What is a Short Film?

Although there is no complete consensus as the definition of a Short Film, the widely agreed upon technical definition matches that of the OSCARs, "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits."

Traditionally, the term comes with an assumption that it comes as an addition to the showing of a full feature film. However, with the extreme growth of social media and video sharing platforms, such as YouTube and Vimeo, short films have gained more of an independence due to the increase in accessibility. A clear example of this was the viral animated short Kiwi! that has over 43 million views and counting on YouTube, made with no budget.

Often screened at film festivals, they are usually made by independent filmmakers for non-profit with a low budget or, in lots of cases, no budget at all.

Looking at the form in a more abstract eye, they often have a more concise nature with core statements or ideas being made quickly and succinctly, similar to that of short stories in literature and poetry. Returning to Kiwi!, for example, follows the simple idea of a flightless bird's dream to fly.