Michiel Philippaerts is a programmer and short film coordinator for Film Fest Gent, Belgium’s leading annual film event. He has curated and organised several local festivals in Ghent and serves as a critic for yanco and Talking Shorts. He also hosts the 2ANNAS Emerging Critics Workshop in Riga and has been a member of the short film commission of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) since 2021.
Michiel Philippaerts
Michiel Philippaerts 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 Michiel Philippaerts’s submission:
This list was assembled quickly and intuitively. I’m very aware of its Western bias and male skew, though I’m also a little proud to have exercised some self-control by not including any Buñuel - tempting as it was. I could easily have added three, especially Las Hurdes.
— Michiel Philippaerts| Movie | Original Title | Director | Country | Year | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Jetée | Chris Marker | France | 1962 | 28’ | ||
On the fragility of memory and fleeting time. Which is exactly what cinema is made of. |
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| Scorpio Rising | Kenneth Anger | USA | 1964 | 27’ | ||
I first discovered this film at eighteen, drawn by its strange mix of occultism and eroticism. Though already half a century old, it still felt dangerous—perhaps even more so after I delved into Anger’s life following that first viewing. |
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| Anticipation of the Night | Stan Brakhage | USA | 1958 | 42’ | ||
I’ve seen this film at least eight times, yet each rewatch feels like a first discovery. I imagine Brakhage experienced the world in the same way—always new, always overwhelming. The fairground sequence, with children rushing past, is nothing short of transcendent. No one captures the world’s mysteries quite like Brakhage. |
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| Talking Heads Gadające głowy | Krzysztof Kieślowski | Poland | 1980 | 15’ | ||
Early on, this film instilled in me the belief that the best short films are often the “simplest.” While that remains true, more layers seem to reveal themselves with age. |
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| Building of the Braves L'Immeuble des braves | Bojina Panayotova | France | 2019 | 22’ | ||
A comedy, thriller, and tragedy unfold before our eyes in real time, seen through the humanist lens of a documentarian who happened to be in the 'right' place at the 'right' time. |
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| Blue ตะวันดับ | Apichatpong Weerasethakul | France | 2018 | 12’ | ||
What to say? Joe is truly one of the greatest. On rewatch, I was reminded of David Lynch, and moved to realize that the specters of both filmmakers will forever haunt cinema. |
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| White Night Nuit blanche | Jean-Claude Rousseau | France | 2011 | 2’ | ||
A lamp, a horse, piano music. I’m very fond of the idea that small scribbles - short poems, if you will - can be great art; whatever that means. I discovered this little gem only a year ago but have watched it several times since. There’s something liberating about seeing a director simply play around. |
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| Meshes of the Afternoon | Alexander Hammid , Maya Deren | USA | 1946 | 14’ | ||
Caught in its eternal, labyrinthine loop. It would be criminal not to include it. |
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| Glas Glass | Bert Haanstra | The Netherlands | 1958 | 10’ | ||
Like jazz, Glass outshines—and offers an antidote to—mechanical precision. Long live humankind. |
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| Mast-del مست دل | Maryam Tafakory | Iran, United Kingdom | 2023 | 17’ | ||
Secret histories reveal themselves through Tafakory’s appropriation of Iranian national cinema. The first time I watched ghosts of love emerge from within the very images meant to suppress them, I was left speechless. |
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