Jeffrey Bowers

Despite this year's overall horribleness, it's been a great year for short films. Out of the 2,000-plus I've seen this year, here are my 13 favorites.

We spoke to filmmaker Jim Cummings about his award-winning film 'Thunder Road' and how he got the rights to use the Springsteen classic that inspired it.

'Manoman' follows a meek man and the living, naked, hairy embodiment of his inner id down the path of testosterone-fueled destruction.

While America watched as riots tore Los Angeles apart, a nine-year-old Nathan Silver inadvertently reinterpreted the country's turmoil into his first film during his birthday party.

'Krisha' is a home movie, of sorts, that takes place in the literal home of director Trey Shults' mother. His real-life aunt plays the titular, drug-addled character, and Shults himself plays her estranged son.

In 'Fools Day' a class of fourth graders make a crazy coffee concoction that ends up killing their teacher in a mind blowing explosion of guts and blood. They're left to clean up the mess and avoid getting caught by the D.A.R.E officer.

'Florence Has Left the Building' is a VICE Shorts exclusive about a rebellious older woman, a nursing home, and two Elvis impersonators.

In 'How to Be a Reality TV Star,' filmmaker John Wilson documents a day at the unaccredited New York Reality TV School.

In 'Gutpunch,' 15-year-old Adam discovers that his biological father could be any one of the desperadoes from a 1980s video-dating tape and embarks on a suburban quest to find the man he can now call 'Dad.'

Filmmaker Nikias Chryssos said he wanted to replicate the experience of children's educational programming, but for adults.

In 'teeth,' filmmakers Daniel Gray and Tom Brown take us inside a mouth punished by caramel apples, fist fights, and painful dental visits.

Konstantin Bronzit's animated film 'We Can't Live Without Cosmos' is as much about space travel as it is about the human condition.