Best of ShortsCinema St. Louis and St. Louis Public Radio are proud to co-present a free screening of a selection of short films from the 2021 Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) and 2021 Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase. In addition to the films, the event will feature a pre-recorded interview with Elvira Lind, director of “The Letter Room,” which won the Best of Fest Short award at SLIFF.

The program will be held in person outside at the Public Media Commons (3653 Olive St., St. Louis, MO 63108) at 7 pm Friday, June 10.

More information can be found on St. Louis Public Radio’s Events page.

The event is free, but participants must register for the event here.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has long sanctioned SLIFF's shorts competition as a pre-screening event for the Academy Awards. The winners in four categories of SLIFF's juried shorts programming (Best of Fest, Best Animation, Best Live Action, and Best Documentary) are eligible to submit their films directly to the Academy for Oscar consideration.

St. Louis Public Radio is an award-winning news organization and NPR member station, providing in-depth news, insightful discussion, and entertaining programs to more than a half-million people per month on-air and online. With a large, St. Louis-based newsroom and reporters stationed in Jefferson City and Rolla, Mo., and Belleville, Ill., the station’s journalists find and tell important stories about communities across the region and help people to become deeply informed about the issues that affect their lives. Broadcasting on 90.7 KWMU FM in St. Louis, 90.3 WQUB in Quincy, Ill., 88.5 KMST in Rolla, and sharing news and music online at stlpublicradio.org, St. Louis Public Radio is a member-supported service of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The following short films will be screened during this event:

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves (Wojciech Ostrycharz, U.S.,  2021, 3 min., no dialogue): SLIFF Best Short Short. A short story about intimacy and loss is synchronized with music of the same name by Joe Pass.

 

come On

Come On, Shake Your Body Baby, Do the Conga! (Tom Hipp, U.S., 2020, 2 min., English): All Tim wants to do is ask Jane to dance.

 

Danger

The Danger in Front (Alexis Chartrand, Canada, 2020, 17 min., French): SLIFF Best International Short. While observing life outside his shop, a barber thinks he sees someone who is after his life and his family.

 

E14

E14 (Peiman Zekavat, U.K., 2020, 16 min., English): SLIFF Best Documentary Short. A study in human behavior in the densest and most overdeveloped residential area in the U.K. during the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Hammonds Books

Hammond's Books (Joshua Mullins, U.S., 2021, 10 min., English): SLIFF Audience Choice Best Documentary Short. A look at the brother/sister duo who run an eclectic bookstore on Cherokee Street.

 

Letter room

The Letter Room (Elvira Lind, U.S., 2020, 30 min., English): SLIFF Best of Fest Short. When a kind-hearted prison officer (Oscar Isaac) is transferred to the letter room, he soon gets involved in an inmate's personal affairs.

 

Man or Tree

Man or Tree (Tom Hancock & Varun Raman, U.K., 2021, 4 min., English): In the wilderness, a tree begins to question whether it may actually be a man tripping on hallucinogens.

 

Mila

Mila (Cinzia Angelini, Canada; Italy; U.S., 2021, 20 min., no dialogue): SLIFF Best Animated Short and SLIFF Audience Choice Best Narrative Short. With a little more than imagination and humanity, Mila manages to profoundly impact others, including a caring stranger.