Matías
2025 · 3m · España
Directed by Nacho Guerreros
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
Just when you think you are starting a new life and everything is going well, life shows its hidden face and pushes you to the edge of the abyss — and Matías will be fundamental to the story.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise reads like every other 'life's cruel twist' short, which is exactly why I'm suspicious—but three minutes is a gauntlet, and if Guerreros pulls off something genuinely unsettling in that window, it'll be the economy of it that blindsides you.
A melancholic thriller working in miniature, *Matías* operates within the classical drama tradition of fate and reversal, though the craft question is whether three minutes allows for the measured build that makes such narratives resonate rather than simply shock.
What matters here is the single moment—the inflection, the edit, the sound cue—where the viewer's sense of safety collapses; Guerreros has built something that lives or dies on the precision of one tonal turn, and that's exactly where emerging directors prove their instinct.