History of Short Films

The first ever film made was a short made in 1895. Workers Leaving the Factory by the Lumiere Brothers was a short film around 39 seconds in length. However it was not classed as a short film at the time as the genre of short films was not established until after the introduction of feature length films in the early 20th century. The first films were short because of technological restrictions.

"The Classical Narrative"(90 minute films), were introduced by the cinema's to increase profits, meant that there was no longer time for shorts alongside feature length films and shorts were subsequently axed from cinemas.

As mainstream cinema and the classical narrative came into effect and short film was pushed aside by the mainstream, short film became a niche cinema and found a new home as a new medium for artists in experimental artistic movements such as Avant-Garde cinema.