What Is A Short FIlm?

A short film is a film not long enough to be called 'feature legnth'. There isn't an association that decides where the boundary is drawn. The Academy of motion picture arts and science defines ashort film as 'an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits'. IMDB says that its a film less then 45 minutes long. Short films are then classified by the BBFC

Short films use the main convention of being quite experimental due to the fact that the audience is a nische and dont have certain expectations. Also the distribution companies are not worried about where their money is going. Short films usualy try to challenge recurring themes in society, for example 'Double Take' focuses on community payback against criminals. Also short films are there for the director to get them selves noticed such as Fede Alvarez

One not very recognised exploitation of short film is what Neill Bloomkamp did with 'Alive In Joburg' and that is to use it as a pre-cursor for another feature legnth and to show distribution companies.