13 min · English · Drama · Romance
What do you hold on to when everything is changing? Try this for a teenager's search for meaning at the end of high school.
Thought-provoking short films
466 Thought-provoking short films in the cafe, running 1 to 51 minutes. Many are bittersweet or suspenseful. They span 32 languages. Each is a complete standalone short film, chosen by the cafe and played through its original video provider.
20 min · Telugu · Drama
Spardha means a fight within. This Telugu drama follows a would-be world kickboxing champion whose biggest opponent is himself. Nineteen minutes, with English subtitles and festival recognition its makers list.
21 min · Malayalam · Drama
An independent Malayalam film directed by Sonu and Dinoop, and one of the cafe's quietest discoveries: under 5,000 YouTube views, but an unusually high 5.6% like rate. Twenty minutes to find out why.
10 min · Malayalam · Drama
A child, a cat and a fish share a small story about hope and survival. Nine and a half Malayalam minutes with a 5.5% like rate on YouTube.
4 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
A four-minute English sci-fi thriller in which an office worker's daily routine slowly becomes something unsettling.
6 min · English · Comedy
Tom Noakes's AACTA-nominated single-take Australian short: why is a metalhead singing Old MacDonald by a rural highway? Five minutes that flip every first impression.
31 min · Malayalam · Drama
A dark-skinned young woman faces everyday prejudice about her looks and finds her own worth. Indiark Entertainments' Malayalam drama with Lakshmika Sajeevan, one of the cafe's best-liked films.
20 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
A selfish executive is trapped in a restroom time loop and has to face other versions of himself to get out. Twenty minutes of clever, funny sci-fi.
26 min · Punjabi · Drama
Try Jimmewari for a Punjabi drama centred on responsibility and the resilience it takes to carry it.
13 min · English · Comedy · Drama · Horror · Fantasy
For Owen, resisting a compulsion feels as if the world could end. This dark comedy takes that fear literally, mixing an everyday struggle with wildly escalating stakes.
11 min · English · Drama
Pull up a chair for “No More Wings”, a warm, bittersweet two-hander in which childhood friends Isaac and Jude catch up over fried chicken as their lives drift in different directions.
24 min · Malayalam · Drama
A Malayalam drama with Sonu TP: a telecaller who has never cared about the people on the line is handed an unexpected responsibility. MMC viewers have watched it to the end.
6 min · No dialogue · Animation · Fantasy · Drama
A wordless animation: a strange creature races against time to finish the most important thing it will ever make. Six minutes that linger long after.
12 min · Malayalam · Drama
Pooja's online persona raises questions about identity and loneliness. A twelve-minute Malayalam drama for the social-media age.
12 min · Tamil · Drama · Fantasy
A Tamil fantasy-drama about an aspiring filmmaker whose imagination starts writing itself into the story he's trying to make. Eleven playful, layered minutes.
22 min · Tamil · Drama
Karishma writes and directs this Tamil drama with Ram Nishanth and Priyadharshini Rajkumar. Twenty-one minutes.
31 min · Malayalam · Drama
Anish Mohan's dialogue-free Malayalam anthology, inspired by Kamal Haasan's silent classic Pushpaka Vimanam: a blocked writer finds his stories in a strange vision. Its makers list a FEFKA festival selection.
20 min · Malayalam · Drama
Vivek Joseph Varughese's Malayalam drama about a housewife who is loved but not respected, and the day she claims for herself. Billed as award-winning by its makers, with English subtitles; MMC viewers have watched it to the end.
20 min · Malayalam · Fantasy · Drama
A young man escapes his routine and stumbles into a mystical village that changes how he sees life. A nineteen-minute Malayalam fantasy with a 3.5% like rate on YouTube.
19 min · English · Drama
One night, a teenager with nowhere to sleep and a deafblind man waiting for his bus find their way to each other. Settle in for a warm, quietly moving drama about empathy.
12 min · Tamil · Romance · Drama
An introvert's carefully closed-off world is upended when an outgoing woman pulls him out of his shell. Settle in to see whether he makes sense of love or bends who he is.
24 min · Malayalam · Drama
A Malayalam family drama that brings the experience of postpartum depression into the open. Twenty-four honest minutes.
17 min · English · Drama · Science fiction
During a lethal epidemic, a quarantined father faces an impossible choice when his daughter falls ill. A sixteen-minute English sci-fi drama that lands close to home.
7 min · English · Drama
Liam has six weeks to live and has told no one. Settle in for a quietly affecting British drama about keeping up appearances while time runs out.
14 min · Malayalam · Romance · Drama
A Kutti Stories Malayalam drama about a young woman whose relationship choices run into family expectations and dependence.
23 min · English · Documentary
Meet Lusia Harris in her own words. A short introduction to a basketball life that deserves to be better known.
8 min · Tamil · Drama
A seven-minute Tamil drama in which one traffic-police encounter becomes a reflection on power and fairness.
30 min · Kannada · Drama
Raghu Raghava's coastal Kannada meta-tale, presented by Rishab Shetty Films. Its makers report Best Film (Karnataka section) at the Oscar-qualifying Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2022.
13 min · English · Drama
Sit with “Presentation”, a perceptive, empathetic teen drama about Holly, who has to stand up in front of her class while self-doubt and anxiety close in around her.
11 min · Tamil · Drama
On a rainy Sunday, a barber and his regular customer talk about their lives and the pressures of modern society. Eleven warm Tamil minutes.
18 min · Malayalam · Drama
Kay K writes and directs this Malayalam drama about memory and human connection. Eighteen reflective minutes.
36 min · English · Science fiction
Jason Carman's ambitious sci-fi for DUST, set in the year 2730: a scientist proposes building an artificial habitable planet. Thirty-six minutes in the project's final century.
27 min · Malayalam · Comedy · Romance · Drama
A Malayalam rom-com about the question every young couple in Kerala hears sooner or later: when's the wedding? Twenty-six warm, funny minutes.
35 min · English · Documentary
Take a short break with “The Barber of Little Rock” to see the world from another angle. A barber builds a nonprofit community bank to close the racial wealth gap.
12 min · Malayalam · Thriller · Drama
A barber's late-night customer brings an old wound back into his life. Twelve tense Malayalam minutes.
15 min · Tamil · Drama
Sridhar Shanmugam's Tamil social drama about poverty, education and whose voices get heard, billed by its makers as award-winning. Fourteen minutes worth sharing.
1 min · No dialogue · Drama
A one-minute lift for anyone who missed their people in 2020: a lonely drummer, no band in sight, and an imagination that refuses to stay quiet.
30 min · Malayalam · Drama
On a rainy evening, Chandra decides to tell her husband Das something intimate she has kept to herself. The disclosure upends everything the couple believed about each other, leaving both of them to ask whether their life together can go on as before.
12 min · English · Science fiction · Thriller
Mark Slutsky's English sci-fi for DUST: a struggling lawyer wakes in a doorless room, chosen to negotiate for the whole human race. Eleven tense minutes.
9 min · Tamil · Romance · Drama
An eight-minute Tamil romance about family judgement and the choice to stand beside the person you love.
Related guides
Bittersweet short films · Feel-good short films · Suspenseful short films · Light-hearted short films · Emotional short films · Calm short films · All guides