Mailchimp Presents SXSW 2021 Film Festival Shorts

2021 SXSW Shorts: Chuj Boys of Summer, Malignant, Plant Heist, and Stuffed

Mailchimp is back with SXSW 2021 Shorts to stream for free from the Film Festival!

Over 25 short films are now available to watch on the digital platform Mailchimp Presents. Choose your own viewing adventure by screening category – Animated, Documentary, Episodic Pilot, Made In Texas, Midnight, Narrative, and Texas High School – or hit "shuffle" to mix it up.

Be sure to check out the 2021 SXSW Film Awards winners Beyond the Model (Texas High School Shorts Special Jury Recognition for Directing); Chuj Boys of Summer (Mailchimp Support the Shorts Award); Malignant (Mailchimp Support the Shorts Special Jury Recognition); and Stuffed (Special Jury Recognition for Bold Vision).

Don't forget to share the SXSW filmmaker love using #SupportTheShorts.

2021 Shorts

A Tale Best Forgotten (Sweden)
Midnight Shorts Competition
Director: Tomas Stark
In a house by a river that lamented as it ran, lived a father, and his daughter, and the dog-headed man… A murder ballad. (North American Premiere)

Are You Still There?
Narrative Shorts Competition
Directors: Rayka Zehtabchi and Sam Davis
Safa’s been through a lot. Now her car battery's dead in a strip mall parking lot. (North American Premiere)

Beyond the Model
Texas High School Shorts Competition
Director: Jessica Lin
After the assaults and discrimination of Asians because of COVID-19, this film shines a light on what it is like be a “model minority” in an increasingly divided America. (World Premiere)

Chuj Boys of Summer (Guatemala, United States)
Narrative Shorts Competition
Director: Max Walker-Silverman
Speaking only his native language, a Guatemalan teenager begins his new life in rural Colorado. (Texas Premiere)

Dale's House
Episodic Pilot Competition
Director: Kat Whalen
Dale’s House is a horror comedy about two estranged best friends, both at rock bottom in their careers and personal lives, who end up house sitting together in a demonic house that grants them all the success they desire, in exchange for their souls. (World Premiere)

Flick
Midnight Shorts Competition
Director: Ariel Zengotita
A reclusive college student is driven mad after picking a booger he can’t flick away.

For the Record (Canada)
Episodic Pilot Competition
Directors: Lisa Baylin and Julian De Zotti
Ray and Angela just broke up. What if music had the power to bring them back together? Follow the iconic songs that make up the unforgettable soundtrack for a uniquely interconnected cast of characters. (International Premiere)

Holographic Dreams
Texas High School Shorts Competition
Director: Satvik Shankar
A teenage boy goes on an exploration of his own fears about death, religion, and sin. (Texas Premiere)

Joanne Is Dead
Midnight Shorts Competition
Director: Brian Sacca
It's easy to dismiss the ramblings of the dementia-riddled elderly as nonsense. But what if there is a deadly truth behind those words? (World Premiere)

Malignant
Texas Shorts Competition
Directors: Morgan Bond and Nickolas Grisham
Chynna travels to a West Texas health retreat to visit her terminally ill mother. As she learns more about the faith-based wellness preached in the commune, Chynna desperately attempts to convince her mother to leave. (World Premiere)

Marvin's Never Had Coffee Before
Narrative Shorts Competition
Director: Andrew Carter
Marvin Wexler tries coffee for the first time and desperately tries to talk about it with anyone who will listen.

