Vincent - Tim Burton (1982)

Before he made Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Batman Forever, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter....., Tim Burton revealed his hand in this stop-motion animation film - made when he was 23 - in which a young boy dreams of being horror legend Vincent Price.

It was not his first short film but it introduced him to the wider film world as a darlky humorous director, which would lead on to his first successful feature film, Beetle Juice.

B-Class Cultural Heritage - Yuji Hariu (2014)

Written and directed by Yuji  Hariu, this winner of Audience Award for Best International Short at 2014 Florida Film Festival is about a young skateboarder who accidentally lands on a manhole, which in fact is a cultural artifact protected by a shadowy underground association.

For stepping on this manhole, the skateboarder is subjected to an unexpected and possibly deadly penalty.

Junya Kasuga plays the skateborader. The short is produced by Han Sang-Keun.

Masterchef - Ritesh Batra (2014)

1 of 5 films created for an innovative awareness campaign funded by the Sundance Institute in association with the Gates Foundation, Masterchef  by Ritesh Batra (Director of 'The Lunchbox') is a simple but elegant story of poverty, gumption and the power of dreams.

The project, the Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge, is a mixture of commissioned work and a film contest, dedicated to “inspire discussion, shift perception and dismiss stereotypes of poverty and hunger.”

Sundance and the Gates Foundation are inviting filmmakers the world over to participate by sending in short film submissions. 5 winners will be selected, each receiving $10,000 and a trip to Sundance 2015 where their films will be screened.

For more info:   http://tongal.com/sundance

A Therapy - Roman Polanski (2012)

A short film written and directed by legendary filmmaker Roman Polanski for PRADA, an Italian luxury fashion house. Starring Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham Carter.

Lights Out - David F Sandberg (2013)

Directed by David F Sandberg. He won the award for Best Director in the 2013 Who's There Film Challenge.

Elefante - Pablo Larcuen (2014)

This dark comedy from Spain is about a man who is stuck in a boring job, has only one friend whom he cannot stand, and his family despises him. But everything is about to change.

Directed by Pablo Larcuen.

Freiheit - George Lucas (1966)

Freiheit (German for “freedom”) is a 1966 short film by George Lucas - his first work. It follows a student’s (Randal Kleiser) attempt to escape to freedom - trying to run across the Berlin border, but ends up being shot in the chest and side gut and is mortally wounded. While he dies, he thinks about dying for freedom. It was made while Lucas was a film student at the University of Southern California. He was 22 then :)

The Big Shave [Viet '67] - Martin Scorsese (1967)

The Big Shave, also known as Viet '67, is a 1967 six-minute short film directed by Martin Scorsese.

Wikipedia says:
"Peter Bernuth stars as the recipient of the title shave, repeatedly shaving away hair, then skin, in an increasingly bloody and graphic bathroom scene. Many film critics have interpreted the young man's process of self-mutilation as a metaphor for the self-destructive involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, prompted by the film's alternative title. The music accompanying the film is Bunny Berigan's "I Can't Get Started", recorded in 1937. The film was produced at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for a film production class called Sight & Sound Film."

Amblin' - Steven Spielberg's First Short Film (1968)

Amblin' is the first completed short film written and directed by Stephen Spielberg. Produced by Denis C. Hoffman, and photographed on 35 mm by Allen Daviau .

Glas (1958)

'Glas' is a beautiful short documentary on the Glass industry in the Netherlands by Dutch filmmaker Bert Haanstra. It contrasts the process of making hand made glass from the automated bottle making machines at the Royal Leerdam Glass Factory.

'Glas' won an Oscar Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1959. First watched it during my student days in Manipal.

An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962)

I remember watching this on a VHS projection during my Post Graduation days in Manipal - 1997-98. Mr. K.Hariharan, a veteran teacher of Film Studies, had visited our campus with a collection of great works on celluloid, and this gem was one among them - a classic, Oscar winning short film directed by Robert Enrico, based on the American Civil War stories of Ambrose Bierce.

For The Birds - Animated Short - USA

Black Button - Australia