Though separated by decades, shorts from Mikey Please and Ray Harryhausen demonstrate the handmade beauty of stop-motion animation.

Just in time for the holiday season, 2010’s “Miracle On 22nd Street” illustrates the virtues—and limits—of charity, and “Shopping Can Be Fun” offers a glimpse at the birth of the American shopping mall.

A retro-horror riff from the mind behind Hobo With A Shotgun and a classic Laurel and Hardy two-reeler make for appropriately violent Black Friday viewing.

In a 2006 short film, velociraptor, a robot, and two humans face off over desperately scarce resources in a parched alien landscape. Meanwhile, in 1959, an animated, car-shaped alien shudders over drivers’ selfishness and religious hypocrisy.

A semi-experimental 1987 cattle-ranching tale and a glossy, gorgeous 2013 fish story both look at people trying to survive in African countries, and finding that no solution and an instant solution each have their drawbacks.

A burned-out church and a castle on a hill provide destinations for films by Stephen Broomer and Man Ray.

This week’s matched pair of short films both feature Eastern European structuralist tendencies, which is another way of saying they’re quirky formalist experiments that involved an insane amount of precise, detailed work.

Two filmmakers, Drew Daywalt and Douglas Buck, make the domestic terrifying.

The spirit of Rod Serling informs two short films that use unexpected narrative and visual devices to keep audiences on their toes.

This week’s Short Cuts—now appearing every Saturday—highlights a pair of shockers, including a recent, low-budget effort and a vintage ghost story featuring Orson Welles.

This week’s shorts include a clever twist on the slasher genre and one of the cornerstones of modern Japanese horror films.

Two teams otherwise best known for their work in commercials find grace in unusual places—and push the boundaries of the form—in a pair of animated shorts.

Short films by Thorsten Fleisch and Ralph Steiner use electricity and machines to create otherwordly imagery.

Mary Helena Clark’s “Orpheus (Outtakes)” combines a Jean Cocteau film and a Keaton game-show appearance to eerie effect. Keaton’s genius is on full display in “Cops,” a 1922 short.

This week’s short films include a lyrical look at English teenagers and a 1960s Iranian doc filmed at a leper colony.

Two shorts, a recent reboot and an early throwback, show how different creators use Disney’s iconic mouse to very different ends.

Dash Shaw and Mark Osborne use alt-comics-influenced animation and claymation, respectively, to evoke very different childlike emotions.

Jodie Mack and Martha Rosler both created films that draw on the possibilities of collage.

Take a moment to watch a Chris Marker-inspired memory of Lisbon and learn the value of imports.

One of this week’s shorts turns Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor into unwitting co-stars. Also: Speeding vehicles on a terrifying loop!