Underplayed Gems

Sardinia (2024)

Sardinia poster
Directed by
Paul Kowalski
Genre
drama, thriller, horror
Runtime
19 min
Rating
7.7 of 10 from 3 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

In a polarized society a serious man tries to avoid catching a deadly laughing plague. It is a satirical short film about dystopian division.

satiricaldarkly comicdystopiantensecerebralabsurdistbleakthought-provoking

What happens

Sardinia is a 2024 satirical drama short film written and directed by Paul Kowalski, about a serious man who tries to avoid catching a deadly laughing plague in a growingly polarized and dystopian society. The film is Executive Produced by Emmy-winner Patton Oswalt, and stars Philip Ettinger, Martha Plimpton, Olek Krupa and Breeda Wool. In November 2024, Deadline named Sardinia an Oscar front runner after it was long-listed for the 2025 Best Live Action Short Academy Award. The film had previously won Grand Prize Best Director at the 42nd Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival, after world premiering at the 2024 Indy Shorts film festival. In 2025 it was nominated for both Best Short at Raindance Film Festival and Aesthetica Short Film Festival. Patton Oswalt described the film "an effortlessly original piece of work" and "beyond timely”. Omeleto called Sardinia “beautifully crafted, intellectually irreverent and thought-provoking…a brilliant inversion of traditional dystopian tropes", likening it to "a modern Kafka fable for our times”. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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