Camelot Theate
Palm Springs, CA
August 21-27, 2008

Story and photos by Lauren Lunstrum

Farewell to the shorts. After a week of screening the world’s best short films for viewers from far and wide, the 14 th Annual Palm Springs International Short Film Festival came to a spectacular end with awarded filmmakers and dazzled audiences.

The year of 2008 was a record setting year for the ShortFest, screening over 300 short films that were chosen out of approximately 2,700 submissions. This was the largest number of submissions the festival has ever received. The attendance rate was also the highest the festival has ever entertained and consisted not only of ticket buyers, but also many notable filmmakers, and industry delegates. A large number of the filmmakers who attended this year’s ShortFest were college students premiering short films they completed for film classes.

Lucas Fleishman, co-director, writer and actor in the short film Parachute, spoke highly of the festival, “My co-director Paul Grellong and I were THRILLED when we found out [our film] Parachute had been accepted to Palm Springs. We knew it is one of the best festivals in the country. The networking, the great films, the ability to watch films in the screening room, and the great energy of the volunteers running the festival made it an all around fantastic experience.”

Winners of the festival were announced at the closing ceremony on August 26 at the Camelot. The Best of the Fest was awarded to Mirey Brantz’s “6.5 Minutes in Tel Aviv,” an Israeli film about fear and panic of a woman on a bus of families, business men and lovers. The Future Filmmaker Award went to Marcal Flores for “Friends Forever,” a British film about a boy who is followed by the ghost of his deceased best friend. A number of other awards were also given out to filmmakers who topped the Fest.

There were many highlights in this year’s ShortFest. One of the most exciting highlights were appearances by Kirsten Dunst and Jessica Biel, who each graced the stage and faced the audience after the screening of their films to discuss the difficulties and rewards they found in their work. Bill Pullman also received attention for being a panel member, judge and presenter a workshop where he lead discussion on the techniques involved in acting.

Commenting on the success of this year’s Festival and Market, Festival Director Darryl Macdonald said, “Packed theatres, enraptured audiences, delighted filmmakers and a hyper-active film market with multiple buyers chasing the same film in many instances – what’s not to like? I got an email this morning from a filmmaker who told me he’d been trailed out of the theatre by several film festival directors wanting to invite his film to their events. It was a banner year for ShortFest, and an exceptionally good year for newly emerging filmmaking talent.”

The 2008 ShortFest was yet another advancing year for the festival’s dominant status, making it “The Only Festival,” as declared by Kodak representative at the closing ceremony. Once again, ShortFest has amazed its attendees and attracted many of the most talented filmmakers in America and world wide, and will continue to do so in the future.

For more photos of ShortFest2008 taken by Lauren Lunstrum, click here.

For more information about ShortFest, click here to go to their web site.

For more information on upcoming program at the Camelot Theater, click here.