What is a short film?

 What is a short film?

The Oscar definition for a short film is: 'an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits'. Whilst, the maximum length is roughly 40 minutes most short films fall in to the category of being between 5 and 20 minutes. Due to their limited running time, short films tend to have smaller budgets and therefore smaller casts and crews. Short films are less concerned with making a large profit and are therefore usually done in an amateur-fashion or without support from large studios. As they are not intended to be box-office hits with mass audiences, there is more room for short films to be experimental and odd with lesser known actors as there aren't millions of dollars on the line. Once again due to a shorter running time, short films tend to have less complex and more concise plot lines compared to feature-length films and therefore include quicker character introductions and scene setting so as not to use up what little time they have. Short films accommodate all kinds of audiences as they can fall into any genre in the same way a feature-length film can however, short films tend to draw in smaller audiences made up of largely film-fanatics as they won't necessarily be shown in large cinemas. Short films can be sourced on a variety of streaming platforms such as YouTube but are also featured in film festivals depending on the quality of the film.

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