In all fairness, the title of Scott Rice’s Perils in Nude Modeling was what initially drew us to this inventive, funny, and slightly creepy 2003 short. Yes, there is a naked chick in this film, but there’s a whole lot more, too: It’s part thriller, part comedy, and part existential allegory, in which a young man in a take-no-prisoners drawing class races against the clock to stay one step ahead of his sadistic teacher, all the while trying to avoid the siren's call of the gorgeous nude model standing in the center of the room. Rice, who is also an award-winning commercials director and creator of the hit web series Script Cops, uses mostly close-ups to build tension, and the stylish results are effective and beautiful. The short is suspenseful and strangely abstract — like an art film hijacked by Michael Bay, but in the best way possible.

This film was a finalist for a Student Academy Award in 2003 (along with another film by Rice, The Adventures of Mad Matt, which was apparently something of an Academy first) and screened at numerous film festivals, winning a slew of awards along the way. This and Rice’s other shorts are available on a DVD compilation available through our good friends at Indiepix. Check his films out — the dude’s won something like 85 awards.