Short Film Research: Distribution

Short films are extremely varied in length, making it difficult to show them on a standard TV schedule, although longer, half hour shorts films can fit in nicely. It's become increasingly common for animated films to produce short film spin-offs based on the feature film, an example of this was Dream Works film 'Kung-Fu Panda' which has a shirt film released on DVD a while after the main films release.

A common way of distributing short films is in the form of Film Festivals, where short film directors will share their film with a large audience in a theatre. These often have various competitions between the different short films for various awards.

With the internet becoming increasingly accessible, some short film directors start off by sharing their  short films online, on sites such as Youtube, Vimeo, etc. These can be watched by anyone making it easy for people to watch, discuss and get feedback on short films. When studios are looking for fresh new directors, it's becoming increasingly common to find them on youtube and contact them through their.