Research 1 – Conventions of a Short Film
A short film, as defined by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts, is a film with a runtime of less than 40 minutes. Although, other organisations may have differing definitions. For example, The Sundance Film Festival accept short films less than 50 minutes, while The Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television distinguish between the runtimes of documentaries and scripted narrative films (less than 45 and 59 minutes respectively). In general, short films are under an hour, with the average length being 20 minutes. Another common length is 2-5 minutes, there is no limit to how “short” a short film can be, some even being 15-30 seconds long.
Short films are also known as short subjects. Before the 1910s, all movies were short subjects due to technological limitations, confining them to two reels or less. Movies containing three or four reels were called featurettes, being longer than a short subject and shorter than a feature.