Short Short Story Film Festival
How do filmmakers tell a story in under six minutes?
Not trailers, music videos, PSAs or experimental projects, but honest-to-goodness beginning-middle-end stories?
The Short Short Story Film Festival is a competitive international festival of films that tell a story in under six minutes, celebrating brevity in filmmaking with both live-action and animated films.
Two programs, Heartstrings and Headtrip, both showcase dozens of films tightly sequenced in under ninety minutes, each with a distinctive tone yet wide-ranging styles and topics.
Short short attention spans welcome!
As of 2023, The Short Short Story Film Festival is a BIFA-qualifying Film Festival. Visit the British Film Institute to find out more.
The 2024 festival is now accepting submissions. Click here for details.
You can also find out about the 2023 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 under six minutes, 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 emotional nature - either poignant or charming.
The second program, the Headtrip Program, presents forays into bizarre or unsettling territory.
Each program has between 15 and 20 films, with a typical running time of around 80 minutes. It is hard to narrow it down to this number from hundreds of 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 typically screens at one or two locations per year, in late November.
The locations have been as follows:
- 2023 - Hartford, CT (details)
- 2022 - Bethel, CT (details)
- 2021 - All Stars Edition, Virtual (details)
- 2020 - Cancelled due to Covid pandemic
- 2019 - Providence, RI (details)
- 2018 - Providence, RI (details)
- 2017 - Providence, RI (details)
- 2016 - Providence, RI and Worcester, MA (details)
- 2015 - Worcester, MA and Providence, RI (details)
- 2014 - Providence, RI (details)
- 2013 - Pomfret, CT and Providence, RI (details)
- 2012 - Concord, NH and Providence, RI (details)
- 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, has an audience award. Those attending at the various festival screenings select their three favorite films from each program. The films with the highest cumulative total from all screenings is the award winner.
For each of the two programs, a jury panel consisting of guests from our film interview program Spoiler Alert Radio will review and select their favorites.
Additionally, awards are presented in unique categories such as Mind's Eye or Petit Prose.
Each award is a hand-crafted commissioned art object made by a previous festival filmmaker.
Unless otherwise indicated, all films are eligible for any awards.
Click the links at the top left to see award winners and judges for previous years.
(+) How can I submit a film to the festival?
We usually accept submissions in September and October.
We do not charge a fee to submit to the festival.
Read more about the submission process by clicking here.
(+) 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 at:
mergingartsfilmMergingArts@MergingArtsgmailMergingArts.MergingArtscom