Our Bed Is Green
Animated Shorts Competition
Director: Maggie Brennan
A young woman seeks digital refuge from an overwhelming world and a bewildering obsession. (World Premiere)

Plaisir
Narrative Shorts Competition
Director: Molly Gillis
A lonely American faces unrequited love on a farm commune in the south of France. (World Premiere)

Plant Heist
Documentary Shorts Competition
Directors: Chelsi de Cuba and Gabriel de Cuba
California's fight to protect valuable native succulents from an international poaching ring. (World Premiere)

Puss
Midnight Shorts Competition
Director: Leah Shore
Samantha desperately wants to get laid, but is finding it to be difficult for some reason. (World Premiere)

Reklaw
Midnight Shorts Competition
Director: Polaris Banks
A team of altruistic vigilantes destroy evidence to keep as many people from prison as possible, but when one of their crime scene clean-ups is revisited by the killer, the strength of their convictions is tested. (World Premiere)

Run That Shit!
Midnight Shorts Competition
Director: Tristan Kim
A Satanic cult lures a no-name rapper into stealing an enchanted chamber pot from his estranged friend and now superstar rapper, Big Tobacco. (Texas Premiere)

Sales Per Hour
Narrative Shorts Competition
Directors: Michelle Uranowitz and Daniel Jaffe
A young woman faces a moral dilemma when she witnesses a sexual encounter in a dressing room at the clothing store where she works. (World Premiere)

Significant Other
Midnight Shorts Competition
Director: Quinn George
A couple struggles to see eye to eye when a mysterious red orb appears in their new home. (Texas Premiere)

Sisters
Narrative Shorts Competition
Director: Jess Brunetto
Hidden secrets cause tension when two estranged sisters are forced to confront each other while preparing for their ailing mother's death. (World Premiere)

Squeegee (Canada, United States)
Narrative Shorts Competition
Director: Morgan Krantz
A high-powered female CEO meets her high-rise window-washer for an erotic rendezvous on opposite sides of a skyscraper window. (World Premiere)

Stuffed (United Kingdom)
Midnight Shorts Competition
Director: Theo Rhys
Stuffed is a short musical about a taxidermist who dreams of stuffing a human and the man she meets online, so afraid of aging he volunteers to be her specimen. An unexpected romantic spark between them complicates their plans. (North American Premiere)

Ten Leaves Dilated
Documentary Shorts Competition
Directors: Kate E. Hinshaw and Ebony Blanding
A documentary that uses the make-believe world crafted by Cabbage Patch Kids to examine discourses surrounding childbirth in the American South. (World Premiere)

The Journey (Canada)
Narrative Shorts Competition
Director: Ève Saint-Louis
The Journey is the story of a father and daughter reunion. From Montreal’s airport, they will travel along a chaotic path, where their inability to find each other will unveil a complicated relationship and have them drift from their initial course. (World Premiere)

The Nipple Whisperer (Belgium)
Narrative Shorts Competition
Director: Jan Van Dyck
Maurice Sanders has a gift. He's a nipple whisperer. Once he was known as "Magic Sandy." But that was years ago, before Doris, a famous model and Sander's muse, fell ill. Now, after more than a decade, Doris wants to meet Maurice again. (World Premiere)

The Other Morgan
Narrative Shorts Competition
Director: Alison Rich
When a dopey young exterminator discovers there's another version of her out in the world, she begins to question her life choices. (Texas Premiere)

The Unlikely Fan
Texas Shorts Competition
Directors: Sai Selvarajan and Jeff Bednarz
She’s a Sri Lankan born, Dallas-based, retired teacher and mother. She’s also crazy about basketball. Meet “The Unlikely Fan” who knows a thing or two about hoops. (World Premiere)

Trade Center
Documentary Shorts Competition
Director: Adam Baran
The voices of five gay men who cruised for sex at the World Trade Center in the 1980s and 1990s haunt the sanitized, commerce-driven landscape that is the newly rebuilt Freedom Tower campus. (World Premiere)

Watch Now on Mailchimp

Stay Tuned for SXSW 2022

With SXSW 2022 dates announced, stay tuned for participation opportunities opening this summer including PanelPicker®, Film Festival submissions, Music Festival applications, and more. In the meantime, explore 2021 winners across our Awards categories.

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2021 SXSW Shorts – Chuj Boys of Summer, Malignant, Plant Heist, and Stuffed – Images Courtesy of the Filmmakers

By Jordan Roberts

04/26/2021