BFF 2025 | Short But Sweet 

Another month, another batch of short films. And I couldn't be happier about it.

This year, I think I've watched more shorts than any other in my—admittedly short—existence. I've fallen for the art form in a big way, so I was really excited to check out some of the entries in this years Breakthroughs Film Festival (this one takes place in Toronto instead of Vancouver, so I feel like I'm really starting to branch out).

The amazingly named BFF is a short film festival which champions female and gender non-conforming filmmakers. I watched four of the twenty films entered into this year's fest, and each told unique stories, but at the center of all of them was a character who felt out of place in the world around them.

What they felt alienated by varied from story to story; misogyny, the crush of red tape and city life, building management set on destroying their one piece of home. One thing that BFF has certainly done is bring forth stories about trying to find your place in the world. Stories that come from the margins and help the audience look at the world around them with new eyes.

Let's dive in.

Your Own Flavor

I'm not going to lie, I picked this one because of the puppet.

I was intrigued by the Sesame Street-esque aesthetics of Your Own Flavor, and its sunshiny exterior is used for maximum effect. But instead of teaching me to spell or share, this short's lesson is all about the perils of modern dating.

The film opens with Renee, who has just been stood up by yet another jerk from the apps. Dejected, she heads home. On her way through the park, she runs into the local ice cream man, a bright pink puppet named Chompers. At first, Chompers is the prototypical nice guy. He and Renee bond over the fact that everyone is like a flavour of ice cream; someone's favourite.

The juxtaposition between style and subject made me laugh out loud, but it also managed to get under my skin. If you want to know what it's like for women to be dating right now, then Chompers is a prime example. Not even a cotton candy blue mohawk and an adorable felt nose can hide what's going on beneath the surface.

And Granny Would Dance

The music and the unique animation style are the standouts in this short. Through these two mediums, we learn about the main character's family history, and see her life through the innocence of a child's eye. And Granny Would Dance is a whimsical and sweet story about love, loss, and the power of memory. One thing is for sure, by the end you will definitely want to call your grandma.

The film succeeds in creating a feeling that many will be familiar with. Sitting in the house while the adults were talking, listening with rapt attention to their conversations. The film brought back vivid memories of evenings from my own childhood, when I would sit in the corner while my mom and her friends knit or play cards. I greedily soaked up the stories of these women I looked up to, just as the girl in this short hangs on every word spoken by her relatives. And Granny Would Dance does a wonderful job showing what the child's eye doesn't quite catch, but more importantly, the things that they see.

The short is very sensorial. Music, chatter, and an art style that seems to move and breathe in the frame make this an incredibly tactile watch. Rich colours imbue it with a warm and cozy feel, and the small details bring this specific afternoon to life, though the story itself is a universal one.

Mawtini (My Homeland)

The synopsis said that this film was about two women fighting against their building management, so obviously I was sold. There is no love lost between myself and landlords of any kind, and I was excited to see what this film had in store. Whatever expectations I had, I was looking in the wrong direction.

In the film, Nawal, a young woman from Palestine, bonds with her neighbour Tanya over a makeshift garden that the two plant in their building's courtyard. Much to the ire of the building manager, the two women tend to the plants each day, in a small act of defiance which represents so much more to both of them.

Tanya is an older Indigenous woman, and though she doesn't want to talk about her past, it is clear that there has been much loss in her lifetime. Nawal knows that feeling all too well. One woman from Palestine and one woman from Canada share a history full of displacement, cultural erasure, and loss of home.

Though it was the longest of the films that I watched, Mawtini had me engaged from the opening shot to the time the credits rolled. It is a simple story which stands for so much more. I went into the film hoping to see two women rebel against authority in a punk rock kind of way. While I certainly did get that, there was so much more planted beneath the surface that I didn't expect.

S.A.D.

S.A.D. hit me like a slab of grey concrete, especially right after the time change. Now that it gets dark at 4:30, it's getting harder to get out of bed, and problems which would have felt minuscule a few months ago now feel like they are too much to bear.

Vanessa's problems are far from minuscule. As winter begins to fall on Toronto, she is isolated from her family back in Brazil, is in the midst of apartment hunting, and juggling school and work in order to earn her second Bachelor's degree. She needs a degree for PR, she needs PR to get healthcare, and while she battles S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) she needs healthcare to get anything done.

The vicious cycle of red tape and alienation beat down on Vanessa and the audience throughout the film. On top of that, the constant barrage of city life. Grey monolithic architecture, constant noise, and especially the everyday tragedies of systemic inequality only serve to make her feel worse. I saw myself in Vanessa's attempts to not let the everyday hardships of life beat her down.

This film could very easily have slipped into overwrought cliche. Though it stumbles occasionally, the empathy it has for its main character, and the performance at the center of it, made this a cathartic watch. S.A.D. is a deeply human story and will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has lived in a city, dealt with the immigration system, or felt like their life is spinning in endless circles.

Breakthroughs Film Festival runs from Friday, November 21 to Sunday, November 23 in Toronto.

S.A.D. will play as part of The Truth Bleeds program on Nov. 21st at 7pm at the Paradise Theatre in Toronto.

Your Own Flavour, Mawtini (My Homeland), and And Granny Would Dance are part of the Too Much, Not Enough program on Nov. 22nd at 7pm at the Paradise Theatre in Toronto.