up for air
2025 · 1m
Directed by Jordyn Shen
Tones: contemplative, tender
In the midst of toil at sea, a turtle yearns for a moment of relaxation.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A minute-long meditation on a turtle taking a breath—it's so deliberately small and gentle that it almost feels like a rebuke to the spectacle-hungry festival circuit, which means it'll probably infuriate half the room and haunt the other half.
Shen's restraint recalls the Japanese animation tradition of finding profound stillness within constraint; the formal choice to let the moment breathe rather than narrate it situates this firmly in a lineage of contemplative shorts that trust the image.
That one decision to hold on the turtle's exhale—the tiny animation choice of how the breath leaves the body—transforms what could've been a greeting-card premise into something genuinely affecting and alive.