How Long Should a Short Film Be for Submission for Film Festival?

HollyShorts Film Festival Daniel Sol answers the question of how length of film affects it’s chance of getting into festivals.

From personal experience – I’ve run a couple 20+ minute shorts through the process. It was tough as I only got accepted into about 1 out of 5 festivals – even though the film ended up winning a significant award at the festival it was accepted at.

You have to look at it from the programmer’s perspective. Short films are always shown in blocks (they aren’t usually combined with features) that generally last about 90 minutes or so. For a programmer, it’s better to cram as many shorts into that block. Getting eight 10 minute shorts means potentially 8 cast/crews attending the screening. Longer shorts means fewer films in the block and fewer potential attendees.

That’s not to say that it’s all about attendance, but this is one consideration programmers must keep in mind.

You can see more of Danel Sol’s interview at Film Courage