DC Shorts WINS

Catch the best short films from the past year of

DC Shorts International Film Festival

at DC Shorts WINS! Best of the Fest

DC Shorts WINS! Best of the Fest features all of the Jury Award-Winning and Audience Award-winning films from this past September screening in two fully packed online showcases. Many of these films have received accolades worldwide, and are in the running for Academy Award nominations, including The Present which is currently on the Oscars official shortlist. So whether you missed them the first go-round or want to watch them again, join us online for these fantastic and impactful short films. Each showcase runs approximately 115 minutes, are appropriate for ages 18+, and are available in North America only. No refunds. 

WIN AN ALL-ACCESS ONLINE PASS to DC Shorts International Film Festival 2021. Everyone who has purchased a ticket to DC Shorts WINS! Best of the Fest by 11:59 PM on Tuesday, February 23, will be entered into a drawing to win an All Access Online Pass for the DC Shorts International Film Festival 2021 (Sept 9 – 19). Three lucky ticket purchasers will be notified on Feb. 24. The All Access Pass provides free access to every film and every showcase! In 2020, we had 163 films from 34 countries in 20 showcases.

Schedule of Events

DC Shorts WINS! Best of the Fest  2021 is all Virtual / Online with films available from Wednesday, February 24, through Monday, March 1, 2021.

Showcase A – $12 (8 Films / 116 Minutes): Buy Tickets
Showcase B – $12  (7 Films / 114 Minutes): Buy Tickets

Double Header Pass – $20. See all 15 films in both showcases for just $20:  Buy Tickets

Showcase A - Buy Tickets

Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad

Jury Award Winner: Outstanding Animated Short

Directors: Camrus Johnson, Pedro Piccinini • 5 Min • Animation/Drama • USA

A personal story of grief, those we look up to, and how the interactions we may deem insignificant may play a huge part in how we live our lives.

Coffee Shop Names

Audience Award Winner

Director: Deepak Sethi • 8 Min • Comedy • USA

Three Indian people imagine their personas as their "coffee shop names," the names they give baristas because their real names are hard to pronounce.

Love at Third Sight

Audience Award Winner

Director: Albert Ventura • 9 Min • Sci-fi/Drama • Spain

Gisela is in a coffee shop writing her notes as usual. Suddenly a stranger sits next to her. At the beginning seems like Carlos is just kindly flirting with her until he reveals that in fact he comes from the future. A future where they are about to marry each other, but a fatal car accident sent him back at the beginning of their relationship.

Heading South

Jury Award Winner: Outstanding First Time Filmmaker 

Director: Yuan Yuan • 12 Min • Drama • USA

8 years old girl Chasuna travels from her home on grassland to visit her father who lives in the big city. However, during her father’s birthday party, Chasuna finds out he has remarried to a Chinese woman. Chasuna has to learn how to accept her as part of the family.

L.A. Roll

Audience Award Winner

Director: Helki Frantzen • 18 Min • Documentary/Dance • USA

L.A. ROLL follows members of Sk8 Mafia, a crew of Los Angeles-based dance skaters, as they reflect on the closure of their beloved home rink and seek out a new rink despite adversity and setbacks.

A Lonely Death

Audience Award Winner

Director: Matthew Suppes • 26 • Drama • USA

A quiet cleaner specializing in unattended or “lonely” deaths makes a discovery at a dead man’s apartment, putting him at odds with his boss and the dead man's daughter.

Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible

Jury Award Winner: Outstanding Documentary Short 

Director: Kristen Lappas • 29 Min • Documentary/Indigenous • USA

A boxing gym on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation teaches young girls how to defend themselves in response to over 100 Native American girls and women from Montana having disappeared, been murdered, or their status remains unknown in the past two years.

Behind the Door

Audience Award Winner

Director: Andrés Borghi • 9 Min • Horror • Argentina

Milagros performs a ritual to speak one last time with her dead father. She has to ask him for a favor, but doesn't know that calling the dead can bring terrible consequences.

Showcase B - Buy Tickets

Vlora

Audience Award Winner AND Jury Award Winner: Outstanding Local Film 

Director: Erblin Nushi • 14 Min • Drama • Kosovo

In order to teach her children about independence, Vlora has to take a job that requires her to leave the house.

Message Read

Audience Award Winner

Director: Spencer Glover • 25 • Sci-fi/Drama • USA

In the afterlife, material possessions cease to exist. For those who can’t let go, there’s one stop before that final resting place and it’s called Firth. Message Read tells the story of a father who desperately misses his son and must decide between moving on to finality or spending eternity stuck in Firth.

The Present

Jury Award Winner: Outstanding International Narrative Short 

Director: Farah Nabulsi • 24 Min • Drama • Palestine

On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his daughter, Yasmine, set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between the soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?

Yarrow: The Virtues of Monochrome

Audience Award Winner

Directors: Abraham Joffe, Dom West • 5 Min • Documentary/Nature • Australia

This short follows the creative process of fine art photographer David Yarrow as he steps ashore the mind-blowing wildlife scenes of South Georgia.

The Manchador

Audience Award Winner

Director: Kaveh Tehrani • 20 Min • Comedy • Norway

Mina and Saeed live a stressful life in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Being a woman in Iran is not particularly easy and Mina sees a future for the family elsewhere. She wants to move abroad, but Saeed then invents a device that places the responsibility for the hijab where it belongs – with the men whose gaze women need protection from.

Rebel

Audience Award Winner

Director: Pier-Philippe Chevigny • 15 Min • Drama • Canada

To Alex, a naive six years old boy, the mysterious patrols lead by his father's right-wing militia are nothing but opportunities to play hide and seek out in the woods. Until he ventures too far.

Pillars

Jury Award Winner for Outstanding U.S. Narrative Short 

Director: Cameron Bruce Nelson • 11 Min • Drama/LGBTQ • USA

A Mennonite woman reverts to a secret language when her best friend begins the rites of marriage.