Oakley Anderson-Moore writes on No Film School How Shorts Propelled These Filmmakers to Make Their Sundance Features.
She profiles six filmmakers who beat the odds, had shorts at Sundance and came back this year with features. For two of them, the shorts were basically proof of concept calling cards.
Oakley says:
“This year, there were 1,861 narrative features and 1,642 documentary features submitted to the Sundance Film Festival. And due to COVID-19, that number was less than in previous years. Holy hell, that’s a lot of competition! How do you make a feature film that makes it into Sundance? For some filmmakers, a short version of a feature is a great way to prove the concept, not to mention get attention and funding. For others, their short film got them noticed by future collaborators. For others, it merely went to sharpen and hone the voice they would need for their feature debut.”
The filmmakers, their short and their feature are:
- Shaka King, Mulignans (2015), Judas and the Black Messiah
- Erin Vassilopoulos, Superior (2015), Superior
- Carey Williams, Emergency (2018), R#J
- Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr., Shinaab, Shinaab Part 2 (2017, 2019), Wild Indian
- Carlson Young, The Blazing World (2018), The Blazing World
- Jessica Beshir, Hairat (2017), Faya Dayi
My take: I love that two of these features started as shorts. It takes a lot of perseverance to expand a short into a feature but at least folks can see your concept and your filmmaking chops.