Enter, the short film

Short films are popping up in the mainstream more and more. Open Netflix and they are no longer buried three clicks deep under “festival favourites.” In some cases, they’re even on the main page.

Most recently, award-winning The Singers (2025) takes centre stage – not as a sidebar curiosity, but a headline attraction.

For years, short films were viewed primarily as calling cards for talent or proof of concept for feature films. A stepping stone. A foot in the door. A way to demonstrate tone, style, or directorial voice before “graduating” on to long form.

Shorts can function as incubators

The breakout success of films like Femme (2023),The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (2024) and the Too Rough (2022) challenges the long-held assumption that shorts only appeal to film enthusiasts and festival attendees. Beyond the festival circuit, it has historically been difficult for a short to get noticed on key streaming platforms, let alone generate revenue.

Traditionally, short films have been considered difficult to market and lacking in commercial viability. Too short for traditional television slots. Too niche for mainstream theatrical distribution. Streaming platforms have not always paid well for them unless they are part of a curated, popular collection.

Few people subscribe specifically to watch short films, meaning there is often no direct profit. The cost of marketing and distributing a film can exceed production costs – a hard reality rarely justified by the modest returns of a short.

Maintaining a marketable balance

In a similar vein, Disney recently launched a vertical shorts initiative via The Walt Disney Company, signalling that major studios are actively experimenting with format and duration. There is an ongoing discussion around whether this is a passing fad, or a genuine significant shift in the future of storytelling and production.

Is there perhaps a very marketable balance between the one-minute TikTok reel, and the three-hour cinematic commitment? Enter, the 15-20 minute short.

This format is maintaining the cinematic beauty and classic landscape shot, separating itself from the vertical dramas – another genre forging its own path entirely. Not so short that it resembles a highlights montage. Long enough to sit and enjoy your dinner while watching, and substantial enough to experience a complete journey.

The trend is global, evident in Norway’s Round Two (2023), Spain’s 29 de febrero (2024), Northern Ireland’s An Irish Goodbye (2022) and the Indian-US collaboration Anuja (2024).

The format’s range spans intimate drama and biting satire, as seen in Island Life (2025), An Urban Allegory (2024), and the darkly comic Dirty Towel (2024).

This potential change in audience appetite does not need to be framed as a replacement of long-form content. Rather, it feels like a refreshing counterbalance – a swing in the opposite direction of the long cinematic experience. In a sometimes-overwhelming sea of extensive plot lines and indulgent exposition, the 15-20 minute short offers clarity.

While the structural barriers for marketing shorts have not disappeared overnight, the cultural perception is shifting. Short films are no longer solely exercises in potential, confined to festival programmes or filmmaker circles. They are being discussed beyond industry echo chambers, and they are proving that a compact frame can hold epic emotion.

As the extensive canon above illustrates, short films can mean distilled, complete, deliberate, and deeply resonant. The short film may well be carving out its own lane in the mainstream – as a format with its own identity, audience, and artistic power.