Yearn
2026 · 4m · United States of America
Directed by Ben Smith
Genres: animation, romance, satire
Tones: darkly comic, surreal, whimsical
During an earthquake, two statues in an art museum finally hook up, defying the laws of religion, society and physics. A story of love, lust and the beauty of letting go of regressive messages about our bodies and desires.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A four-minute animation about museum statues fucking during an earthquake while sneaking in commentary on bodily autonomy and religious repression—this is the kind of absurdist premise that makes most programmers nervous and Felix absolutely feral. The fact that it's *working* as both surreal comedy and genuine satire means Smith's already three steps ahead of whatever safe shorts are getting the standing ovations.
The film's structural wit—using the earthquake as both plot device and metaphorical rupture of social constraint—shows awareness of its lineage in both animation satire and the tradition of inanimate-object-as-subject storytelling, though the execution would need to demonstrate the formal precision to elevate conceptual cleverness into something canonically defensible.
The specific choice to animate the statues themselves rather than anthropomorphize them into full character-acting is what gives *Yearn* its uncanny power—Smith's restraint in their movement and the sound design layered against the earthquake's chaos does more worldbuilding in four minutes than most shorts manage in fifteen.
Reviews
I love the way that humor can disarm and criticize, and wanted Yearn to do the same. Through this film, I'm processing and poking fun at the harmful messages that the church teaches about bodies, desire, and sexuality.