25 amazing short films

The audience was crying so loudly at the end of Bao that I couldn't even hear the dialogue when the feature began to play. The Pixar short was shown before a couple of movies, but no one left remembering the one they had paid for. The story of a mother raising her "bao son" is the definition of a tearjerker. 

Anyone who has turned 40 knows the feeling. Do I continue with what I'm doing? Have I made the right choices? Should I buy that red corvette I saw at the dealership? Turning 40 comes with all sorts of questions, which David Fine pokes fun at in this indie comedy. 

A children's book comes to life. Raymond Briggs' short has been a staple of Christmas for decades, ever since it premiered in 1982. The Snowman has been capturing the imagination of children who see snow as a coloring book waiting to be filled in. 

A little-known filmmaker named Martin Scorsese made this horror flick about a guy who cuts himself with a razor. Testing the audience's patience (and stomach), this short could have easily been played at an Andy Warhol party. And probably was... 

The first ever movie was of a horse galloping across a track. The concept of watching a single image on repeat has been around for decades, but Norman McLaren took the concept to new levels in Pas de Deux. A video of two ballet dancers spinning on repeat, the movie casts a spell that is never broken.

A longer movie than most on our list. Daisies is a movie that is more experimental, playful, and meta than anything else on here. Its story of two girls rebelling against Czech laws is more fun than most, but the way that Chytilova breaks every law in the cinematic rulebook makes this a classic. 

Even at its 30-minute runtime, Chris Marker's science-fiction masterpiece blows all other remakes out of the water. Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and Blade Runner have tried to update this movie to feature length, but none can touch what Marker does here. His ability to play with time through image is one of the most timeless marvels in cinema.

PETA is not going to like this. But hey, the folks at PETA didn't like Tom and Jerry either. Steamboat Willie is the movie that introduced Mickey Mouse to the world, making him the captain of a steamboat ship. Since then, he's worked his way up to a clubhouse owner. 

The premiere was attended by Salvador Dali, the crowd walked out, and those who stayed were there to "boo." In the very first experimental film, a collection of images are presented like a cat gifting its owner a corpse. A woman's eye is sliced open, ants devour a body, and a man is chained to a pole. It's going to shock you, but those shocks are genuinely impressive.  

One of India's most famous poets made a movie about a leprosy convent, which has been shown in schools worldwide. As an example of how to make documentaries and how to start movements, The House is Black is one of those movies that works on multiple levels. It's a movie that causes change, as well as a movie that causes changes in the medium. 

The movie that made Wallace and Gromit famous. The Wrong Trousers has all the pieces of a great Aardman production, from the slapstick to the adventure to the bromance. This is what movies are all about. 

Short enough to enthrall children but long enough to thrill adults, Charlie Chaplin's short is more than just slapstick. It's a movie that makes you laugh and cry simultaneously.  

How does one even describe Tale of Tales? It doesn't look like a movie, act like a movie, or sound like a movie. It's a movie that doesn't make sense logically but makes sense emotionally. The scene where a wolf steals a baby is haunting, while the scene where soldiers march off to war is chilling. 

Two words: Hayao Miyazaki. The director behind such animated classics as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, Miyazaki delivers more of the same in this short film.

World of Tomorrow is one of those rare memes that has something to say. Lots of people made this movie big on Twitter, thanks to all the scenes that are hilarious out of context. But the story of a woman showing her past self the future is quite profound. 

This might be the most influential movie on our list. Every time you hear a pop song over images of torture, violence, and mutilation, you can thank Kenneth Anger. Every time you see Scorsese, Tarantino, Wright, and Coppola play a pop song over death, you can thank Kenneth Anger. The director who placed violence over music first, Anger made a statement about how we turn horror into entertainment.

Have you ever seen the movie By the Sea ? The one with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie breaking up at a beach house? This short from Wes Anderson is a better version, with Natalie Portman and her husband breaking up at a resort. There are all the pieces of a Wes Anderson joint, just with a little less color. 

One of two movies to tie at the Academy Awards (the other being Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life), Trevor is a coming-of-age tale. In the coming years, his journey has been told on a Broadway show and a show called The Trevor Project. But the short is your best option. 

In Trip to the Moon, cinema was taken to space! For the first time ever, audiences got to explore the moon from their seats — experiencing alien invasions, spaceships, and space pirates through images instead of books. 

You can debate whether this is Buster Keaton's best movie, but you can't debate whether it's a blast. Sherlock Jr. is one of the most fun and inventive movies ever made, a whodunnit with chases, stunts, and a scene where Keaton passes through a movie screen to enter the actual movie. 

Those who don't like rain might want to skip out on Rain, a movie devoted to...well, rain. For 11 minutes, we watch people walk around with umbrellas, trying to dodge the water coming from above. It's a hypnotic look at those days when the streets fill with puddles — or for those in Seattle, everyday life. 

Like La Jatee, Alexander Hammid's short has inspired many feature-length films. His wife helped him come up with the idea for this dreamy, black-and-white science-fiction, which is told almost entirely without sound. It's supposed to capture the feeling of being trapped in a nightmare, with images repeating. You can find the film's technique in hundreds of movies like it. 

Speaking of nightmares, is there anything scarier than Lights Out? The short was so terrifying that teenagers were watching it as a dare. It's hard to think of a movie that plays with our fear of the dark more than this one. 

It took French director Alain Resnais a whole year to put together this 30-minute film, which chronicles the Holocaust only 10 years after it happened. It's one of the most daring acts of cinema, as even today, we are hesitant to talk about the events on screen. 

My favorite short film. This story of a boy and his magical balloon is one of the cutest, most inventive, and buoyant movies ever made. It brings a smile to my face every time I see it.