Laura Stöckler is a researcher and writer whose work centers on time-based media, embodiment, and cultural theory. She earned her master’s degree in Literary and Cultural Studies with a thesis on body-horror aesthetics in contemporary short film. Her research is grounded in close attention to filmic detail and the operations of cinematic form, a perspective that also informs her writing for magazines such as Talking Shorts. She currently works in dramaturgy while developing a dissertation on the entanglements of film, technology, and world-making.
Laura Stöckler
Laura Stöckler participated in “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025, a first-ever poll of its kind as a collective love letter to the art of short-form moving image. yanco and Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, in collaboration with Talking Shorts, invited filmmakers, curators, distributors, critics, and scholars worldwide to nominate 10 audiovisual works under sixty minutes that they personally consider the “greatest” of all time. This was Laura Stöckler’s submission:
| Movie | Original Title | Director | Country | Year | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucifer Rising | Kenneth Anger | USA | 1974 | 29’ | ||
It is hard to recommend this film, though it is also hard not to. |
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| The Debutante | Elizabeth Hobbs | United Kingdom | 2022 | 8’ | ||
| Asterión Taurophilia | Francesco Montanger | Czech Republic, Slovakia | 2022 | 15’ | ||
There is something so magical about this short that I keep coming back to it. The combination of atmosphere and tone, the beautiful (though at times graphic) images and the decision not to use sound. |
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| Incident by a Bank Händelse vid bank | Ruben Östlund | Sweden | 2010 | 12’ | ||
| Backcomb | Sarah Pucill | United Kingdom | 1995 | 6’ | ||
| You Hide Me | Nii Kwate Owoo | Ghana, United Kingdom | 1970 | 16’ | ||
| The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for Mabel Dove | Nnenna Onuoha | Ghana, Germany | 2024 | 15’ | ||
A playful tale in the style of ciné-roman, infused with resonances to La Jetée. Very topical to the issues of history-making and the many still-pervasive blank spaces |
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| Chime | Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Japan | 2024 | 45’ | ||
| Tintenkiller | Veronika Schubert | Germany | 2009 | 4’ | ||
| Death of the Sound Man หนังสั้น อวสานซาวน์แมน | Sorayos Prapapan | Myanmar, Thailand | 2017 | 16’ | ||