Movies in 35 Minutes or Less

By Rom Watson
c. April 19, 2013

If you work a full time job, by the time you get home and eat dinner it’s often too late to watch a movie.  However, there are quite a number of full-length feature films with running times of less than ninety minutes.  My original idea for this article was to list the best less-than-ninety-minute movies that I’ve seen, to serve as a handy reference for those times when you want to watch a movie but need to get to bed early.

However, when I went to the Internet to research the running times of certain films, I discovered that many people had already posted their own lists of superlative less-than-ninety-minute movies.  Lists that included most of the movies I wanted to recommend, such as High Noon, City Lights, Laura, The Magnificent Ambersons, Airplane, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Stand By Me, Paths of Glory, The Palm Beach Story, Lady from Shanghai, Sleeper, etc.

So, I will recommend only a few less-than-ninety-minute movies, ones that might be overlooked:

Portrait of Jennie (86 minutes)
The Iron Giant (86 minutes)
Chicken Run (84 minutes)
The Kid Brother (82 minutes) (Silent)
Bachelor Mother (82 minutes)
James and the Giant Peach (79 minutes)

If you’re really pressed for time, consider:

Bride of Frankenstein (75 minutes)
The General (75 minutes) (Silent)
The Bank Dick (72 minutes)
Christmas in July (67 minutes)
Dumbo (64 minutes)

Since my original idea had already been taken, I decided that, rather than focusing on feature-length films, I would instead write an article about short films.

Films less than thirty-five minutes in length.

When I went to the Internet to research the running times of the short films I had in mind, I discovered that many people had already posted their own lists of superlative short films.  However, they mentioned only two or three of the short films I want to recommend, so I am posting my own list.

In the list below, O indicates the film won an Oscar, O-N indicates the film was Oscar-Nominated, and A indicates the film is Animated.

These are my favorite short films, listed in chronological order:

The Band Concert (1935), 9 minutes, A
Mouse Wreckers (1948), 7 minutes, O-N, A
Rabbit of Seville (1949), 7 minutes, A
Duck Amuck (1953), 7 minutes, A
The Face of Lincoln (1955), 20 minutes, O
The Red Balloon (1956), 34 minutes, O
What’s Opera, Doc? (1957), 7 minutes, A
The Dot and the Line (1965), 10 minutes, O, A
The Dove (De Duva) (1968), 15 minutes, O-N
The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977), 7 minutes, O-N
Special Delivery (1978), 7 minutes, O, A
The Big Snit (1985), 10 minutes, O-N, A
The Wrong Trousers (1993), 30 minutes, O, A
A Close Shave (1995), 30 minutes, O, A
Election Day (1997), 20 minutes, directed by Michael Spielberg (no relation to Steven)
The Chubb-Chubbs (2002), 5 minutes, O, A
9 (2005), 11 minutes, O-N, A
Our Time is Up (2005), 14 minutes, O-N
The Lady and the Reaper (2009), 8 minutes, O-N, A
Logorama (2009), 16 minutes, O, A
Miracle Fish (2009), 18 minutes, O-N
The New Tenants (2009), 20 minutes, O
The Confession (2010), 26 minutes, O-N
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011), 15 minutes, O, A

(The Red Balloon won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.  The other winning films listed above won for Best Short Film, either live action, animated, or documentary.)

Many of these short films can be viewed on YouTube.  However, they may have been uploaded to YouTube more than once, so before viewing a film, make certain you select the version with the clearest picture.

In looking over this list of twenty-four short films, one thing stands out:

No matter how hectic and busy our lives become, there is always time for a good story.