Presentation

A film festival overcoming its 20th edition can be considered an already well-established event with a strong identity, while also able, at the same time, to innovate and expand its offerings and explore new realities and challenges.

For this reason, ShorTS IFF is always looking to explore new cinematic landscapes and reflect on them. In 2018, for example, a new section called ShorTS Virtual Reality was included to recognise this emerging cinematic art form on the competitive stage. ShorTS is only the second festival in Italy, after the “Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia”, to organise an international competitive section dedicated to VR shorts.

The festival has always aimed to promote both Italian and international young cinema thanks to a quality programme rich in film content (shorts, feature films and documentaries) and in cultural and secondary activities (24h ShorTS Comics Marathon, meetings with authors in collaboration with regional and national entities, etc.).

The Maremetraggio section is traditionally dedicated to the best short films of the last few years. The section continues to be the heart of the festival, attracting thousands of entries from all over the world that every year offer the audience (and those who select them) a very interesting insight into everyday life. The Nuove Impronte section, dedicated to emerging talents in international cinema, is becoming the perfect setting for the screening, promotion and discussion of contemporary cinema. The aim is to promote dialogue between filmmakers and their audience, as well as fellow cinephiles, both accredited and those simply curious to meet an expert in the cinematic field.

In addition to the festival’s two key sections, since a few years there is the Focus ShorTS is placing on cinema from a different European country.

ShorTS IFF seeks to introduce shorts to an increasingly younger and wider public, paying particular attention to kids and teenagers with an entire section dedicated to them (Shorter Kids’n’Teens) and by organising workshops and lessons in elementary and middle schools during the school year (the “Cinema in Corsivo” project).

Every year there are two prizes: the Premio Cinema del Presente and the Premio Prospettiva awarded in recognition of an outstanding talent, the first to an Italian filmmaker, the latter to an Italian emerging actor or actress.

Lastly we come to education, another particularly important aspect for ShorTS: during the festival there is the ShorTS Pitching Training, a workshop aimed at directors (mostly from film schools from all over Europe) and international producers who have a short film project as work in progress. The workshop is organised in partnership with Nisi Masa- European Network for Young Cinema – which since 2001 has represented a benchmark for young European filmmakers, with collaboration from the CNC (Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio).

This, and much more besides, at the ShorTS International Film Festival!