Short Film Festival Websites and Examples

http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/best-short-nominations/

- London Short Film Festival

Examples of the nominated Best Short Films:

YOU'RE THE STRANGER HERE (Tom Geens) - This is a story about a middle-aged woman with a crazy leg. She lives in a fascist regime where people with her condition get shot on the spot. Inspired by the courageous death of one of her fellow sufferers, she goes on an all or nothing quest to change the world, falling in love with her executor in the process.

LAST TRAIN (David Schofield)- This is a short film about a couple catching the last train home, and the quietness of the night is broken by a crowd of boisterous teenagers. Jay (the main male role) begins to become paranoid with their presence and looks as though he sees the group of boys as a threat.

The short film does not have much dialogue, but we can tell what is happening by the facial expressions and body language. This creates the tension and intrigues us to know what will happen next.

THE WAKE (Loren Slater/Kerry Kolbe)- 'The Wake' is a short film set on a small fishing boat in the wintry dockland and channel in the North Sea. It looks at the nature of friendships and how they play out under the influence of unspoken values and decisions.

Why are short films good for directors?

Short films are a good start for directors because it allows them to be noticed and gives them a good head start before producing a longer film. This makes the director more well known so as more of their films are released they become more and more popular. Here are some examples of directors who have gone on to do more after releasing their first short film:

Across The Hall (Alex Merkin)- This short film ran the film festival circuit, and was compared to a modern day Hitchcock film. He has now gone to do produce an expanded feature length version of the film noir thriller.

George Lucas In Love (Joe Nussbaum)- With this short film, Joe Nussbaum has gone on to win several awards including, Best Short Film, Audience awards and Film Discovery Jury award. He has directed 6 other films; Prom (which is currently being produced this year), Sydney White, American Pie - The Naked Mile, Cinema6 (American Short films), Sleepover and ZeD. This shows us how successful Joe Nussbaum has become because a lot of these films have been very well known and popular throughout the world.

I'm Here (Spike Jonze)- Spike Jonze is the most well known director out of these 3, in all directing 34 titles. Some of these include: Where The Wild Things Are, Adaption, The Vampire Attack and Jackass.

These three directors show us how they can go from producing a short film, to directing some of the most well known films across the world.