Small Short (formerly SmallShorts) is an international student festival of screen arts that has showcased short films by emerging filmmakers from around the world since 2019, exploring the movement of young cinema.
The HSE Art and Design School student film festival, «Smol Short, ” is a direct continuation and a new phase in the life of the SmallShorts student festival.
The project first appeared 9 years ago at the Faculty of Free Arts at Saint Petersburg State University under the name SmolShorts and included only experimental categories. The team and the design changed every year. In 2024, SmolShorts moved to the HSE Art and Design School under the new name SmallShorts and began accepting not only experimental short films. Despite many seasons of restructuring, the target audience has always remained the same: students, applicants, debut filmmakers, emerging writers, as well as those who seek them out—directors, critics, and industry experts.
In 2027, the festival will host its eighth edition, a platform for bold ideas, valuable networking, and vibrant debuts. Here, you will connect with potential friends and colleagues ready to share experience, skills, and creative energy.
In the 2026–2027 contest years, the festival gained a parallel program that includes screenings, sessions, lectures, and discussions. With different themes presented across various venues, the festival is expanding its reach and incorporating new formats.
Screening of a short film program by directors of American eco-avant-garde, accompanied by a live musical performance
October 29, a new parallel festival program opens featuring a short film screening by American eco-avant-garde directors, accompanied by a live musical performance. The screening will take place as part of a new exhibition at the HSE ART GALLERY, dedicated to current forms of sound art in Russia.
Works by Anna Kipervaser, Erin Espelie, Caryn Cline, and Archer Boyette are tactile, handcrafted cinema. The artists explore film itself as a material: they utilize botanical collage, journals, phytograms, scrape the emulsion, and work with archival footage to examine the fragile connections between humanity, science, and nature.
The films will be screened alongside a live musical performance by sound designer Tani Khalbaeva.
Tani Khalbaeva — an artist and graduate of the HSE Art and Design School’s Sound Art and Sound Design program, she is a participant in the 61st Venice Biennale and creates spatial multichannel sculptures. Her work explores ambient and drone genres, employing field recording and audio collage techniques.
Show curators: Dmitry Lukyanov and Natasha Lyutik
When?
October 29th at 7:00 PM
Where?
Design School Gallery — TsID Vinzavod, 4-y Syromyatnichesky Pereul., 1/8c6 (Entrance 3)
Screening of the film «Modulations» followed by a discussion with the filmmakers
«Modulations» (1998) is not merely a film—it is a genuine cinematic manifesto (as the title suggests: «cinema for the ears») that recreates the complete evolution of sound with surgical precision and wild rave energy. The work masterfully weaves together diverse eras: from the rigorous academic experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen and the inventions of Robert Moog to the underground clubs of Detroit, psychedelic industrial, and the stadium mania of The Prodigy and Aphex Twin.
When?
November 7 at 7:00 PM
Where?
TSIKL Space
24/7 Pravdy Street
Follow the official website for updates on new screenings from the parallel program of the Screen Arts Festival, Small Short, and other events hosted by the School.
