The London Short Film Festival is a bit of a misleading name.
It’s actually ten days long, which makes it longer than Sundance.
And talking of long, the festival itself is actually in its 21st year now. Over the course of those 21 years, it’s developed a pretty decent international reputation for its risk taking, support of innovative film makers, and general quality. Hence, when you go to check out the films they have playing, you’re almost guaranteed a good time – they view over 5 thousand submissions, and prune them down to just a couple of hundred (from both the UK and abroad) to make sure they’re only showing the finest of celluloid treats.
The films are packaged into bundles of genres, types, styles, ideas, etc, with those bundles running for roughly as long as a regular movie. This year, you can see the likes of:
Funny Shit – the traditional LSFF’s annual comedy extravaganza, “from dry to slapstick, ponderous to nonsensical, and acerbic to heartfelt”.
WTF! – apparently “sensibilities will be challenged” in this variety show of “mind-melting, genre-defying short form cinema”. Sign us up.
Romantic Matinee – if you love love, then you’re in for a treat here.
Fantastic Fictions – of all the films that the festival organisers watched, there were some that were brilliant, but nevertheless impossible to pigeonhole into any particular genre. These are those films.
Sick Jazz – complete with a few live performances, this showcase will take you from “the performance halls of Havana to the lofts of New York and the back streets of Milan”.
It’ll all end with a special screening of the overall winners, as well as a whole load of workshops, panels, discussion, and Q&As to go alongside it all.
In short, it’s pretty great.
NOTE: The London Short Film Festival is on from the 19th to the 28th of January at venues across the capital. You can find out more, and get tickets at the website right here.
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