This season, the top honor at Cal Film Festival goes to Spare!, a sharp, darkly comedic short film written and directed by Jules Cales and Balthazar Ullmann (France). What begins as a grim assignment for two hapless henchmen ends in runaway chaos: a story about luck, desperation, and the irresistible absurdity of two men who stumble into fortune, only to find it more dangerous than they imagined.
From Bones to Bills: A Story That Breaks Bad in All the Right Ways
Spare! tells the tale of Phil and Barney, minor players in a Mafia organization tasked with burying a corpse deep in the woods. Their night gets wildly derailed when they discover a mysterious box filled with money — an unexpected windfall that promises escape, reinvention, and reckless abandon. As the night unfolds, their choices send them spiraling through a dangerous world of lavish impulses, paranoia, and violence. The film balances the tension of a crime thriller with absurdist humor, making the characters’ descent feel both inevitable and heartbreakingly human.
What makes Spare! stand out is how Cales and Ullmann treat Phil and Barney not as cartoonish villains, but as real, flawed, and deeply sympathetic “losers” — men who dream too big, mess everything up, but somehow refuse to give up. The directors describe the film as a love letter to imperfect characters, inspired by buddy comedies, gangster films, and the spirit of gritty noir, but always grounded in the human side of mistake and survival. That blend makes their misadventures tragic, funny, and surprisingly tender.
A Cast Built for Beautiful Chaos
The ensemble amplifies the story’s wild energy. Franck Bruneau brings Phil a stubborn charm that makes his delusions feel almost heroic, while Mickaël Etrillard plays Barney with the perfect look of a man constantly realizing he has made the worst possible choice. They’re joined by Dominique Frot, recently seen in Titane, whose commanding presence adds weight even in absurd moments, deepening the film’s offbeat danger; Alix Bénézech of Mission: Impossible – Fallout, as a determined police officer trying to piece together the night’s escalating chaos; and veteran actor Nicolas Briançon, delivering a sharply funny performance as a police chief fixated on impressing those in power, far more concerned with producing “results” than uncovering truth. Together, the cast creates a world full of people who believe they’re in control, even as the audience watches that illusion fall apart.
Craft & Ambition: A Short Film with Scope
Running approximately 35 minutes, Spare! dives into gangster tropes with the style and ambition of a larger production. The film uses energetic pacing, dynamic editing and a volatile atmosphere to create tension — yet never loses sight of its humor or humanity. The result is a cinematic experience that feels both tense and darkly comic, proving that short-form cinema can deliver layered storytelling with ambition and depth.
Filmmakers with a Clear Vision
Behind the camera, Cales and Ullmann show the confidence of a duo who love their characters, flaws and all. They first developed Phil and Barney years ago while studying at ESEC in Paris, but the project was paused by academic constraints and the pandemic. In the meantime, Ullmann refined his directing in Vancouver while Cales worked professionally on sets across France. Reuniting to finally bring Spare! to life, they’ve built a film that’s as ambitious as it is mischievous, a short with a considerable production behind it and a clear directorial identity.
Why the Jury Chose Spare!
For the jury at Cal Film Festival, Spare! represents the perfect balance of style, substance, and risk. It challenges the audience’s sympathy, makes them root for deeply flawed characters, and forces them to confront uncomfortable truths about morality, chance, and desperation.
More than that, the film’s tone captures the spirit of independent cinema: daring, unpredictable, and unafraid to embrace the messy complexity of its characters. In a season filled with strong entries, Spare! stood out for its freshness, energy, and willingness to spill blood, money, and hope, all within one tightly constructed short.
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