Who watches Short Films?

A short film is described as a motion picture which lasts no longer than 40 minutes, orginating from the comedies of the 1920's-30's: works from such as Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
Modern 'Shorts' of the 21st century are rarely distrubuted in the mainstream, instead they offer a creative platform as the typical first stage for young filmmakers.
The audience for Short Films are generically people that are passionate about film: independant filmmakers and companies who simply don't have the budget to fund a feature film production. It is also fair to say the audience of modern short films are young as a majority: film students who take passion in their subject and look for entertainment and inspiration.

Animated shorts of major studios such as Pixar and Dreamworks still find life in the mainstream film industry: Pixar, famous for animated hits such as 'Toy Story' and 'Up'
have screened a short film with the thearetical realease of all their major movies since 1995. A recent example of this is the short 'Day and Night' which was screened before film showings of the monumental box office hit 'Toy Story 3' in 3D: reaching out to a diverse audience of families and a new generation of movie-goers.



However general short films, both animated and live action find their audience through film festivals.
These exhibitons take place all over the world, showcasing the upcoming talent of new film-makers to an audience of movie-lovers.

Sundance Film Festival: http://www.sundance.org/festival/
The Sundance Film Festival is the largest cinema festival in the United States and takes place annually in the state of Utah every January. It has gained many filmakers mainstream recgonition over the years, producing hits such as 'Donnie Darko' 'Resvoir Dogs' 'Napolean Dynamite' and 'Clerks' which premiered at Sundance in 1994:



Cannes Film Festival: http://www.festival-cannes.com/en.html
The Cannes music and film festival is a well established event that takes place every May in the southern French town. Each year a well respected member of the industry plays the role of the dury President, who decides which films earn the coverted awards such as the Palme D'Or and the Grand Prix. The president for the 2011 Festival is due to be reknowned actor: Robert De Niro.
Cannes has thrown many 'unkowns' into the limelight, most notably perhaps is Quentin Tarantino for his superb 'Pulp Fiction' in 1994:



Another reason for short films having a relatively young audience is that they are mainly distributed via the Internet.
An example of this is 'Across the Hall', written and directed by Alex Merkin in 2006, the short film was available as a download to mobile phones and distributed by Samsung. It later became a full feature film in 2009.

The internet also includes sites such as YouTube, BBC Film Network and Newgrounds which encourage the submission of user-created content such as short films, through these websites Short Films have became accessible globally at all times to all audiences.