Annie-Claude Caron and Danick Audet, Canada 2023

DEAD CAT is a darkly comic film about–you guessed it–a dead cat. Winner of the Best Narrative Short Award at the festival, this quirky little film tells the story of two parents trying to figure out how to break the news to their daughter that the family cat is in fact dead. The cat gets run over by a car at the very beginning of the story, so there’s no question whether or not the cat is deceased, but as we see the daughter carry the body of her cat up to her room, dripping blood everywhere on the way, it’s hard not to laugh in disbelief at the absurdity of the situation. When the parents discover their daughter and the dead cat in her room, they are justifiably horrified and don’t know what to do. They decide to tell her they can fix the cat and have it taxidermied. Acting like the cat is still alive they encourage their daughter to treat it just like she normally would, and she appeases them, petting it, feeding it and even bringing it to school. It’s hilarious and clever and also oddly sweet to see what lengths the parents will go to in order to protect their daughter’s innocence as long as they can. In the end, the film reminds the audience–with a wink–that feeling grief is natural and healthy, and ultimately coming to terms with death is just a part of life. (KL)