How do filmmakers tell a story in under six minutes?

Find out at the 16th annual Short Short Story Film Festival.

About the Festival

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.

The festival returned to Connecticut on Saturday, 25th November, at Cinestudio on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford.

Since 1970, Cinestudio has been known for its diversity of programing, legendary projection, and superb sound quality, including a recent 4K Digital Cinema system.

Festival Wrap-up

The 16th edition of the festival played to enthusiastic crowds, and we want to thank everyone at Cinestudio, especially Doug, for making the day run smoothly, and to everyone who came out to support the festival.

In total, 35 films were screened, from more than twenty countries on six continents, with 23 films making their US premieres, and seven world premieres.

Click here to see a list of festival films.

Two programs, Heartstrings and Headtrip, both showcase dozens of films tightly sequenced in under eighty minutes, each with a distinctive tone yet wide-ranging styles and topics.

Audience Awards

Audiences voted on their three favorite films to determine award winners in each program.

For the Heartsrings program, the audience selected by Spanish director David Montero's Otra historia de esas, a wry comedy where a young girl has nightmares, but the stories her father tells her don't make it any easier to sleep.

For the Headtrip program, the audience selected Fár, by Iceland's Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter, about a woman's response to a bird's hitting the window of the café where she's having a business meeting.

Jury Awards

A panel of film industry professionals, previously interviewed on Spoiler Alert Radio, reviewed the films in each program. Click here for a complete list of jury members.

For the Heartsrings program, the jury selected Reincarnation Mall, by Piers Goffart and Eric Giessmann (Germany), about a grumpy man who learns a lesson about karma through a unique shopping experience. Eric previously won the Headtrip Jury prize in 2018 for Sand Wanderer.

For the Headtrip program, the judges agreed with our audiences (the third time this has happened) that Fár, by Iceland's Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter, was the best film.

Commissioned custom art objects created by past festival participants are presented to the winners. See pictures of these unique creations by clicking here.

Festival Press

The festival got a write up and recommendation on patch.com.

Festival History

The festival has taken place every November since 2007 (except for a Covid hiatus in 2020), in cities and towns throughout the northeastern United States.

To learn more about the festival concept and history, click here.

For requirements to submit to future editions, click here.

There is no fee to submit your film to the festival.