What is a Short Film?

Short films, according to the Academy, are "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". They are usually based on a simple premise; The Ellington Kid is based on an urban legend, Over is based on a newspaper article and the Arrival is based purely on a picture. Short films, like poems or portraits, are distilled artwork: they explore an idea with precision. They often also focus around a twist, and only one or maybe two characters.

Short films often function as a display of a single person's talent, something to put on their talent reel. They are often low budget, with unknown actors, and small scope in comparison to their big budget counterparts. 

Short films are nearly always distributed on YouTube, where they are free to watch but may earn money through adverts. Some higher-budget shorts are shown before movies in the cinema, such as Pixar's Bao.

I would eat that little bao man