“Short subjects” was the term used instead of short movies when these first appeared in theatres at the beginning of the century, usually before or after the main feature films. However, with full length movies productions increasing and the arrival of television, short movies declined as they made no financial sense anymore. In fact, with time short films became the training arena for aspiring film makers.
We could say that, if short films had a life cycle then it is one that started as a commercial medium, died, and then reinvented itself as a pedestal for young filmmakers to exhibit their talent. Short movies were also used for experimentation. This still sets this form of visual art a part from their “extended-feature-film” brothers. There are less corporate restrictions on what story to tell and how to tell the story. Not only, especially in Europe, short movies have acquired their own status and are now cinema and, a form of art expression in their own right.
Festival of short movies have flourished since the 1980s and us, Italian Nights, for the 5th consecutive year are paying tribute with our special Festival-way to the art of Cinema and the short movie form of visual expression.
CFI
[...] Short Movies, short history part 1… April 2010 [...]