축하합니다

A big Congrats to Bong Joon-ho for crushing it last night at the Oscars.

Director Bong Joon-ho wins the Oscars.

His 2019 film Parasite (and my fave of last year) took home four Awards last night, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and even Best Picture, the first international film to ever do so. A terrific night!

2019 Shorts

Despite my lack of drive to make any sort of official end of year/decade lists, I felt compelled to at least post about my favourite short films from 2019. I now spend about ten hours a week watching short film submissions for various festivals so this format has become a sizable part of my life.

Even though short film visibility has increased (thanks to avenues provided by institutions like Little Terrors and Shudder), I still like to promote short filmmakers I feel strongly about. I don't need to be the millionth person to say how awesome The Mandalorian is, but I can perhaps steer someone to the latest project by Justin Harding or Faye Jackson. That's a bit more meaningful.

I'm happy to say that I was able to program all but one of these short films below at Saskatoon Fantastic. 

(Fears) Directed by Germán Sancho. 

Directed by Guillermo de la Rosa.

Directed by Jason Gudasz

Directed by Oskar Lehemaa.

Directed by Lance Edmands.

Directed by Erica Scoggins.

Thanks to Shannon Hanmer for introducing me to Place and A Noise That Carries and Fantasia for allowing me to discover the rest. Here's to a short-tastic 2020! 

2019 Wrap-up

Hey all. So, here we are at the end of the decade. I thought about doing some sort of Best of list, but frankly I just couldn't be bothered. I suppose if you're interested, you can go back through my end of year posts, but tbh my heart just isn't in it.

I'm not sure where this overall malaise is coming from because it has been a decent year for me. My programming gigs have started generating some income and I'm still immersed in the film scene, but I think my creation muse has left me, at least for the time being.

I'm not sure how frequently I'll be posting in 2020, but you can still expect some more surprises from the archives, as well as occasional VHS and short film musings.

Anyhoo, mainly for record keeping's sake, here's a visual representation of this year's adorations.

Come back tomorrow and I will muster up a rundown on my fave short films of 2019.