Let's start the new year with something slightly different this time. So here you are, a little less reviewing and more viewing: a list with some of the most celebrated shorts ever - a few of them also being my personal favorites - including the film themselves.

I've come across them by browsing the website of an up-and-coming streaming site and event platform. ShortsUP is a relatively young project and does just what its name suggests: promoting short films in various contexts. Their major event is the annual Long Night of Short Films, which tours several cities in Romania, while the rest of the year is dedicated to Short Film Weekends and various thematic screenings in cinemas across the country. It's an open, dynamic project which grows with every short film fan willing to organize an event in their town.

The website itself hosts a decent number or short films grouped by category (comedy, tragedy, experimental etc.), all in full length. And while these are sometimes to be found on YouTube and the quality is often poor, they've nevertheless done the good job of collecting some really good short films and a few excellent ones (scroll below for the following five films in full length and prepare to be amazed).

Au bout du monde/At the End of the World (2000) is one of the funniest short films I have ever seen. The filmmaker takes a brilliantly simple idea: a house balancing on the top of a mountain and the result is sheer pleasure. It hasn't won every single international film festival for nothing.

J'attendrai le suivant.../I'll Wait for the Next One (2002) is another perfect short film and one of my all-time favorites. Gripping, intelligent, endlessly touching, and with the best ending ever, this French gem tells the story of a guy looking to find love on the metro. What he doesn't suspect though is that somebody else on that train is also desperately hoping for the same.

Equally surprising at the end, The Last Farm (2004) is just as good but devastatingly sad. It is a rare short, an earnest and unflinching look at old age, a topic which very rarely gets an earnest treatment, and sadly not just with shorts film. Beautifully acted and shot, this is mature, haunting filmmaking at its best.

Nuit blanche (2009) is a gorgeous, sweeping black-and-white fantasy from Canada, a lavish love story with an unmistakable nostalgic touch. This one is definitely for the romantics out there.

9 Meter (2012) the most recent darling on the festival circuit, winning one trophy after the other at the moment, is a strong youth film, a thrilling look at a teenage boy's struggle with his mother's disease. And the ending is so nailbitingly tense it won't leave you any second to breathe.

There are so many more good films on this platform, such as the dreamy sleepwalking fantasy Cashback, the ingenious drama Mr. Foley, or The Making of Longbird, a wonderful documentary on the creative process.

If there is one thing I find less exciting is that there are very few Romanian entries (and not the best for that matter) and considering how many good short films have been produced in this country, the organisers should remedy this urgently.

Other than that though one cannot but applaud ShortsUP's infectious enthusiasm for the genre. Let's hope they have some massive surprises up their sleeve for the new year.

By Ioana Moldovan, columnist, ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com