Two hundred and ninety-five. That’s how many short films will be shown at this year’s ShortFest, Palm Springs’ short films festival. But how do you define a short?
“By our definition, anything under 40 minutes is considered a short,” says Sudeep Sharma, the festival’s director. “The average length of a short is about 15 minutes. But we’ll play stuff that’s 40 minutes, and we’ll play stuff that’s three minutes. It’s all over the place. I think the exciting thing about it is that there are so little rules about a short film – they could be about anything. The only unifying thing is their length. They could be a live action, a documentary, animation, etc. Because they’re short, they’re usually made by people trying to showcase their talent. There is a little bit more scrappiness, but that scrappiness leads to a more exciting and varied artistic experience than going to the movie theater. There is an element of ‘I don’t know what I’m going to get,’ except trusting the festival that they are going to curate the experience overall that will be enjoyable. Shorts films have always been how students and younger filmmakers could say, ‘I can do something.’”
Palm Springs is primarily known in the movie business as the home of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, held every January. It’s only natural that the landmark event would then expand into the world of short films.
“People come from around the world to the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January, and this strongly impacts our festival,” explains Sharma. “The way we think about ShortFest is as an incubator for directors, like film school or film camp. They are people trying to get into the industry, trying to show what their talents are, trying to get a voice. Most of the time, festivals might have a short sidebar. Like Sundance has a shorts selection, for example. At a feature festival, features obviously get all the attention. It’s the nature of what they are. Shorts don’t have the big press, industry and public, at major film festivals. But here since we’re only playing short films, the filmmakers get to have the whole festival experience. I’ve been working at the festival since 2013. I love the festival so much because the vibe is so great. There are so many shorts filmmakers who are just excited to meet each other and see each other’s films. Also, it’s near Los Angeles, so a lot of industry people come to the festival. There’s a summer vibe. There is an industry component, but we’re definitely thinking about the local audience. We want them to have a good time. It’s different than Cannes, Sundance or Toronto. We want people to come to the theater and buy tickets. We screen the films in 90-minute blocks that are thematically connected in some ways. We’ll have something about families, or about coming of age, or modern day America, etc. But within that package, you might be watching one film that’s 30 minutes long, and three that are much shorter.”
ShortFest has a large number of categories of films competing with each other. “We have five Oscar-qualifying competitions: best of fest, best live action over 15 minutes, best live action under 15 minutes, best animation and best documentary short,” explains Sharma. “We have other jury awards for the best international short, we have best US short, we also have a local jury picking a film around the idea of community. We have a young cineaste award, for teenagers/high school students. It’s one of my favorite juries. We have best comedy short and best LGBTQ+ and best midnight short. We have four audience awards: best animated, live action, animated and a kid’s choice award. It’s kind of fun; people get to rate the films.”
What’s next for ShortFest? Bigger and better things. “This year we had 5,800 submissions; it’s kind of incredible,” marvels Sharma. “Despite the pandemic, people are still making short films. They didn’t stop. We didn’t have an in-person festival in 2020, so we’re kind of going back to where we were in 2019 in terms of size and scale of the event. We want to keep developing and growing as the festival is getting more submissions, and maybe play more films. We’re playing 300 films, but we could play more. We want to grow the awareness about short films within Palm Springs, and internationally.”
SIDEBAR:
When thinking about the best short films of all time, Sudeep has five suggestions: 575 Castro Street, a film about Harvey Milk, World of Tomorrow, Isle of Flowers, Brotherhood, and Swedish film Juck Athrust.
ShortFest Returns to In-Person Screenings and Forum June 21-27
For additional information, visit psfilmfest.org/2022-ShortFest or call 760-778-8979 or 800-898-7256.
Location: Camelot Theaters (located in: Palm Springs Mall
Address: 2300 E Baristo Rd, Palm Springs
Phone: +1 760-325-6565
