
NEWPORT FILM FEST IS SHORT FILM HEAVEN!
The Newport Beach Film Festival honors short films with more screen time than any other festival I've attended.
Over 200 short films are screening this year! And only fourteen percent of the shorts submitted to the festival are accepted! That number comes straight from Dennis Baker, Director of Shorts Programming.
The math is pretty simple: Over 1435 short films were submitted to the festival this year!!
Surely those short films that made the cut deserve some serious kudos. And it means, as a screenwriter, you should pay attention to the short form. Given the exposure you may get, it’s a viable ticket to “the show," a point of entry in a marketplace filled with gatekeepers.
Many of the shorts at this year's festival are written, directed, produced and sometimes star talented young people in the industry. Some are proving concepts and skills, and their “how-I-got-it-made stories” are perhaps as interesting as the stories they present on screen.
Stay turned for more on that. In my next article, I’ll focus on a handful of the shorts screened here, how they got made, got funded, and the inspiration behind them.
For now, I’ll tell you more of what I learned from Dennis on how these movies are presented to the public at NBFF.