YOUR SHORTS ARE SHOWING ‘23 TO SHOWCASE THE WORLD’S FINEST CINEMATIC STORYTELLING UNDER 1 HOUR

Everyone loves a storyteller with a true flair for the theatrical, and renowned filmmaker Taika Waititi is no exception. Known for his strong sense of substance blended with humorous wit and clever character portrayals, the New Zealand native is famous for directing delightfully over-the-top commercial features such as Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok, and Thor: Love and Thunder. But, like many directors of his ilk, Waititi had cut his teeth in the industry making short films, some of which boast his signature energetic, colorful style. Looking back at his time making these shorter pictures, he once wisely declared:

“Short film: you can be poetic and you don't have to answer anything. You can make whatever you want. You have creative freedom with short film.”

We at Adirondack Film couldn’t agree more with Taika Waititi’s observation. He is living proof that filmmakers don’t have to create hours-long pictures, nor conform to any industry-institutionalized social norms or rules, to tell a strong, memorable story. Since many short films are independently produced, they are generally free of certain restrictive boundaries that too many major studios would impose upon productions. Such a boundary would include restricting or censoring controversial subject matter. So as a whole, the short film offers the freedom for their creators to go all out and be virtually limitless with their artistic visions.

It is with that freedom that we enthusiastically celebrate short film creators with our annual “Your Shorts Are Showing” short film competition. In its fifth year, this competition will take place at the 2023 Lake Placid Film Festival at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in Lake Placid, NY from October 26th to the 29th.

Every year, Adirondack Film invites filmmakers from around all over the world to test their creative mettle and submit their completed entries to our “Your Shorts Are Showing” short film competition. The 2023 competition will host a wide variety of shorts directed by filmmakers from the Adirondacks region and across the United States, to all over the world. The competition’s designated categories range from narrative, comedy, documentary, and student. The stories are diverse in nature, from quirky to innovative, funny to suspenseful, thought-provoking to offbeat. Their diversity ultimately proves Taika Waititi’s viewpoint right: short films allow their creators to be poetic, and have creative freedom in their storytelling.

The short film entries all share one key criteria to qualify for this competition: they must be under 2 to 15 minutes long. Does that time span seem too short to adequately tell a story? On the contrary; as this year’s entrants and finalists have proven, it IS possible.

This year’s competition will screen 30 shorts in blocks of three scattered throughout the film festival’s three-day event beginning on Friday, October 26th.

Judging the entries will be entirely impartial, with selections upon the basis of storyline, production, sound, and technology excellence. The finalists ultimately agree to participate in the 2023 Featured Filmmaker Series where films are to be showcased and streamed once during a weekly winter or spring series. The viewings themselves will be followed by a live moderated Q&A session led by a film professional.

Viewers interested in attending this year’s Lake Placid Film Festival and the “Your Shorts Are Showing” short film competition to purchase passes to the event via https://www.adirondackfilm.org/lake-placid-festival/tickets-and-passes.

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