Vimeo has issued their top 25 films of 2009 which includes the above music video for British alternative electro group Cinnamon Chasers.

Despite being a music video for a song, the audience quickly forgets as the storytelling takes hold. Shot on a Canon 5D Mark II, with a custom face-mounted rig for a first-person view, the video plays out a butterfly effect scenario of three variations of the journey a couple take together after meeting at a gas station. All three versions end badly.

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

Amazing, but terrifying at the same time.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift launched a competition in 2008 inviting aspiring filmmakers to write a treatment based around one of three global issues – War + Peace, Gender + Power and HIV + Stigma. Those who won would be given the opportunity to bring their treatment to life on the big screen. In addition to being provided with a budget and cast, the prize included the money-can’t-buy opportunity to be mentored by some of the UK’s finest directors such as Aoife McArdle, Chris Harding from Shynola, Kinga Burza, Paul Andrew Williams and Jim Threapleton.

The winner was the above short entitled No Way Through which highlights mobility restrictions imposed in the West Bank, that are limiting its habitants’ access to health care, thus violating a fundamental human right.

Since being uploaded in early November, Lucas Martell’s animation short Pigeon: Impossible has gone viral. But what most people don’t know is that he has been vlogging his progress for over a year on his YouTube channel, and has quite a large following.

The winning formula for this shortfilm is the pigeon character. The modeling, texturing and animating for the rest of the objects in the sequence are very professional and well thought-out, but the mischievous pigeon’s movements are believable and comical, the success of which is down to Lucas’ study of real pigeons, as shown in one of his podcasts.

A rookie secret agent is faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.

This is the trailer for the up and coming Iron Man sequel with appearances from Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), along with Iron Man’s partner War Machine (Don Cheadle).