8 min · English · Comedy
A Short of the Week selection: an irreverent alt-history of the lazy susan, the spinning table at Chinese restaurants, and the spectacularly lazy woman who invented it. Seven very funny minutes.
Short films under 10 minutes
283 short films under 10 minutes in the cafe, running 1 to 10 minutes. Many are thought-provoking or feel-good. They span 22 languages. Each is a complete standalone short film, chosen by the cafe and played through its original video provider.
5 min · No dialogue · Animation · Romance
Spend four sweet minutes with “In a Heartbeat”, where a shy boy's runaway heart says exactly what he is too nervous to admit.
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 · Comedy · Thriller
Alex Brooks's four-minute comedy-thriller: two criminals discover they've picked the same hiding place.
8 min · English · Horror · Thriller
Dylan Clark's eight-minute horror: a young woman giving a presentation on a religious painting starts to doubt what she can see in it.
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.
4 min · Malayalam · Animation
Studio Eeksaurus's four-minute sequel to Kandittund!: storyteller P.N.K. Panicker's animated self explains how Arana, the red-tailed skink, got its tail. Sound design by Resul Pookutty.
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.
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.
9 min · Malayalam · Romance · Comedy
Try “KSEB Pranayam” when you’re in the mood for a short comedy.
6 min · English · Animation
Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter's Oscar-nominated stop-motion, adapted from Ron Koertge's poem: a son remembers his father through the art of packing a suitcase. Five perfect minutes.
2 min · No dialogue · Drama
A wordless, under-two-minute short made, as its maker puts it, for those still awake at 2 a.m. Pour a late cup and settle in.
8 min · Tamil · Romance · Drama
Spend a little time with the love story in “Kooravarthaigal”.
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.
5 min · Tamil · Comedy
Pradeep Ranganathan, later of Love Today, stars in Kamal Prakash's four-minute Tamil comedy about a die-hard single guy, styled after a Rudy Mancuso music video.
8 min · Tamil · Drama
A seven-minute Tamil drama in which one traffic-police encounter becomes a reflection on power and fairness.
8 min · Malayalam · Thriller · Comedy
A small-time thief finds a bag of cash and two gangsters on the way out. This eight-minute Malayalam crime comedy from Yellow Submarine, directed by Viswanathan S, packs a full caper into a tea break.
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.
9 min · Tamil · Romance · Drama
An eight-minute Tamil romance about family judgement and the choice to stand beside the person you love.
4 min · No dialogue · Animation · Drama
Steve Cutts's “MAN” compresses humanity's appetite for the natural world into a few sharp, darkly funny minutes that linger long after.
5 min · Tamil · Comedy
A four-minute Tamil satire about modern relationships, which its maker calls the turning point of his career.
10 min · No dialogue · Horror · Thriller
A wordless ten-minute horror: a woman wakes on a curved slope above an endless drop and has to hold on. Simple, vertiginous and hugely watched.
5 min · No dialogue · Animation · Comedy · Horror
A wordless five-minute animation in which feeding the ducks turns strange, then grotesque. Darkly funny, and not for anyone squeamish about birds.
6 min · English · Thriller · Drama
A game of chess between two strangers opens old wounds and becomes a struggle for power. A six-minute English thriller.
7 min · English · Horror · Thriller
A family has one rule: keep ignoring the dangerous presence in the house. A seven-minute English horror that tests your nerves.
7 min · English · Science fiction · Drama
A grieving mother brings home a synthetic child to fill the silence, unaware of the robot's hidden purpose. A seven-minute English sci-fi drama.
7 min · English · Science fiction
David Lea's sci-fi for DUST: every Sunday an old man and his dog walk to the Cornish clifftops, but this time they're not alone. Six quiet, wondrous minutes.
6 min · English · Comedy · Drama
A five-minute English comedy that turns an introvert's trip to the barbershop into an odyssey of social anxiety. Painfully relatable.
8 min · No dialogue · Animation · Romance · Drama
Make room for “Lost & Found”, a tender Australian stop-motion tale in which a knitted dinosaur gives everything, stitch by stitch, for the fox he loves.
10 min · Malayalam · Romance · Drama
A ten-minute Malayalam romance that runs into the family expectations tied to horoscopes and marriage.
7 min · English · Animation
A father’s first attempt at his daughter’s hairstyle turns an everyday act of care into a tender story about family and connection.
8 min · Tamil · Drama
A shortage of carrots exposes something more troubling between neighbours. Try Theetu for a Tamil story about the prejudices hidden in ordinary exchanges.
5 min · English · Animation · Drama
A tiny story with a generous heart. Stay for the moment when its perspective opens up.
10 min · English · Animation · Comedy
A bird too frightened to fly south makes an unusual starting point for a winter journey. Watch if you like small stories about facing a big fear.
7 min · Malayalam · Drama
Pause for a brief Malayalam parable about the balance that lets every life coexist, and the warning against upsetting it. A pick for a quiet, thought-provoking few minutes.
9 min · Tamil · Romance · Comedy
Balaji Mohan's original Tamil short for Naalaiya Iyakkunar, later expanded into his 2012 feature of the same name: a quick, funny guide to messing up in love.
9 min · Malayalam · Drama
A nine-minute Malayalam awareness film about the invisible challenges and quiet resilience of people living with multiple sclerosis.
6 min · No dialogue · Animation · Drama
Warm up with “Timber”, a darkly funny animated fable in which freezing logs discover that staying alive together may cost them everything.
6 min · English · Animation · Comedy
Christopher Hinton's Oscar-nominated 1991 NFB animation, set to Wade Hemsworth's folk song about the blackflies that tormented him on a summer survey in Northern Ontario. Five itchy, joyful minutes.
7 min · Hindi · Comedy
Madhoo and Parzaan Dastur star in Nitesh V. Ranglani's six-minute Hindi Mother's Day comedy: a tribute to the love, care and scolding we can't do without.
Related guides
Short films under 20 minutes · Short films under 5 minutes · All guides