The short film made its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on August 24, 2020,[1] where it also received the silver Audience Award for Best Canadian Short.[2]
Synopsis
Friends sometimes drift apart over time. Occasionally, they reconnect. Not always under the circumstances they may imagine.
A convenience store clerk is robbed at gunpoint. The gunman and the clerk recognize each other as old friends from high school.
The two reconnect on the floor of the store. The gunman reveals he sold his car to their mutual friend, Elijah, and came to rob the store on a bike. The clerk admits he was recently fired from his acting gig at an escape room. The two get into an argument after the clerk says the gunman went from being the coolest guy in high school to robbing a convenience store on a bike. The gunman retaliates by pointing his gun in the clerk's face until he apologizes.
The gunman tries to return the conversation to normal but the clerk angrily calls him out for threatening him. The gunman brushes him off, claiming the clerk's negative attitude is why they stopped hanging out after high school.
At that moment, the police show up as a result of the silent alarm being pressed, prompting the gunman to take the clerk hostage. When the police man enters, the clerk and the gunman recognize him as Elijah. The three stand in awkward silence while more police cars arrive outside.
On December 10, 2019, Wolfhard launched a fundraising campaign to produce the short film through Indiegogo, offering various incentives to those who donated[4] and attained its goal of $26,000 Canadian dollars in a day.[5]
The short was shot over the span of 12 hours in a Vancouver convenience store.[6] During filming, an attempted robbery occurred.[6]
Release
The film premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival on August 24, 2020.[1] It had its American premiere at the 11th Annual Atlanta Shortsfest on August 29, 2020.[7]
Night Shifts was also an official selection for the 2020 Calgary International Film Festival.[8]
The 2021 TIFF Next Wave festival presented a free screening for 45 minutes on February 13, 2021.[9] Wolfhard released Night Shifts on YouTube the next day.[10][6]
Reception
In a positive review, Kat Hughes of The Hollywood News rated the film 4/5 stars and stated that Night Shifts "demonstrates that Wolfhard has clearly been paying attention to the directors he has worked with as an actor" and found the dialogue to be "tightly written, funny, and conveys an impressive multitude of history and information in such a small amount of time" while adding that the film is "a clever and stylish little short that more than exemplifies that, should his acting work dry up, Finn Wolfhard has a promising career as a director."[11] Diego Andaluz of The Global Film Podcast praised Wolfhard's "witty screenplay" and felt the film "proves that [Wolfhard] may have quite a future behind the camera."[12]
The film received the silver Audience Award for Best Canadian Short.[2] Wolfhard received the Best Director award for Night Shifts at the 2020 Atlanta Shortsfest.[13]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
