So why are short films important?

5 Mar

All of this talk about short films, what is so important about them? You don’t get to see them as much at the cinema, you wished that “My Octopus Teacher” had gone on for another 3 hours - so why are short films culturally important?

I pestered my new best friends at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival to see what they think:

Julie Roussan - Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market, France

“Short films are culturally important because they are a form of artistic expression free from the economic constraints that can weigh down the feature film circuit, for example. This makes films more experimental, more creative, and the messages more liberated. That's what I love most about shorts: their freedom of tone. And shorts are very contemporary mirrors of the world we live in. There is immediacy, a desire to be a witness to the world around us in its immediacy.”

Julia Kühne Escola - AG Kurzfilm, Germany

“You have so many possibilities. In education, for example, if you look at schools - to work with a shorter film is so much easier than with a longer film, because you have just one hour to do your stuff and you can watch a film, but you can't discuss it really well.”

Zidni Rizky Rahmatullah - Filmmaker, Indonesia

“It's important because it's condensed, not just opinion or argument, but it's about potential. It speaks from a little angle that nobody hears. Yeah. We’ve all heard about the big industry films like Hollywood, they have the market…the money, but short film is all about the creativity of the filmmakers, (it’s) about their anxiety, their opinion, their mind.”

Yoro Mbaye - Dakar Court Film Festival, Senegal

“To me short films are very good because as a young director it helps you to measure your capacities, what you know about cinema, and it helps you to do experiences in many things and it allows also for people to discover you.”

Kate Ianiuk - Ukranian Film Agency, Ukraine

“It's a great start for people who see themselves in the industry generally, and also the form of the short film doesn't give you any restrictions about how to make your idea real. So you can improvise, you can try anything, you can be free in your creative visions.”

Khozy Rizal - Filmmaker, Indonesia

“I think like most of the filmmakers, especially the young filmmakers (in Indonesia), I think their literacy of short films is getting more rich. They watch, they really watch and keep up with the latest short films and it stimulates them to make something really fresh. This medium is special. It has so much freedom in it. And (Indonesian filmmakers) just started to be more expressive and be more experimental. And with so many new things, they let themselves to be authentic.”