Watch: ‘Last Year’ Narratively Time Travels to Explore One Relationship’s Drama and Deliverance

Why Watch? Like Michael Haneke at Cannes, the team at Finite Films always has a place here at Short Film of the Day to showcase their latest work. For the uninitiated, the highly creative and highly collaborative bunch takes “constraints” from their fans and builds a movie around them.

This time, they have to deal with making three of the characters siblings that live together and to place each scene exactly a year from the previous scene amongst a handful of other rules which shape a loving, complicated relationship dramedy. Last Year comes with equal parts frustration and joy. Some of the acting is a bit stagey, but the overall effect is solid, creating a tone that draws in all the anticipation of a New Year countdown and leaving off-balance emotions feeling warm and fuzzy by the end (even if it’s just the couple’s beginning).

What will it cost you? Only 6 minutes.

Skip work. Watch more short films.

Scott Beggs: Movie stuff at VanityFair, Thrillist, IndieWire, Film School Rejects, and The Broken Projector Podcast@brokenprojector | Writing short stories at Adventitious.