How do filmmakers tell a story in under six minutes?
We found out at the 15th annual Short Short Story Film Festival.
For the first time in three years, we were pleased to return the festival to live audiences.
In 2020, Covid lockdowns forced us to cancel the festival, and in 2021, we presented an online-only Best Of version of the festival.
The 2022 festival took place Saturday, 19th November at the Greenwood Features Cinema in Bethel, CT, USA.
Jury Awards Announced
Our awards selection process is complete! A panel of film industry professionals, previously interviewed on Spoiler Alert Radio, reviewed the films in each program. For a complete list of jury members, click here.
Award winners receive commissioned custom art objects created by past festival participants. More award pictures to be posted soon!
For the Heartsrings program, the jury selected Bizarre!, by Stéphane Canet (France), about a rainy-day encounter between a young woman and an elderly man whose intentions may not be what they seem.
For the Headtrip program, the judges selected A guerra finita, by Simone Massi (Italy), an animated presentation of the idea that a world without war is an idea that cannot wait.
Audience Awards
Audiences voted on their three favorite films to determine award winners in each program. Congratulations to our two award winners!
For the Heartstrings program, the audience selected 7 dosis de dopamina (7 Doses of Dopamine), by Virginia Rodriguez (Madrid, Spain), the story of Alex and Marta, who consider the question of is love at first sight real, or is love simply a scientific question?
For the Headtrip program, the audience selected Nothing's Left, by Davide Pellino (Avellino, Italy), a haunting depiction of modern society, exploring ideas behind privacy, social media and consumerism, with each of us both an architect and a pawn of the system.
If you thought filmmakers couldn't dive deep within a short time span, these two films would surely prove you wrong!
Festival Films
To see the complete list of festival films, click here.
With over a thousand submissions from more than ninety countries, it was difficult yet rewarding to select the best of the best.
In total, we accepted 34 films, from more than twenty countries on five continents, with 28 films making their US premieres, and six world premieres.
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.
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.
The festival has taken place every November since 2007, in cities and towns throughout the northeastern United States.
To learn more about the festival concept and history, click here.
If you would like to submit a film to a future edition of the festival, click here to learn about the requirements and process.