A film’s running time is one of its most defining characteristics when preparing a festival distribution strategy. Films are usually divided into three types based on their length, which in turn also define the types of festivals:
- Short film, up to 30 minutes.
- Medium-length film, from 30 to 60 minutes.
- Feature film, from 60 minutes onwards.
Therefore, there are festivals (and sections) specialising in short films, medium-length films and feature films. The film industry has been based on this framework for a long time.
Feature films have a strong industrial character, while short and medium-length films have a more alternative exhibition circuit, based mainly on festivals and far removed from the feature film’s exploitation windows. This system, apparently standard worldwide, differs depending on each country’s laws.
In Spain, films with a running time of under 60 minutes are considered short films; from that length onwards they are feature films. Medium-length films are therefore not recognised. In the United States and the United Kingdom, a feature film can have a minimum running time of 40 minutes, and in France 58. The case of Italy is even more extreme: films under 75 minutes are considered short films.
Whereas in Spain a 65-minute film would be a feature film, in Italy we would be talking about a short film.
In addition to the legislative framework, festival regulations themselves call this “classic” length typology into question. To give you an idea, I have compiled the different running-time limits I usually come across among the hundreds of festivals I review each year.
Festivals that accept films with a running time up to:
- 30 seconds
- 1 minute
- 2 minutes
- 3 minutes
- 5 minutes
- 9 minutes
- 10 minutes
- 12 minutes
- 15 minutes
- 20 minutes
- 25 minutes
- 30 minutes
- 40 minutes
- 45 minutes
- 60 minutes
Festivals that accept films with a running time from:
- 5 minutes
- 40 minutes
- 50 minutes
- 60 minutes
- 70 minutes
The result of this small analysis gives us no fewer than 20 different types of festivals based on running time. A classic short film festival accepts films from 5 to 30 minutes. Most feature film festivals in Spain accept films from 60 minutes, but there are others that set the limit at 50 minutes. By contrast, there are feature film festivals whose limit starts at 70 minutes.
These limits are increasingly being questioned, especially at festivals specialising in documentary and experimental cinema. Little by little, an interesting trend is developing that is radically breaking with this “industrial” framework. In Spain we have the paradigmatic case of Filmadrid, which yesterday published the rules for its new call, with sections where “no running-time limit is set for films”. The Filmadrid festival will be held from 8 to 17 June, and its submission deadline will close on 3 April. For submission, it is enough to send a PDF entry form along with the screening link by email.
This process of change makes perfect sense: films should be assessed on their quality, regardless of their running time.
If we stick to the laws and the requirements of the festivals themselves, it is becoming increasingly difficult to answer these questions, which seemed very clear at the beginning of this post:
What is a short film?
And a medium-length film?
What is a feature film?
Although, if we think about it, the answer would not be so difficult: they are films.