform in its own right. In a world where shorts are increasingly rare on the big screen outside of specialized circuits (even Disney and Pixar have largely resorted to streaming for what used to be a fun appetizer before the feature presentation), that’s worth celebrating, and the attendance numbers show that a lot of people agree that short cinema is just as much of a must-see as the latest American blockbusters.