How to Distribute a Short Film (and Where The Short Film Show Fits)

You have finished a short film. Now the question every filmmaker asks: how do I get it seen? There is no single answer, but there is a sensible order of operations, and a few decisions you make once that shape everything after. This guide walks the route from picture-lock to audience, and is honest about where The Short Film Show fits in — and where it doesn't.

1. Decide what "distributed" means for this film

Before submitting anywhere, write down what you want from this film: festival laurels, a public audience, a calling card for the next project, or a small income. The answer changes the order you do things in. A film chasing premieres has to hold back its online release; a film made to build an audience should be online as early as possible. Most shorts do both, in sequence: festivals first, then online.

2. Festivals: the traditional first window

Festivals still open doors — programmers, other filmmakers, press — and many require a premiere status, so they usually come before any public online release. Most short-film festivals take entries through FilmFreeway. Budget for fees, keep a spreadsheet of deadlines and premiere requirements, and be selective: a handful of festivals whose programming matches your film beats a scattergun of fifty.

If you applied to The Short Film Show through FilmFreeway, note that we waive our own submission fee — you have already paid a fee there, and we don't ask you to pay twice.

3. Online platforms: where the audience actually is

Once the festival run is over (or if you skipped it), the choice is where the film lives online. Broadly there are three kinds of home:

• Open video sites (YouTube, Vimeo): maximum reach, no curation, you do all the promotion.
• Curated short-film platforms, like The Short Film Show: a smaller but self-selected audience of people who came specifically to watch shorts, alongside programming that puts your film next to comparable work.
• Sales agents and broadcasters: rarer for shorts, usually reached via festival exposure.

These are not mutually exclusive. A non-exclusive licence on a curated platform sits comfortably alongside your own YouTube channel.

4. The exclusivity decision

Every platform will ask some version of "can other people show this too?" On The Short Film Show you choose at submission between two agreements:

• Non-exclusive — the film may appear on other platforms at the same time. This is the default.
• Exclusive — you keep the film off other platforms for a fixed period. Exclusive films are weighted more heavily within the Filmmaker Impact Fund framework because they help build the platform's audience; when the exclusive period ends the film doesn't disappear — it continues automatically under the standard non-exclusive terms, keeping its page and its viewing history.

Both agreements include a short withdrawal window after signing. Read Exclusive vs Non-Exclusive Submissions before you decide, and keep a copy of whatever you sign, anywhere you sign it.

5. Subtitles multiply your audience

Subtitles are the cheapest distribution tool there is. A film with dialogue in one language and captions in several travels further, is watchable with the sound off, and is accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. Most films with dialogue on The Short Film Show carry subtitles produced by our own pipeline in up to six languages — English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic and Simplified Chinese — and the player lets the viewer pick. Wherever else you publish, upload a caption file rather than relying on auto-captions.

6. Submitting to The Short Film Show — what actually happens

1. Submit from your filmmaker dashboard: the film file, artwork, credits, synopsis and your agreement choice. Standard review costs £9.99 per film. Priority Review costs £25 and carries a 7-day decision target; if we miss it, the difference is refunded automatically.
2. Review. Every submission is reviewed by the team before it goes live — the film plays correctly, the rights and paperwork are in order, and it fits the platform. See What Happens After You Submit.
3. Live. An approved film gets its own page, appears in the catalogue and genre rails, and is eligible for the free 24/7 linear channel, which is also relayed live to YouTube. Viewers can watch on the web or in the iOS and Android apps.

The step-by-step is in How To Submit Your Film.

7. Promote it yourself, wherever it lives

No platform replaces your own promotion. Cut a 30–60 second vertical clip for social. Send the film's page to everyone who worked on it and ask them to share it. Add the link to your website, your festival bio and your email signature. When a platform gives you a permanent page — as The Short Film Show does — that URL is the one to keep using, because everything you share points back to the same place.

8. Money: keep expectations honest

Most shorts earn little or nothing directly, and anyone promising otherwise deserves a hard look. On The Short Film Show, viewers can support you directly through the Tip Jar on your film page, and the Filmmaker Impact Fund sets out a framework for sharing eligible revenue based on real engagement — subject to eligibility and to how the platform performs, and explicitly not a guarantee of payment. Treat any income as a welcome extra, not the reason to distribute.

A distribution checklist

• Master file exported to spec, plus a poster, stills and a synopsis in two lengths.
• Music and footage rights cleared for online distribution, in writing.
• A caption file (.srt or .vtt) in the film's own language.
• A festival plan with premiere requirements noted — or a conscious decision to skip festivals.
• Your exclusivity decision, made once and written down.
• The film's permanent page URL, used everywhere you promote it.

Questions about any of this? Contact support — a person reads every message.