The Most Exciting Woman-Directed Films At 2018's Palm Springs Shortfest

The universal rule of film festivals is that there's always too many good films, and never enough time. Even if you expertly jam-pack your schedule, you'll only be able to fit five movies into your day. Imagine, then, having 333 options to choose from — the precise abundance facing attendees of the 2018 Palm Springs International Shortfest, which concluded on Sunday. Festival-goers watched the short films, which ranged from five to 20 minutes in length, in 90-minute chunks.

Refinery29 produced three movies in the festival as part of our Shatterbox program, and we were in good company. The woman-directed movies at the festival ranged from daring and disturbing to poetic and imaginative. Here's an overview of the best of the bunch, which include fiction, documentary, and animated films. Keep an eye on these filmmakers – eventually, you might see them on the list of Oscar-nominated shorts.