The Short. Sweet. Film Fest. is a short film only film festival created by actual filmmakers. We found it challenging to showcase our own short films at film festivals who mainly program around feature films. In the age of streaming there are more opportunities than ever before to share your work, but we often asked ourselves, "do we really want to premiere our short film alongside silly kitten videos?" Even though we love kittens (who doesn’t?), we love short films more and want to present them in the professional setting they deserve.
With nine festivals under our belt, our goal for our tenth annual film festival is to showcase films under 30 minutes to the growing art scene in the greater Cleveland area and highlight the works of student to veteran filmmakers across the country. We look for short, sweet, original, and unique films that would often soar under the radar of most festivals. Our staff are looking for the best short films locally, nationally, and internationally. So send them our way!
Students should submit to the short student film category to receive a significant discount off of the submission fee.
Our festival will take place in the Alex Theater at the Metropolitan at the 9 hotel in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Filmmakers and patrons can stay at the hotel at a discounted rate and enjoy food and beverages throughout the festival.
In the event of a need to move the festival online for health and safety concerns, all selected films will screen online on our website, which will require a password protected secure login to view them.
All selections are eligible to win best, outstanding, or honorable mention in their respective categories. These awards will be announced at the end of programming on Saturday, February 27th, 2021.
The top screenplay award winners will be announced in advance and will be read live at a table reading during the film festival. The table readings will be directed and read by Cleveland based directors and actors and the readings will be free and open to the public, so screenwriters may receive the maximum amount of exposure.
