Quantum Shorts finalists from around the world explore life and our universe through a quantum lens
From films that made them “laugh out loud” to those that were “painfully touching”, from the “slightly absurd” to the “brilliantly unexpected”, judges for the Quantum Shorts film festival have picked ten finalists and commended the diversity of entries.
The ten shortlisted films were chosen from 224 films received from 52 different countries during the festival’s call for entries in 2020. The task for filmmakers was to tell a quantum story in no more than five minutes of film. Filmmakers tackled the challenge in many thought-provoking ways.
“There was such a variety of entries, each with their own unique twist on quantum, it was a joy to watch them all,” said shortlisting judge Ruth Hardy at the UK Quantum Communications Hub.
The finalists are made in styles including live action, puppeteering and animation, across a range of genres. You can watch a comedic take on quantum superposition, immerse yourself in a suspenseful game of hide-and-seek, and solve a crime with quantum clues.
Among these creative takes on quantum physics, many of the films tell a human story. Joshua Slater at QuTech said, “I loved watching the films that explored the human side; how people act in a world where the weirdness of quantum physics is manifest around us,” he said. “Whether it is children, or beguiling young adults, or a future society, I can feel the imagination of those films opening up my own.”
Want to open up your imagination, too? We invite you to watch the Quantum Shorts finalists and vote for your favourite. The online public vote to decide the People’s Choice Prize is open until 28 February.
Meanwhile, our eminent judges will decide the festival’s First Prize and Runner Up, to be announced in March.
This chance at even greater honours comes on top of the prizes the finalists have already won. For making the shortlist, the ten finalists from Australia, Czechia, Chile, India, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States have won a $250 prize and a one-year digital subscription to Scientific American.
In alphabetical order, the shortlisted films are:
Watch the trailer, enjoy the films one by one, read interviews with the films’ creators, and see upcoming panel and live-screening events at shorts.quantumlah.org.
Congratulations to the finalists!
The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present.