A short film can act as a calling card for a new filmmaker. It’s a chance for directors to show off their cinematic potential—their eye for a shot, their storytelling acumen, and their ability to get performances out of actors.
As filmmakers look to invest in themselves and their future, their shorts are often self-funded. But there are ways to generate revenue with short films, including licensing deals, branding, using ad-supported sites, and holding screenings.
Here are three ways your short can make you money.
Online monetization
Husband-and-wife filmmakers Aaron Fradkin and Victoria Fratz Fradkin set up the YouTube channel Social House Films during the COVID-19 lockdown. After purchasing a camera and wanting to test it out, Fradkin decided to direct and co-write a short film with Fratz Fradkin for her to star in.
They created “Bed Head” and uploaded it to YouTube. At the time, their channel had just two other videos with a combined total of around 400 views. Within a week, the short had been viewed over 15,000 times. Five years later, it has over 4.3 million views.
“We were like, Holy shit—this is pretty cool. We need to make more and take it more seriously,” remembers Fradkin. Since then, Social House Films has released “The Ballerina” (21 million views), “Diet” (9.8 million views), and over 75 other videos including more short films, teasers, and behind-the-scenes clips, amassing 266,000 subscribers.
Their horror-comedy shorts have seen the highest viewership spikes. “The internet favors short-form content that gives viewers a quick reaction, rather than a drama where you have to get invested in the story and characters,” says Fratz Fradkin.
The couple’s intention with Social House Films was to make “bite-size horror entertainment, which focuses on one scene or visual-effect gimmick that [we] expand upon,” explains Fradkin. When writing, they always aim to have a clear, defined monster; minimal dialogue so that worldwide audiences can follow; and a simple story.
As Social House Films began racking up views and subscribers on YouTube, they made money through advertisements. “YouTube does an ad revenue split with its creators,” says Fradkin. And thanks to their growing audience and features on various horror websites boosting their searchability, brands started reaching out to the filmmakers.
They’ve been paid to do product placement, with Fratz Fradkin admitting it’s “challenging to come up with an idea that doesn’t completely steal your project away”—but they manage. For example, they used a video game sponsorship to come up with “The Sponsorship,” a home invasion horror short about a serial killer who breaks into the home of a Twitch streamer.
The duo has also been approached to license and screen their projects on websites and at events, including horror film festivals. “We’ve been licensed by theaters that are doing a whole smattering of horror films and want to open their feature films with a short film,” says Fradkin. “It’s not life-changing money, but it’s still a nice feeling.”
Their success with Social House Films convinced them to make their debut feature film “Beezel,” which was released on streaming in September 2024.
Film festivals with cash prizes
Sergiy Pudich, a film and commercial director originally from Ukraine but who’s now based in Bangkok, Thailand, has made the most money from his short films by entering festivals with cash prizes.
In order to find festivals with prize money, Pudich recommends looking through the description pages on FilmFreeway. “A lot of the festivals are supported by governments in Europe and Asia, and have big sponsors that give out prizes,” he explains. After making his 2020 short film “The Barber” for $2,000, Pudich won the Special Jury Prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan, which allowed him to recoup his expenses.
Pudich believes that social drama short films have the best chance of winning prize money. “If they explore a modern topic, be it human rights or gender equality, in a creative way, that sort of movie stands a better chance of winning because it will resonate more,” he says.
Local screenings for films with niche subject matter
Since writing, directing, and producing the 1994 horror film “Psychotropic Overload,” Joseph F. Alexandre has made several shorts and feature films, primarily in the documentary genre. After working in the industry for 31 years, Alexandre says his biggest piece of advice to directors is to always be “thinking seriously about your sustainability as a filmmaker.”
While getting your projects into major film festivals will always help, Alexandre insists that where filmmakers can “really make money is on the regional festival circuit,” especially if your film has a niche linked to the area. “That way you can create some real excitement.”
For his 2009 short “Warriors of the Discotheque: The Starck Club Documentary,” Alexandre premiered at the USA Film Festival in Dallas, the city where the club opened back in 1984. “I didn’t need Sundance or South by Southwest. I just needed Dallas.”
After releasing a teaser trailer to create buzz, he then organized other screenings in the city after the festival. Since the Starck Club was designed by French architect and designer Philippe Starck, Alexandre sold DVDs of the film to people in Paris, as well as viewers interested in the history of the patrons who frequented the venue.
Alexandre also had huge success with “Back Home Years Ago: The Real Casino,” his 2003 documentary centered on the real-life individuals depicted in Martin Scorsese’s 1995 crime epic “Casino.” His doc screened at 25 festivals across the world, was featured on the French DVD of “Casino,” aired on the IFC/Bravo show “Split Screen,” and has been licensed by Delta Air Lines, Air Canada, and the French TV station TF1.
The filmmaker organized screenings globally, focusing on areas with mob and organized crime history, before reaching out to Facebook and other social media groups dedicated to the mafia. “You can create the pedigree for your film with festival screenings, then soon after you need to set up physical screenings of the film yourself,” Alexandre explains. “That’s the formula to monetizing right out of the gate. Screen it in a place that makes sense, where you can create the most buzz, and that taps into the biggest audience for your film.”
