It seems almost impossible to compress the depth and complexity of a good science fiction movie into a short film of no more than 15 minutes. However, every good storyteller knows that the key of success resides in the execution, or in other words, length doesn’t matter as much as how you tell a great story. There are dozens of high quality short Sci-Fi films scattered over the net, like jewels in a coal mine, that prove this statement. We know that taste is something personal, but we want to show you five Sci-Fi films we think are totally worth your time if you’re a fan of scifi.

Rise

The robots that humanity created have started to develop consciousness. Tensions start to build between both groups till war breaks out. Humanity thinks it has the advantage, but one robot is going to show them that they have bit off more that they can chew. The worldbuilding shows us a setting marked by chaos and injustice with amazing visual effects. The late Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin makes us sympathize with the plight of the robots with his fantastic acting. Rise is one of the best shorts available in Dust, the first multi-platform destination for sci-fi short films. The short has been directed by David Karlak, a science fiction enthusiast who has also directed The Candidate. Rise has been optioned for a larger feature by Warner Brothers

State Zero

The capital of Sweden has turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland following what looks like a pandemic. Four soldiers must embark on a routine mission in ‘zone 3’, with the objective of investigating an old surveillance tower that just went offline. If you’re rolling your eyes, let me tell you it will subvert your expectations. It’s the first project of director Andrée Wallin, who also wrote, and production designed it. It’s produced by Claire Fleming, the film was shot in London with an international cast. The exteriors were shot in Stockholm. The VFX is done by Bläck (blackstudios.se)

The Leviathan

In the future, faster than light travel is possible by obtaining the organic matter of the eggs of the leviathans, giant whale-like creatures that live on the stormy clouds of a remote planet. As you can imagine it’s not an easy job. It’s one of those flicks that must be seen just for the fantastic visuals. It was directed by Ruairi Robinson, but this is not his first entry into sci-fi. He also directed the sci-fi feature film The Last Days on Mars, starring Liev Schreiber, and another acclaimed sci-fi short film: BlinkyTM. He developed this short as a proof-of-concept. 20th Century Fox has purchased the film rights. They started its development as a full feature film shortly after that.

Abe

Now here’s a disturbing little film if we ever seen one. What happens when you program a robot to love, but people don’t love him back? We’ll let you figure that out. The beauty of this movie is in the monologue of the robot. Despite its inhuman nature, actor and writer Sam Hoare manages to fill him with a disturbing amount of humanity. It was directed and written by Rob Mclellan, who also wrote Strings, a feature spec script about time-traveling thieves. MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-MayerIt) has acquired the rights to turn it into a feature film.

Empsillnes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwULnw5iobk

We couldn’t finish this list without Empsillnes, and animated science-fiction drama made in Poland by director Jakub Grygier. The music and sound were created by compositor Pawel Gorniak. The story follows the last survivor of a destroyed spaceship who’s trying to fix his ship in order to go back to Earth with his beloved. The animation effects and graphics are simply gorgeous to look at. The way it captures the aftermath of a space battle has nothing to envy from the best sci fi films. It’s not hard to see why it won the award for Best CGI at 2015 SCI FI Film Festival. The story doesn’t have dialogue, but it doesn’t need to. It’s bittersweet, haunting, and beautiful at the same time.