5 Brilliant Films To Watch On Bang Bang, A New Youtube Channel For Animated Shorts

Back in 2020, we reported the launch of a Youtube channel dedicated to the library of Autour de Minuit, one of France’s pre-eminent distributors of animated shorts. Now Miyu Distribution, another major French player in this space, has followed suit.

Bang Bang is the rebranded hub for Miyu Distribution’s catalog, which includes festival favorites, Oscar nominees, and several films we’ve covered because we admire their boldness and flair. The channel already features 60-plus shorts that have completed their festival runs. Two more will be added each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

The films are organized into categories: documentaries, comedies, LGBTQIA+, etc. Many tackle adult themes and some skew very experimental, but there is also a section of family-friendly works. Filmmakers from France, Europe, and beyond are represented.

We’ve selected five great shorts on Bang Bang to start you off. If you like the flavor, head to the channel for more.

Maestro (Illogic)

Forest animals sing opera. That’s it. I remember this absurdist one-joke film well from its festival run: it always got a big laugh, refreshing the mood in the theater after the invariably darker shorts that had preceded it. Illogic, a French collective of 3d artists, previously made the Oscar-nominated Garden Party, which is also on Bang Bang.

Egg (Martina Scarpelli)

A woman struggles with anorexia in this autobiographical documentary-of-sorts, which is narrated by the director herself. Scarpelli’s obsession with her body’s form is echoed in the stark geometric design. Watch it here.

Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves (Chintis Lundgren)

This short is a characteristically ribald comedy from Lundgren — a preposterous porn parody told in a teasing pink-red palette. A brawny wolf secretly works as a gigolo, while his wife takes lessons in female empowerment from a feline dominatrix named Alexandra Horn-Eye. Just watch the film.

Grand bassin (Héloïse Courtois, Chloé Plat, Victori Jalabert, Adèle Raigneau)

A group of people spend an afternoon at the pool lounging, swimming, playing, and flirting. I love the easy flow of this film, the quirky sound design, and the imaginative shape language. Like with the other selections here, the concept lends itself perfectly to a short: it is a vignette, perfectly paced.

Per Tutta la Vita (Roberto Catani)

The camera roves through a morphing dreamscape in which every person, every thing, bursts with symbolic meaning. Catani’s unusual approach to volume and perspective is on full display in this virtuosic plunge into the imagination. Watch it here.

Image at top: “Per Tutta la Vita”