One more thing SXSW has triggered: a newfound rediscovery of the power of the short film. At “South By,” that film was mostly a well-funded Canadian film called Hiro—a well-shot, well-crafted live-action piece heavily inspired by Asian manga and anime. (Hiro also won the SXSW short competition.) But compared to the year before, when only one short (Termination, by Paul Alvarado-Dykstra) rose well above the typical first-year film student level,...