Weird Animated Short Film ‘The Bleacher’ – Extra Strange, Extra Dark
by Alex Billington
May 29, 2025
Source: YouTube
“Excuse me lady, have you seen my sock?” What strange creation is this? And where is that sock? A peculiar animated short film titled The Bleacher has arrived online. Created by filmmaking duo Nicole Daddona & Adam Wilder, who run a studio called “Magic Society Pictures” in New York City together, this short film originally premiered at the 2024 Sundance & SXSW Film Festivals last year in the Midnight Shorts section. It’s now available to watch for free thanks to our friends at Short of the Week. “Where do your missing socks go?” This very weird, very dark 8-minute animated short is about a woman known as “The Bleacher” who is looking for her missing sock at a laundromat. She gets sucked into the laundry machine then ends up in her own subconscious – where she encounter a very creepy singing dolphin. But, uh, why? Starring the voices of Kate Micucci, Ben Sinclair, & Sky Elobar. It’s best to not try to describe anything else about this, you just have to experience it yourself. And make sense of it on your own. Bravo to Nicole & Adam for creating something I’ve never seen before with some of the strangest visuals I’ve encountered. A dolphin nightmare.
Thanks to Short of the Week for the tip on watching this short. Intro via SXSW: “Frugal Wash, a self-service laundromat, draws a diverse, often unhappy crowd, including Rita Riat, ‘The Bleacher‘. Rita’s hunt for her missing sock spirals into a crisis, suspecting either the oddball patrons or the faulty machines. Her search leads her inside a washing machine, plunging her into her subconscious. She encounters a dolphin-man in a limbo of lost socks. Their surreal interaction, a mix of seduction and discovery, distorts reality, revealing the stark truth behind Rita’s life and the crucial, blood-stained sock she must recover.” The Bleacher is written and directed by very unique filmmakers Nicole Daddona and Adam Wilder – together they run “Magic Society Pictures” based in NYC. To view more of their film work, visit their Vimeo page or follow them on IG @magicsocietypictures or visit their official website. Produced by Zeus Kontoyannis, with music by Josh Ascalon. This premiered at the 2024 Sundance & SXSW Film Festivals last year. For more info on the short, visit the film’s official site or click over to SOTW. To discover more short films, click here. How was that? 🐬
 |
