Film Festivals and agents like short films to be just that - short. Festivals, which like to showcase as much talent as possible, prefer shorter films because they can program more of them into a given time slot, thus exposing their audiences to more stories by more filmmakers. Agents like shorter films because they can watch more of them in a given day and thus expose themselves to more talent per second than by watching longer films. Agents would even prefer two good eight-minute films by the same director than one good twenty-minute film because in two separate films, a director can show a broader range of styles.
Thus, it is our steadfast belief that our students should keep their films under ten minutes in length. The idea is this: if you can show that you can write creatively, cover scenes visually, and elicit strong performances from actors in an eight-minute short film, then you can do it in a twenty-minute film or even a feature-length film. Short films are more economical to make and are more likely to be watched by agents, festival programmers and even your friends and family.
