AUDIENCE FESTIVAL AWARDS
Best Film: CRADLE
Best Performances: 1950 AD
Best Cinematography: ON SUNDAY
Best Effects: ON SUNDAY
Best Music: The music from THE EARTH SURVIVAL CODE
Take a look at the Audience Feedback Videos from the LA Sci-Fi Film Festival. Some of the best short films in the world today were showcased.
CRADLE, 11min, USA, Sci-Fi/Thriller
1950 DA, 7min, France, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
ON SUNDAY, 6min, UK, Sci-Fi/Drama
THE EARTH SURVIVAL CODE, 10min, China, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
MISIEK AND EVE FROM OUTER SPACE, 2min, Poland, Animation/ComedyThe SCI-FI LOS ANGELES JUNE 2017 FEEDBACK Film Festival gave our audiences the best of sci-fi short movies from around the world.
The theme of the festival was “OUTER LIMITS”.
Every film showcased what about a situation that was about an ‘outside being’ other than earth.
Sci-Fi short films sure have made a great leap into superstardom in the 21st century!
In the last 15 years I’ve watched over 10,000 short films from over 100 countries around the world, being a part of the film festival scene. Only in the last 5 years have I witnessed a gigantic surge in Sci-Fi shorts being made. The technology just wasn’t there for this medium 10-15 year ago: cost-wise and accessibility of the actual tools needed to pull off the desires for the film. So filmmakers working in the short film world just didn’t go there.
But now technology is there for almost everyone.
During the moderation of the film ON SUNDAY, an audience member asked the question of how much the budget was for the film. Without giving anything away, there is a “big” moment near the end of the film, not to mention it having what my programmers call “high production value”. It’s a common question that people ask and I never know how to answer it. And I get why they are asking it because most likely they are filmmakers themselves and want to make a film like that.
The art of short film for me is to be a magician with the budget. 99.5% of shorts made have a limited budget. So it’s what you can do with it that counts. ON SUNDAY for example, if made on a Hollywood produced format with their production schedule, union crew costs, CGI costs etc…, would be about a $100,000 budget. And I can guarantee that this filmmaker didn’t spend 100K on this film. But it sure looks like one.
THE EARTH SURVIVAL CODE, a film out of China, has gun fights, choreographed fight scenes, a transportation of an alien from a spaceship to earth, and much more. That film I’m sure was also done on a small budget even though it looks to be another 100K budgeted film.
What I’m getting at is these filmmakers know how to use today’s technology in the context of their film. Before they even start the development stage, they know what they are able to do. So they can work within their expertise and accessibility. Then go from there. And that is why the Sci-Fi genre has taken off in the short film market. There are AMAZING films being made – and we were lucky to show 5 films from 5 different countries to our Los Angeles audience.
See you at the festivals.
– Matthew Toffolo
Fantasy/Sci-Fi FILM & WRITING FESTIVAL 