It’s the first block of shorts, so with no further ado — let’s get into it!

Cat and Fish (2025): In this animated short by director and writer Nilram Ranjbar, a fish goes to a much better, larger body of water, all thanks to the sun and an unexpected friend: a cat. What charming animation in this, creating a near 3D version of string to match the colors and tones.

Damned (2025): Directed by Lukas Anderson, who co-wrote this short with Elio Andres, Jesse (Cole Kelley) breaks his house arrest — with just two weeks left on his sentence — as his parole officer tries to track him down with his ankle monitor. The police aren’t the only ones looking for him, as a demon (C.P. Walker) wants back the soul of the father. Or maybe it’s all about something more. This is a nice short, one that maybe needs the last line to tie it all up nice with a bow, but that’s fine. It’s working with a really truncated time in an attempt to share a much larger story. It feels like a full-length film could come from this.

Don’t Look (2025): Directed and written by John Wyatt, this starts with a young boy named Eli waking up to find monsters under his bed. Little does he know that it wasn’t his imagination. Maybe he shouldn’t go back to sleep. Well, not like he’s getting a chance — spoiler warning — as he definitely isn’t alone. A really quick film and one where I’d love to have seen perhaps something extra added, a twist or something that makes this story stand out.

Sin Eater (2025): Director and writer Corey Simpson tells the story of Minerva, who is trying to clean out the home of her dead grandmother when a stranger shows up to tell her that she must take on the burden her grandmother owned, the Sin Eater. Much like “The Sins of the Fathers” episode of Night Gallery, this shows how the pains of sin must be passed on to a new generation. What helps make this even better are the strobing Bava-style lighting, music that shoots for an Italian film feel at times and great sound design. It feels dark and gauzy, like those tapes you used to bootleg from the video store and then wondered, “What am I watching?” Trust me. That’s a good thing.

Lola (2025): Tessie’s grandmother, Lola, has been diagnosed with dementia. Tessie can’t handle it so she’s created a machine that tries to save the memories before an AI named Mena destroys it. Directed by Grace Hanna, who wrote it with Derek Manansala and Duke Yang, this has one memory — a night of karaoke singing — being recreated so that one perfect memory can be saved. Yet Tessie doesn’t realize that in her struggle to keep the past, she’s forgetting the time she has in the here and now. My father had dementia and days were struggles, as he forgot who he was and even who I was at times. No machine could keep him either, no matter how hard you’d try. Sometimes, you think you’d get through and then you’d realize he hadn’t been paying attention. It’s so frightening to lose someone before they’re gone and this movie does a great job of capturing that feeling. All we can do is enjoy the short window that we have together, no matter how conscious we may be of it. Memory is, as they say, fleeting.

The Bohannons – Night Construction (2025): A stop motion animation from Chattanooga’s The Skeleton Key Workshop, this shows the sun setting for the day and the moon and the night sky being put together. Directed and written by Matt Eslinger, you have to admire the guts of this band to have a bio that says this: “The Bohannons are one of Chattanooga’s finest exports, who make heavy rock ’n’ roll that’s equal parts Motörhead and Neil Young, with lead guitar chops that rival both.” I can report that this video and song kick ass.

Til Death Do Us Part (2025): Directed by Bronwyn Blanks-Blundell and Alexander Protich, this finds Doctor Frigg in her lab, trying to bring her one true love back to life. Slamming her fist on the desk, a tape recorder is activated, bringing something else back to life: her voice from the past, a transmission that may give her the information that she needs to move on. This is a nice short, one that uses its animation, music and sound design well.

Meeet (2025): Six eccentric characters are starving in a bomb shelter. When one of them seemingly dies — maybe — the rest decides to eat her corpse. But just a little bit, right? Yet what happens next, well, it proves that writers — while being liars — often write their own justice. Directed by Laama Almadani and written by Yemi Eniolorunda, this makes one wonder about just how you would go through eating someone. We’ve all debated it, but the actual butchering and cooking seems like too much. And what wine do you serve with it? And even worse, if someone is so stoned that you can just into them and serve their body, which wakes them because it smells so good that they eat it themselves, could you finish your meal? What a great short, put together so simply. Loved it!

CHECK PLEASE (2024): I am a veteran of the wars of fighting for the check. The director, Shane Chung, is too. He said, “As a kid, I witnessed firsthand the quickness with which friends can turn on each other whenever my parents took me to dinner with their pals. It was all smiles until it came time to pay for the bill – then the fangs came out. “I got it!” “Don’t be ridiculous, it’s my treat!” “You can get me next time!” It got so serious for no reason. Arguing, subterfuge… it was killing with kindness taken to another level. I wondered how far someone could take fighting to pay for the bill. Inspired by my love of goofy slapstick action comedies like Drunken Master and Everything Everywhere All At Once, I thought: what if they literally fought each other? I challenged myself to write a ten-minute long action scene where two Korean-Americans fought each other with chopsticks, grill coverings, and credit cards… and CHECK PLEASE was born.”

Starring Richard Yan and Sukwon Jeong, this is a simple story but is so perfect. It gets across what it means to be a man — paying the bill — as well as the director’s attempts at getting across the feeling of assimilating to a new culture. It’s also filled with great action. I laughed really hard throughout and found joy here.

Baking and Entering (2025): Directed and written by Lance Harbour, Cole Keisling, Andrew Lacy, Zach Legaux and Brooklynne Scivally, this has Hugh, a pie baker in a food truck, dealing with a grizzly bear. Perhaps he should be happy to have a customer. This is a cute animated short that has a sweet ending and gives the viewer a nice moral, all in a short running time. I love the bear — his face when the metal window keeps closing is so endearing.

Feed (2025): Directed and written by Kara McLeland, this has Rachel and Nick having a party guest over, almost lamenting that over the past year how their lives have changed because of the Harbor Initiative. Gone are the days of concerts and going out, instead they stay home — because a space alien baby is part of their lives. That child never sleeps on certain nights of the full moon and must feed differently on Thursday and no one can keep up on the message boards, but now they’re eating fingers and destroying relationships. Maybe this dinner party isn’t just for our married couple. I love this, a tension-packed short that rightly takes it time to drop the hammer on you.

We Need to Talk About Balloons (2025): Dani’s mom is a social media influencer using her daughter for her mom brand, but Dani would rather be Dani the Destroyer, a magician. But why would a magician be called a destroyer? Directed by Jennifer Bonior and co-written with Dycee Wildman, this shows that you shouldn’t try and run a child’s life, much less tell her that she has to move on from doing balloon popping magic, unless you want to be a stain on the wall of a glittery balloon shop.

The Lily and the Scorpion (2025): Outlaws The Lily and The Scorpion are on the run after a bank job gone wrong. These partners are losing trust in one another and it’s like everything is falling to pieces. Directed and written by Charlie Netto, this has two female outlaws in the west, which is a story not often told. But what happens when one of them wants to go straight and end the outlaw life? This could so easily be a full-length movie with the storytelling in it. I loved this — an exploration of freedom, for a little while, until one needs to be safe.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watches.