The Winter Shorts Film Festival is a humble endeavor. I like it that way. As I've observed the evolution of film festivals across the United States over the past few years I've been impressed by the level of sophistication that has arisen.
The independent film movement was born from the need for original creative expression apart from the Hollywood standard. The problem was that there were limited venues for such pioneers. What arose was the film festival circuit which provided a platform for something brave and refreshing.
Today there are more film festivals across the United Sates than any organization can keep track of. But this circuit has developed the feel of a closed shop. Has the independent film community simply replaced one set of standards with another. Do the independent films which follow the new standards have the edge over the newcomers of modest technical means? Can you get your work into a festival anymore if it's not HD? Does the independent filmmaker yearn for the RED Camera more than capturing the truth by whatever means that works? After you've gone to three screenwriting seminars, you've been to them all. These seminars seem more apt for training script doctors than screenwriters.
The Winter Shorts Film Festival looks for films that are original. I'm going to commit cinematic blasphemy here. Storytelling is a powerful tool in filmmaking but it's only one tool. Films can also offer experience. They can use evocative images to provoke an emotional response. This is particularly true with the short film. The short film tends to be more artistic for these reasons.
We also encourage the emerging filmmaker. That's why we have a Teen filmmaking category. We look to program a variety of works at a variety of levels. We hope that our emerging filmmakers from this small rural town in Kentucky will see what kinds of astonishing things can be done, from around the world, with films that don't necessarily follow the three act structure and don't necessarily use the most expensive equipment. Isn't that what the independent film movement was all about in the beginning?
If you have a short film that you would like to submit, we'd like to try to find a spot for it. There's no submission fee so the only expense is postage.
