This document provides information about short film distribution and festivals. It lists the top 5 international short film festivals, including Sundance and Cannes. It also lists several UK short film festivals, including Raindance and London Short Film Festival. Details are provided about the London Short Film Festival, including dates, awards categories, venues, and attendance numbers. The document discusses online distribution options for short films on YouTube and potentially Netflix. It provides examples of award-winning short films like Selfie and Mermaid, and how the short film Lights Out was adapted into a feature film. In summary, it outlines major short film festivals, distribution methods, and examples of acclaimed short films.

1. Short film distribution

2. Short Film Award Festivals
These are the top 5 short film festivals -
• Sundance Film Festival (USA)
• Cannes Film Festival (France) – for shorts under 15
minutes only
• Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films
(USA)
• Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
(France)
• Aspen Shortsfest (USA)

3. UK short film festivals –
• Raindance Film Festival - Oscar qualifying
• London Short Film Festival
• Edinburgh International Film Festival
• London Short Film Festival
• Manchester International Film Festival
• Encounters International Short Film Festival - Oscar
qualifying
• Leeds International Film Festival
• Aesthetica Film Festival

4. London Short Film Festival
• 6th- 15th January 2017
• This year was the 13th annual festival they have hosted
Awards included –
• Best British Shot Film
• Best International Short Film
• Best Animated Short Film
• Best Experimental Short Film
• Best Cinematography
These are just a few

5. Some Venues –
• ICA
• Hackney Picture House
• Oval space
• You have to pay to be in the Festival
2016 –
• 0ver 10,000 tickets sold
• 1500 UK and international submissions
• Over 450 films screened

6. Online distribution
Short films can be distribute in many ways, often they
don’t go straight to cinemas because of how niche
audiences can be and especially because of the length of
some of these films. Short films can be easily found on
sites online such as YouTube, this is free for the
producers and allows for the films to be seen globally.
It is not yet common for Short films to be on streaming
sites such as Netflix, obviously this could change if a
short film was a massive success.
Distribution of short films depends on whether any
distribution companies are willing to for short films that
may not ever be recognised globally or create much
success.

7. Award Winning Shot Films
SELFIE –
• 2015 production
• Aghaaz productions
• Selfie is a short film based on daily incidents faced by
every 'common man'. It shows how what people thing
of us effects us and can change how we feel about
ourselves.

8. Mermaid –
• Nominated for an Oscar in 1997
• Directed By Aleksandr Petrov
• ‘An elderly monk, while training the young novice who
will succeed him, recalls the mysterious lost love of his
past – just as his young successor appears to be
encountering her himself.’
• This was a Russian short film
• It was a silent animation

9. Short films can be used as
a pre-sales technique to
fund future feature films.
An example of this would
be lights out.
Lights out – was turned
into an American
supernatural horror film in
2016 it was based on
Sandbergs 2013 short film
with the same name.
This is the famous 2013
short film

10. Short films tend to be only recognised globally/
internationally when they get turned into successful
feature films that can be shown in cinemas both
multiplex or independent.
The success from the short films can be used to fund the
success of the longer feature films, because these short
films may have established an audience already it makes
the producers of the feature film aware of what sort of
audience they are targeting and this can help them to
make the film as successful as possible.