Short Film Festival

Short film festivals are patterned after full-length film festivals such as Cannes and Sundance, with the main difference being that short films—films that are usually less than 40 minutes in length, and oftentimes average around 15 minutes in length–are shown and judged. This type of filmmaking is popular with up and coming filmmakers who want to showcase a taste of what they have to offer. Short film festivals are held throughout the world and accept international entries for judging.

Some of the Best Known Short Film Festivals—

The LA Shorts Fest in Los Angeles, California—The largest short film festival in the world held annually in July. This past year, the LA Shorts Fest showed more than 280 short films, which included commercial ads and music videos, all within a one-week period. The festival this year drew some of the biggest names in the film and music industry including, Scarlett Johanssn, Courtney Cox, Kevin Bacon, Isabella Rossellini, Nick Cave and Michael Stipe.

The Manhattan Short Film Festival, New York City, NY—This is another well-known short film festival which runs for a week every September. This year’s motto was “One World-One Week-One Festival. Films at this festival are simultaneously shown at venues throughout North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Central America, Australia and the Middle East.

Movie Extra Tropfest-Australia, Sydney, Australia—Tropfest also calls itself the largest Short Film Festival in the World. This annual event takes place in February, and has been doing so for 18 years. The event is free to the public and can draw crowds of upwards of 150,000 people in one night. This festival is a more casual event than those held in L.A. and New York.

What You Can Expect to See at a Short Film Festival—

You can expect to view shorts films on literally any subject, from fiction to non-fiction to science fiction. You’ll also see animated shorts, as well as music videos and the occasional commercial advertisement. You’ll also see plenty of A-list celebrities, many of which star in, or have a stake in, the films being shown.

Just about every major city in the world has its own annual short film festival and some festivals are centered around a specific genre such as Science Fiction or Documentaries. Go to http://www.insidefilm.com/calendar.html and scroll through the various film festivals to find out where the next short film festival is being held closest to you.