Festival Data:

• Established: 1995
• Genre: General
• Attendance: 1200
• Total Number of Films Submitted: 300
• Total Number of Films Screened: 40
• Total Screenings: 5
• # of Shorts Screened: 40

• Competitive
• Has Panels
• Workshops

Festival Website:

Festival Description:

The Canberra Short Film Festival is a national competition and Canberra's biggest short film festival. The festival's beginnings were humble- screenings of Australian-made shorts as part of the Canberra International Film Festival in 1996. It was so popular that it branched out into a solo festival in 1999 with two separate competitions - the National Short Film competition and the Young Canberra Filmmaker's competition. That year 30 short films were selected for competitions were screened to packed houses receiving rave reviews. Since then the festival has changed hands several times, with Marisa Martin from EOR media handing over the reigns to Silversun Pictures in 2008.

The Canberra Short Film Festival has four categories. The National Competition carries a prize of $2000 and is usually the most heavily contested category. For local filmmakers, the Parlour Wine Room's Canberra & Region Competition offers $1000 in prize money, as does the National Youth Competition, which supports filmmakers aged under 25. The University of Canberra's National Schools Competition offers $500 cash and $500 worth of Madman DVDs for the winner. Judges have included Monica Penders from ScreenACT, Paul Kirwan, a visual effects expert who has worked on the likes of Transformers and Lord of the Rings, and CSFF winner, Simon Weaving.

Funded by the ACT Government, the festival is a celebration of Australian filmmaking and is firmly positioned on the Canberra cultural calendar with its unique bohemian atmosphere, attracting crowds from all across Australia.