Film festivals are a way for film makers to exhibit their work, and to win awards based on the best aspects of it. There are a lot of film festivals in existence and many are dedicated to all different types of films such as feature films as well as short films. From entering their films at film festivals, aspiring directors and producers can get publicity and even funding for future films.
The London Short Film Festival is a ten day film festival with 42 events spanning across ten venues such as Shortwave Cinemas and the famous Roundhouse. Over 200 films are usually screened at the festival, and in January 2010 the festival returned to London for it's seventh edition.
‘Cannes may have Borat in a thong, Sundance may have condiments with Robert Redford’s face on them, but only the freakiest film festival in town can offer pole dancers and a film competition judged by Larry Clark. How d’you like them apples, London?’ - Empire
This is a quote from Empire, a renowned magazine for film and cinema fanatics, showing their appreciation for the radical and weird festival that can only be found in London once a year.
The festival itself was organised by founders Phillip Ilson and Kate Taylor in 2003, who called it the Halloween Short Film Festival. It was renamed to the London Short Film Festival in 2008. It's very simple to enter films to this festival, they can be sent off via post or even online. If a film is under 5 minutes in length, and cost less than £500 to produce, there is a 'lo-budget' category which can be entered for free.
The idea of the Miami Short Film Festival was brought up in 2002 when actor and producer William Vela produced a short film with director Eric Rubalcava. They spent half of a year shooting the production, called "360˚" and after it's completion Vela began to organise a screening to show the finished project to his friends, family and the actors involved. As the word of this spread around, more aspiring film makers asked if it was possible to participate with their material and thus began the first night of the Miami Short Film Festival.
William Vela convinced a local college to provide a venue so that the festival could be an annual event to showcase only short films in south Florida.
By 2008, the festival had grown to include more venues including the Bill Cosford Cinema, the Miami Beach Cinematheque and it's home at the Tower Theatre. Since 2008, a variety of different short films have been showcased at the Miami Short Film Festival, including films that had won prizes at famous film festivals such as Sundance festival.
The awards presented at the Miami Short Film Festival are:
- Best of Fest
- Best Foreign Film
- Best Animation
- Best Experimental
- Best Documentary
- Best Narrative
- Best Environmental
- Best Local
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