Online Edition

Dear Friends,

Fortunately our team has cautiously prepared a digital version of the festival available to domestic audiences. It was originally meant as an extension of what we hoped would we a reduced version of the festival in the theatres for local audiences. The latest governmental announcements of January 7 have signaled the end of our hope of maintaining a hybrid version. Just like the Short Film Market, the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival 2021 is now moving entirely online.

The idea of not seeing audiences rushing to watch films all over town amidst smiling professionals from all over the world (the festival 2020 registered 170,000+ admissions in the theaters in one week) is of course heartbreaking for our team – as is the overall health situation in many countries. But at least we were prepared and the good news is that the festival will be accessible nationwide for the first time, from 29 January to 6 February, to regular festival goers and newly-converted audiences alike. Online spectators will get online access to all the films in competition this year, as well as selected side programmes. In total 218 films, curated in 43 programmes, will be available for online viewing in French original version or with French subtitles. For licensing reasons, access to the online festival will be limited to viewers based in France and French overseas territories.

The pandemic has not managed to get rid of the formidable creativity of filmmakers from around the world. Watch out for our upcoming jury announcements and festival trailer. Industry professionals will have access to this year’s festival selection on our separate industry platform shortfilmwire.com, available from all corners of the world, as part of the online Short Film Market.