SHORTS COLUMN | "C. Beck," "Bullet Proof," and "L.A. Noir" Take Top Prizes at Independent Lens Online Shorts Fest

Independent Lens has finished tabulating the viewer votes for its second annual "festival at your fingertips." While the curators of Independent Lens and the Online Shorts Festival jury both decided to honor short documentaries with their grand prizes, the audience award went to a narrative film, "L.A. Noir," Conrad Jackson's mystery starring Jennifer Lopez's ex-husband, Cris Judd. The shortsfest distributed a total of thirteen thousand dollars in cash prizes to an eclectic collection of eleven independent documentary, live action, and animated shorts, with a $2,500 grand prize going to Deb Wallwork & Mike Hazard's portrait of a Minnesota regional artist, "C. Beck," and a $1,500 grand jury prize going to May Lin Au Yong's look at a California neighborhood under siege, "Bullet Proof Vest."
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SHORTS COLUMN | Oscar-Nominated Short Film Directors Bask in the Spotlight

On Tuesday, February 19, 2008, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Curtis Hanson hosted the Academy's pre-ceremony screening of the nominated live action and animated short films. With directors and producers of eight of the ten films in attendance, the sold-out event was a rare opportunity for the filmmakers to see each other's work and for the audience to hear what inspired these Oscar-caliber stories. The one-time-only gathering also drove home the point that none of this year's honorees are from the United States, and only one producer and one director have ever been nominated before. "We are seeing the future," announced Hanson in his opening remarks to the program, which lasted over four hours, including two panel discussions and an intermission.
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SHORTS COLUMN | Short Film Superstars of 2007

2007 has been a very good year for short film viewers. Not only did the festival circuit deliver another amazing crop of winning films, every exhibition format offered up something remarkable to watch. Two hundred movie theaters nationwide unspooled Paris-themed shorts directed by the Coen Brothers and other A-list directors. Network television debuted a short filmmaking competition during prime time. iTunes allowed almost half a million people to download a Wes Anderson mini-movie for free. And 35 million viewers clicked on Funnyordie.com to see Will Ferrell get upstaged by a two-year old. For those who may have missed these shorts the first time around, here is a round up of the superstars of the past twelve months.
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SHORTS COLUMN | Rare and Unseen Short Films Find a Home on the McSweeney's Wholphin DVD Label

Spike Jonze's portrait of 1999-era Al Gore, Alexander Payne's student film, and a four-minute piece directed by Steven Soderbergh simply titled "Building No. 7," these are just a few of the shorts to be found on Wholphin, a DVD series created by Brent Hoff and Dave Eggers of McSweeney's. With the fifth issue scheduled to be released in January 2008, Wholphin programmers are holding the first ever Los Angeles live screening on November 27, 2007. In addition to reviving Chris Waitt's "Heavy Metal Jr." from Issue No. 4 and previewing shorts off the upcoming Issue No. 5, the event promises to be a grand celebration of the McSweeney's imprint named after the offspring of a whale and a dolphin.
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SHORTS COLUMN: East Coast and West Coast Bust Out Signature Short Film Showcases in October

Three years ago, a group of filmmakers in New York City decided to create a Big Apple-based short film festival, which they nicknamed NYC Shorts. This year, the 3rd annual installment of the New York City Short Film Festival takes place October 24 - 27 with 17 of the scheduled 31 shorts slated as NYC premieres. Coincidentally, earlier this month on October 9th, a group of Los Angeles-based filmmakers held the third incarnation of a short film showcase they founded called Direct from the Mailroom. These two opposite-coast events share a common mandate: they're organized by short filmmakers, for the benefit of short filmmakers.
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SHORTS COLUMN | British Filmmakers Reign Supreme at North America's Three Biggest Short Film Fests

From June 12 to 17, the Canadian Film Centre hosted the 13th annual Worldwide Short Film Festival, inviting 265 shorts from more than 30 countries to screen in Toronto, Ontario. Two months later in California, 332 films from over 40 countries screened at the 2007 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films (August 23-29), followed a month later by 700 shorts at the 11th annual LA Shortsfest (September 5 - 17). With such an overcrowded field, it's remarkable that UK filmmaker Simon Ellis walked away with both the Best Live Action Short Award at the Canadian fest and the Best of Festival laurel at Palm Springs for his fifteen-minute drama, "Soft." While Ellis went empty-handed in Los Angeles, London-based commercial director Daniel Barber received LA Shortfest's Best of the Fest nod for "The Tonto Woman" while Donald Rice made some noise with his Best Comedy Award-wining UK short "I Am Bob."
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SHORTS COLUMN | Summer Shorts: Beat the Heat with Two Online Short Film Festivals

During these dog days of summer, air-conditioned movie theaters function as an oasis for those eager to escape the sweltering heat. Viewers of short films, however, aren't restricted to the multiplex when they want to enjoy a cool cinematic treat. They can chill out anywhere, thanks to SXSWclick and IFC.com/Rooftop Films. These two online summer shortfests offer up a combined total of 115 shorts accessible via cell phone or laptop. So if you're looking to avoid the summertime blues, skip the overcrowded cinema and watch shorts on your iPhone at the venue of your choosing. Pinkberry, anyone?
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SHORTS COLUMN | "Pariah" Leads The Pack of Outstanding Shorts at Outfest '07

