Long Story Shorts is an international film competition that aims to connect the audience to short films, music videos, documentaries, and screenplays from all around the world.
Aiming to inspire, motivate and award new talents as well as experienced filmmakers, Long Story Shorts takes the way visual stories are shared and experienced to a higher level.
Here’s how we do it:
☞ Online coverage - Website & Social Media
☞ Live Screenings
☞ Access to global audiences with the help of our partner Shortlist.film
The competition runs on a monthly basis, with a total of 12 selections in a competitional year.
All films submitted to our festival are rigorously rated by our programmers who later publish their selection on our website and social media channels during the next month.
The final deadline for our next selection, as well as the notification date are posted in the right-grid competition timeline.
At this moment, the home of our competition, where we also hold film screenings, is Bucharest, an effervescent cultural hub in Europe, with a highly dynamic social life.
The film selections are categorized in two main sections that intertwine as follows:
☞ Official Selection - Non-competitional programme showcasing films with a strong story and approach, carefully curated by our programmers
☞ Official Competition - Winners & Nominees
♢ Understanding Official Selection & Competition
Film Selections shouldn’t only be about having films competing with each other. We embrace the idea of creating a space where talented filmmakers are recognized and appreciated, without necessarily putting a stamp on what is valuable and what isn’t from a critical point of view.
Not all selected films will run in the Competition as well; however, their value is supported by welcoming them in the Long Story Shorts Community.
☞ All Films accepted in the Official Selection will be given a benefits pack worth 250$:
• Filmstro 1-Year Pro Licence Exclusive discount worth up to 125$
• DCP2GO Exclusive Discount for mastering services worth 125$
☞ Best Short Film will receive
♢ Live Screening
♢ Shortlist.film Screening (only with prior permission from the filmmaker)
♢ Special Filmmaker Pack from Shortlist.film - worth 1200$
♢ Cloud19 Full DCP Service Pack worth 299$
♢ Filmstro Pro Licence discount worth 125$
♢ Award Certificate signed by the Festival Director
♢ Official Laurels from the festival
Our vision is to create opportunities for independent filmmakers to have their work showcased. We believe in the public’s potential of becoming a significant actor in developing the filmmaking process.
2020 came with a new set of challenges. The ‘new normal’ reshaped in many ways the entire film industry. However, giving up was never an option, and this has been our core belief throughout this whole period.
As physical event planning has become a lot more challenging, only competition-awarded films will be eligible for live screenings at this moment. This means that, at least for a while, the number of annual physical events will be limited to 1 or 2, in order to make sure that we can showcase all winning films safely & responsibly.
But the future looks bright, as new ways of promoting films have come up.
Starting with 2021 we focus on the future of cinema interaction, which is a hybrid one.
♢ What does this entail?
Physical screenings merge with the focus on a better, faster, safer & easier online screening solution.
We believe it makes Long Story Shorts even more attractive, as there are many benefits of joining our community.
Starting with 2021 we offer all the films qualified for Official Competition the opportunity of having online screenings.
It is important to mention that this IS NOT A MANDATORY REQUIREMENT for joining the festival and online screenings will only be provided WITH THE PRIOR PERMISSION granted by the filmmaker.
Our Online Catalogue will be offered in partnership with Shortlist.film, a highly secured streaming platform, where you can introduce your content to a worldwide audience.
☞ Shortlist.film
Join us on Shortlist.film for a Special Filmmaker Pack consisting of 15 1-year fully paid subscription accounts with a total worth of 1200$.
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The publication of the Official Selection, as well as Competition Results will correspond to each season's notification information, available in your submission details.
☞ PARTNERS:
♢ Shortlist.film
Join us on Shortlist.film for a Special Filmmaker Pack consisting of up to 15 1-year fully paid subscription accounts with a total worth of 1200$.
♢ CLOUD NINETEEN
For 15 years, Cloud 19 has been a 1-stop resource for post production & mastering services, providing digital media solutions to Hollywood studios, Indie distributors and film producers everywhere! Consider us for your QC reports, Hardware-based DCP’s, DVD & Blu-ray Authoring, Color Grading and other Finishing services.
♢ FILMSTRO
Filmstro Pro is a music publishing library built into a desktop app that enables Filmmakers to adapt and recompose professional soundtracks to suit their films. Available for Windows and Mac users.
♢ DCP2GO offers complete professional services for DCP authoring including: preparation of materials, authoring, encryption and key management, duplication, control and check-up (test screening), transfer and distribution, translation and subtitling, and technical organization.
MAIN AWARDS
All Films accepted in the Official Selection will be awarded a
♢ benefits pack worth 250$ offered by Filmstro & DCP2GO
☞ Best Short Film will receive
♢ Live Screening
♢ Shortlist.film Screening (only with prior permission from the filmmaker)
♢ Special Filmmaker Pack from Shortlist.film - worth 1200$
♢ Cloud19 Full DCP Service Pack worth 299$
♢ Filmstro Pro Licence discount worth 125$
♢ Award Certificate signed by the Festival Director
♢ Official Laurels from the festival
Apart from the Best Short Film Award, the Film Competition has two award categories:
♢ CATEGORY AWARDS
☞ Best Animation
☞ Best Student Film
☞ Best Experimental
☞ Best Documentary
☞ Best Music Video
♢ INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
☞ Best Director
☞ Best Screenplay
☞ Best Actor
☞ Best Actress
☞ Best Editor
☞ Best Cinematography
☞ Best Original Score
All the films awarded within these categories will receive the following prizes from the festival:
♢ Shortlist.film Screening (only with prior permission from the filmmaker)
♢ Special Filmmaker Pack from Shortlist.film - worth 600$
♢ Cloud19 Full DCP Service Pack worth 299$
♢ Filmstro Pro Licence discount worth 125$
♢ Award Certificate signed by the Festival Director
♢ Official Laurels from the festival
☞ Best Written Screenplay (Screenplay Competition)
The screenplay competition runs in 2 annual seasons, depending on the number of entries and quality of the scripts.
• SCREENPLAY AWARD (Winner) •
♢ Special Filmmaker Pack from Shortlist.film - worth 600$
♢ Cloud19 Full DCP Service Pack worth 299$
♢ Filmstro Pro Licence discount worth 125$
♢ Award Certificate signed by the Festival Director
♢ Official Laurels from the festival