What to Know About the PBS Short Film Festival

PBS Short Film Festival showcases powerful stories from independent filmmakers.

Published on June 06, 2024 by PBS

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The PBS Short Film Festival is an award-winning multiplatform event that raises the reach and visibility of independent filmmakers from across the country. Since its inception in 2012, hundreds of films celebrating love, acceptance, family, strength, equality, friendship, loyalty and more have been presented under the festival’s banner.

From the beginning, the PBS Short Film Festival (originally named PBS Online Film Festival) has been a platform and partner for promoting short films from independent filmmakers that are presented by public media partners and PBS member stations. Many of the films cover social issues that traditional film festivals tend to shy away from.

Years Running

12M+

Streams across PBS and Social platforms

400+

Independent films featured

How the Festival Works

Every year, PBS reaches out to PBS member stations and other public media partners during an open submission period. From the hundreds of films submitted, a final collection is picked to represent each partner along the themes of the Festival. In recent years, the Festival has run for two weeks. All films are released at midnight Eastern Time. The films are made available for streaming through the PBS Short Film Festival official site on pbs.org, the PBS App, and on PBS’s YouTube channel. When the festival ends, one film receives the Juried Prize, picked by a panel of independent film professionals. Films are generally available for streaming for two years after premiere in the Festival.

Meet the 2024 Jury

Mike Sargent

Adnaan Wasey

Judith M. Vecchione

Simon Kilmurry

Antonia Thornton

Eric Gulliver

Wendy Llinas

Awards at the PBS Short Film Festival

Over time, changes have been made to the types of awards given out during the Festival. At inception, the Festival highlighted “People’s Choice” and “Most Popular” categories, selected by viewers voting on their favorite films and the films that had the highest viewership. In 2017, PBS combined the voting and viewership awards into a single “Most Popular” award and added a Juried Prize award. In 2021, the “Most Popular” award was retired. In 2022, the Festival won a people's choice Webby award for the best festival or conference category.