Outfest '07, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival running July 12 - 23, boasts twelve short film programs brimming with what the festival's website optimistically labels as "world premieres." One such gem, "Pariah," actually made its local debut a few weeks earlier at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where it walked away with the Audience Award for Best Short. And while a few other of the festival's supposed world premieres are actually unspooling in Hollywood after already having played Toronto's Inside Out, New York's NewFest, or San Francisco's Frameline31, premiere bragging rights are inconsequential when Outfest programmers have once again assembled such a world-class collection of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered-themed shorts.
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SHORTS | "The Animation Show" Back for Thirds

"The Animation Show 3," an international collection of short films personally selected by animation icons Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt, is currently touring cinemas across the country, attracting fans eager to catch Hertzfeldt's "Everything Will Be OK" on the big screen. While the 2007 Sundance jury award-winner is the show's biggest draw, the feature-length theatrical program also offers 2-D and CG shorts by animation heavyweight Bill Plympton and up-and-coming stars like Oscar-nominee Shane Acker.
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Short Docs Shine at the Inaugural Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival

This month the acclaimed ITVS/PBS showcase "Independent Lens," which bills itself as "the film festival in your living room," launches its first annual Online Shorts Festival, debuting a stellar array of short documentaries on its website and rebranding itself as "a film festival at your fingertips."
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SHORTS COLUMN | Reasons to be Thankful: Ten Dazzling Short Film DVDs

As the holiday season fast approaches, short film aficionados should be saying grace and giving thanks for the bounty laid out for mass consumption. While everyone can enjoy the never-ending feast of mini-movies available online, true connoisseurs will want to devour the latest offerings on DVD. And what an amazing buffet there is: from timely holiday fare from photographer/filmmaker William Wegman to tasty treats from animator Don Hertzfeldt. If you're wondering what to put on your holiday wish list, look no further than these ten recent DVD releases.
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SHORTS MONTHLY: Graduating with Honors: 17 Shorts Go Primetime on "Fine Cut: KCET's Festival of Student Film"

Each year the many top notch films schools that populate the Los Angeles area book the Directors Guild of America Theatre on Sunset to showcase their students' thesis films to the industry at large. Now, thanks to "Fine Cut: KCET's Festival of Student Film," there's no need to drive to the DGA in order to check out the work of the latest diploma-clutching filmmakers. Every Thursday at 9:00 p.m. during the month of October, Southern California's esteemed PBS station is broadcasting an hour-long block of handpicked student films and then streaming them for the worldwide audience on its website.
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Believe the Hype: Ten of the Most Buzzed-About Films from Two of Southern California's Largest Shortfests

Recently Palm Springs and Los Angeles each hosted behemoth international short film festivals, presenting a combined total of 993 shorts to sell-out crowds at the Camelot Theatre and ArcLight Hollywood, respectively. With such an overabundance of riches, festival-goers in each city relied heavily on word-of-mouth recommendations to separate the must-sees from the also-rans. Here (in alphabetical order) are ten films that generated massive buzz while playing both the 12th annual Palm Springs Internationl Festival of Short Films (August 24-30, 2006) and the 10th annual Los Angeles International Short Film Festival (September 5-14, 2006). Keep an eye out for them as they continue to cut a wide swath through the festival circuit.
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Popular Vote Agrees with George Lucas and Jurors in Two Internet Short Film Competitions

On July 20, 2006, over 4000 people squeezed into an auditorium at San Diego's Comic-Con International to hear the announcement of the winners of the fifth annual Star Wars Fan Film Awards. Approximately 10,000 people voted on the AtomFilms website to give the Audience Choice Award to "Pitching Lucas," an eight-minute short directed by Shane Felux. In a surprise move, George Lucas also picked the same film for his George Lucas Selects Award, a first in Fan Film history.
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NEW THIS WEEK: Short Films Among New Movies in Theaters

A number of short films are among the new movies opening in theaters. A collection of international short films are part of New Yorker Films' "The World According to Shorts," including Hugo Maza's "La Perra" from Chile, Daniel Askill's "We Have Decided Not To Die" from Australia, Andreas Hykade's "Ring of Fire" from Germany, Hans Petter Moland's "United We Stand" from Norway," Adam Guzinski's "Antichrist" from Poland and Jane Malaquias' "The Old Woman's Step" from Brazil. While Picture This Entertainment's "Boys Briefs 4" includes movies about hustlers, among them Welby Ing's "Boy", Greg Atkin's "Build", Armen Kazazian's "Gold", Tony Krawitz's "Into the Night", Bastian Schweitzer's "Gigolo", and Mary Feuer's "Rock Bottom." Both collections of short will be available in other cities in the coming weeks.
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SHORTS MONTHLY: The Long Shadow of the Quay Brothers: The Maverick Animators and their Devotees

Everyone discovers the short films of the Brothers Quay in their own unique way. I was first clued in by Terry Gilliam back in 2000. "You must know the Brothers Quay," the ex-Python proselytized. "The Quay Brothers are identical twins from Philadelphia who have lived in England for something like 20 years. They do stop-motion animation, and it's like Polish filmmaking. It's wonderful, brilliant stuff."
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SHORTS MONTHLY: Ten Hilarious New Shorts From the Fest Circuit

[EDITORS NOTE: Kim Adelman will be writing a monthly short film column for indieWIRE.] Every year Aspen, Colorado plays host to two stellar showcases of top-notch short films. At the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, held March 8th - 12th, 2006, funny flicks were to be expected. But it was the 15th annual Aspen Shortsfest, which took place April 5-9, that most recently had festival-goers rolling in the aisles. While the Aspen Shortsfest's jury lauded the laugh-out-loud funny "The Danish Poet," "Heavy Metal Drummer", "Eramos Pocos," and "Badgered," there were many other films that tickled the audience's funny bone.
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