Short Short Story Film Festival
How do filmmakers tell a story in five minutes or less?
Not just trailers, music videos, PSAs or experimental projects, but honest-to-goodness beginning-middle-end stories?
The Short Short Story Film Festival celebrates brevity in filmmaking, featuring films from across the globe, lovingly harvested by the folks here at MergingArts Productions.
From mini-documentaries to sentimental melodramas to black comedies to animated horror, the festival features succinct presentations of all kinds of short film stories.
Short short attention spans welcome!
Learn more about the 2011 festival here.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Festival
(+) What does the name mean?
The term "short" for films can be broadly interpreted. Many festivals have "shorts" that are over half an hour. To emphasize the fact that our films are all five minutes or less, we call them "Short Short" films. The "Story" emphasizes the fact that these are not experimental pieces, which many very short films are. Our films emphasize a narrative despite their brief running times.
We felt that in a typical film festival, short short films get "buried" amongst feature-length or longer short films.
We wanted to give them a unique place where their strengths could be most appreciated - hence, the Short Short Story Film Festival was born.
(+) What do the film programs consist of?
The festival consists of two distinct programs of short films.
The first, the Heartstrings Program, includes stories of a sentimental nature - from bittersweet comedies to documentaries about struggle to tales of love and loss.
The second program, the Headtrip Program, presents darker, edgier works - black comedies, horror, as well as a number of films which defy easy categorization.
Each program has between 15 and 20 films, with a total running time of 80 to 90 minutes. It is hard to narrow it down to this number from our many fine submissions, but we have found this is plenty of material to present to the audience without overwhelming them.
(+) Where and when does the festival take place?
The festival screens in select cities and towns in the northeastern United States. The festival screens at between one and three locations per year, on weekends in November.
The locations have been as follows:
- 2011 - Hartford, CT and New Bedford, MA (details)
- 2010 - Waitsfield, VT; Easthampton, MA; and Concord, NH (details)
- 2009 - New York City and Providence, RI (details)
- 2008 - Concord, NH and Brattleboro, VT (details)
- 2007 - Providence, RI (details)
Is there more to the festival than just films?
(+) Does the festival have awards?
Each program of the festival, Heartstrings and the Headtrip, will have an audience award. Those attending at the various festival sites will select their three favorite films from each program. The films with the highest cumulative total from all sites will win the award.
Other award winners will be determined by a panel of judges for unique categories such as Mind's Eye or Petit Prose. Awards judges are recruited from a variety of professionals in visual, musical, and literary arts.
Unless otherwise indicated, all films are eligible for any awards. Award categories are subject to change each year to reflect the nature of films submitted.
Award winners will each receive a certificate and a unique award object.
Click the links at the top left to see award winners and judges for previous years.
(+) This FAQ is kinda small, isn't it?
We prefer to think of it as a Short Short FAQ.
If you do have any questions, you can contact us here.