Shorts Not Pants Film Festival returns after a one-year hiatus, promising an unforgettable cinematic experience. This year’s festival boasts a carefully curated selection of outstanding short films from 17 countries: 23 narrative, 11 animated, and 9 documentary short films; 19 of those films are Canadian.
The festival will take place in Toronto from Friday, November 13 through Saturday, November 14, 2026 at the Carlton Cinema, 20 Carlton St., Cinema #8.
From close to 300 submissions, Shorts Not Pants Film Festival has curated a lineup of 43 films that will surely captivate audiences and showcase the extraordinary talent of filmmakers from around the globe. The festival provides a platform for emerging and established filmmakers to present their work and engage with audiences passionate about the art of storytelling through short films.
A short film has precious little time to make its mark.
The French short “Furies” will hold your attention for its twenty minutes, but its plot is common and perhaps tiresome of creatures prowling the streets infecting the good citizens of a French town. Zombietown but is there any facet of this film that saves it from a lack of originality?
Mother Christine a member of a vigilante group hunts creatures that attack and “infect” their victims. Christine is desirous of protecting her daughter Alex from Furies. Understood and hardly novel. Alex is at higher risk of infection but for what reason we do not know.
Was the writer trying to infuse an allegorical element that Furies could be but a series of evils affecting children like narcotics, crime or recklessness?
Is the short’s conclusion one must accept the evils and manage them instead of futilely trying to eliminate them?
What happens when one is infected?
Why is Alex at a higher risk of infection?
Am I just trying to invent these questions to give the film some meaning it may not possess?
Make your own decision.
Directed by Alice Barsby.
RKS Short Films Rating 65/100.
