Film Shortage is home to the next generation of filmmakers, premiering some of the best and most diverse short films online. Featuring mind-blowing new shorts daily from the freshest minds today.

Selected films will be featured on our Daily Picks, or our Weekly Features. The films also get a chance to be added to our coveted Vimeo Channel or our growing YouTube Channel. We work closely with the filmmakers of the selected films to prepare the best possible online release (or re-release) through our combined social media reach.

Deadlines:
Our platform is continually active online. Deadlines and event dates are fictional, and are only present for FilmFreeway requirements. New deadlines will be continuously generated.

Rules & Terms

What does your film need to be featured?
Simply enough it needs to be good! We like well scripted stories, and we like them even better if they are well shot! Although we encourage narrative shorts, we will accept any type of short film if we think it is exceptional. We accept shorts of any budget category, but strongly encourage low-budget productions with strong values.

What length do you accept short films?
We accept films under 45 minutes, but remember, an online audience is already difficult to keep focus – so as a general rule, the longer the film is, the better it needs to be.

Does my paid submission automatically get selected?
Film Shortage is a curated website, and part of our job is to carefully hand pick through the submissions the films that stand out the most. Unfortunately that means that not all submissions get selected.

Can I get reimbursed?
The submission fee covers our reviewer’s time to watch and score your film, therefore the submissions are non-refundable.

Which formats do you accept?
You can submit a film for revision via any web viewable format, but if selected we may ask that the film be transferred to Vimeo or YouTube. We can possibly post the film on our YouTube.

When will I know if my submission got selected?
You should get a response within 3-4 business days.

See more frequently asked questions
https://filmshortage.com/short-film-submission/
27 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Andres Cabrera Rucks

    I have no words to describe how amazing Marco and his team are. They helped us craft the perfect online premiere from the moment they selected our short: they communicated with us regularly, took every request of ours into account, and even helped us deal with unexpected copyright strikes (due to songs in the film for which we had the rights).

    As they have no exclusivity requirement, I encourage everyone to submit their short to Film Shortage. You won't regret it!

    A HUGE thank you to Marco and everyone at FS for naming "Island Life" the best short of 2025!

    January 2026
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  • Aaron Goffman

    Thank you for inviting Darcine's Day to stream on Film Shortage!!

    December 2025
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  • Anna-Ester Volozh

    I was happy with the experience of having our short film "The Wedding Veil of the Proud Princess" featured on Film Shortage! Their team is communicative, unpretentious (if you have experience with short film distribution you'll understand the value of this in particular), and accommodating of filmmakers' needs. The film received a strong response on their YouTube channel, with thoughtful and meaningful discussions in the comment section. They also helped promote the release through their socials. As with any platform, success depends on whether your film fits their audience, but if it does, and if you care about your film actually reaching people's hearts and not just metrics, Film Shortage is a great team to collaborate with!

    November 2025
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  • Kaitlin Fontana

    Marco and Film Shortage are at the forefront of making short films accessible and helping filmmakers find their home online. Fully recommend.

    November 2025
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  • Ohad Ira Amram

    Great platform with a growing Youtube presence to get your film seen. Thrilled that my film, "Breakfast," got its online premiere on Film Shortage!

    December 2024
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