Film Festivals and Short Film

There are hundreds of film festivals globally each year which are either aimed specifically at short film or have categories for shorts. These are mainly where short films are now showcased, and where young directors go to get recognised.

The Raindance festival, which is held at different times around the world shows, is specifically aimed at celebrating and showcasing short films. With categories such as "best international short" and "best documentary short" the Raindance festival features short films from all around the world and has categories to showcase pretty much all film genres, including animation and documentary categories.

Other world recognised film festivals such as Sundance and Cannes, which are famous for showcasing feature length films, also now have special categories for shorts. For example the short film 'Short Term 12, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, won the Jury Prize in U.S. Short Filmmaking at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

It is important for aspiring directors, such as Cretton, to get their shorts into such festivals as there is the potential to be scouted by studios, who sometimes fund potential future directors to create more films.