What is a Short Film?

Background:
Short Films have exsisted and been popular along side Feature Films throughout the early days of cinema. In the 1920's especially, short films of the comedy genre were increasingly popular, with the early work of Charlie Chaplin being one of the most popular among that time. Cartoon shorts also proved to be very popular, especially in the 1930's during the Great Depression, and are even enjoyed by younhg children today. Cartoon shorts such as 'Woody Woodpecker' and 'The Pink Panther' that were made in the late 60's-70's that were so popular that they are still often consumed and enjoyed today via children's TV networks.
Animated Shorts still continue to dominate the Short Film industry, with animation giants such as Pixar producing Short Films to display before screenings of their Feature Films. Other large companies such as Disney have also been known to produce Short Films, or 'Short Subjects', such as 'Mickey Mouse', which then developed into a full series of Shorts about 20 minutes each in length.

Defenition:
A film that is not long enough to be considered a Feature Film, usually lasting between 5-40 minutes. Anything longer than 40 minutes is then considered to be a Feature length Film. Anything less than 4 minutes could still technically be seen as a Short Film, but they are sometimes reffered to as 'Short-short Films' and are considered as a different category.

Reception:
Short Films are often shown right before a company plays its Feature Film. An example of this would be Disney Pixar, who since 1995 have created animated short films to screen before the showing of their actual animated film. Some include 'Day and Night', which was shown before 'Toy Story 3', 'For the Birds' which was shown before screenings of 'Monsters Inc', and more recently 'Blue Umbrella', which is currently being shown before Pixars latest feature, 'Monsters University'.

"Day and Night"- Disney Pixar

Short Films tend to rely on Film Festivals, such as Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival to gain recognition from the public. Film festivals allow people to see recent short films or short films made by a particular director or that are part of a particular genre that is being celebrated. Short films are also eligable for awards at prestigious award ceremonies such as the Oscars and the Golden Globe awards, however their awards aren't as well known as the major awards and aren't as publicly known.


-KW