CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland’s annual Short. Sweet. Film Fest has added two extra days of programming to its 2020 event, making it a little less short than its preceding eight years’ worth of film festivals, but just as sweet.
The fest will run from Feb. 26 to March 1, packing programs of short films into the Alex Theater at the 9 in downtown Cleveland.
Festival founder and director Mike Suglio said the expansion was a response to the festival’s rising number of film submissions. The festival received more than 500 contenders for its 2020 event. From that pool, the festival committee selected about 150 films.
“We were getting all these submissions and we wanted to show more films, since we had so many good films,” Suglio said.
Short. Sweet. Film Fest’s two new-for-2020 days of programming are on Wednesday, Feb. 26 (an opening night program) and Thursday, Feb. 27 (a student film night).
The opening night celebration will feature a potpourri of films made in Cleveland and around the world. The evening will also feature a social function for attending filmmakers to network; musician Nate Jones will perform after the films wrap up.
Thursday’s student film program features mostly projects created in Northeast Ohio, but also some student films from around the world. Tickets to student night are discounted, at $15. (Every other block of the festival costs $25.)
Suglio said the rest of the film festival (Friday, Feb. 28 through Sunday, March 1) runs similarly to past years’ programming, with blocks of short films grouped by genres like “drama and music videos,” “comedy and animation” and “horror.”
“We got so many horror films and so many documentaries this year, which, we usually don’t get that many of either,” Suglio said. “They have blocks that are dedicated just to them.”
Short. Sweet will also offer a new feature for any festival ticket holder this year: virtual reality. Animated films, a horror film and a documentary will be available to view on virtual reality headsets in a private room inside the Alex Theater.
Standout films like Oscar-considered “El Astronauta” and Cleveland 48 Hour Film Project prize winner “Inseparable” will be screened. More than half of the film festival’s shorts were created in Northeast Ohio, Suglio said.
“It’s simply beautiful really that so many Clevelanders are now making films themselves, and what’s so special is they wanted to share these with others,” Suglio said. “You have all these people who are all interested in doing the same thing in the same town, and get to share these with others and get feedback. That’s the whole point; aren’t we making these films to show them to other people? That’s why you do it.”
You can find more information about Short. Sweet. Film Fest, including a full schedule of blocks and ticket links, at shortsweetfilmfest.com.
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