Imagine having just 1 minute to tell a compelling story – complete with character development, editing, sound design, setting dialogue – one that resonates beyond just 60 seconds. The international one-minute film continues to the end of this month. For this year’s Filminute® edition, festival programmers initially screened over 1,500 films and animations from 60 countries (an increase of 33% over last year).

Ultimately, 25 were chosen by an international jury and are now available on the festival’s web site. The Filminute jury selects the “Best Filminute” as well as awarding five “Jury Commendations.” This year’s jurors include writer-director Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby), Taketo Oguchi (editor-in-chief and publisher of Japan’s SHIFT magazine), David Kennedy (co-founder of the Wieden + Kennedy advertising agency), and Dr. Andrea Dittgen (editor of the German daily, Die Rheinpfalz) .But, the public can also vote and select the “People’s Choice” winner.

So, in the spirit, here are my favorite 5:

• “Immerse” - Anton Groves (UK/Romania)
• “New Orleans for Sale!” - Brandan Odums (USA)
• “The Staircase” - George Mangalath Thomas (India)
• “Support” - Borkur Sigthorsson (Iceland)
• “Wall Street” - Gary Leib (USA)

And my choice for “Best Filminute”? Hands down: “Lovefield” - Mathieu Ratthe (Canada)