The Short Film Lab

The Short Film Lab is a training program dedicated to short film distribution.

Online and free, aimed at Spanish speakers independent producers.

About

The Short Film Lab combines a free training program, open to the public; and a series of tailormade mentorships for selected projects through an open call.

In order to spot the diverse paths for each type of short film, the open activities are lead by Spanish-speaking professionals and address issues related to planning festival strategies, niche circuits and regional calendars.

On the other hand, projects representatives selected from a call, receive tailor-made mentorships, in order to advise on the definition of their objectives and the strategies to follow to achieve them.

In a virtual format, suitable for cultural activity decentralization and for the democratization of training programs, it is a meeting and teamwork platform.

Objectives

The Short Film Lab aims to boost the professional growth of its participants. May their mentorships enrich people as well as short films, and guide them towards a distribution circuit designed according to each of them.

It is proposed to promote the visibility of the large number of short films produced in Argentina and in the rest of the Spanish-speaking countries. In this way, make known new and diverse voices, carriers of their identity and those of their communities, to the whole world.

Special Edition

In its fourth year, The Short Film Lab presents a Special Edition focus on the development of short films, in addition to distribution, as it is usual in its program.

In August, TSFL offered a series of online workshops accessible for free, led by Spanish-speaking professionals from Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile.

As part of this special edition, The Short Film Lab, in partnership with the European Film Festival (ECE 2024), organized by the European Union in Argentina, launched a short film competition giving three economic support prizes for distribution.

The winners of the contest has been selected by a prestigious international jury: Enrico Vannucci (Locarno Film Festival), Tim Redford (Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival), and Anne Gaschüetz (Dresden Short Film Festival).

For the first time, the personalized mentoring section of The Short Film Lab will take place in-person in Montevideo, Uruguay, as part of Ventana Sur, the most important market for audiovisual content in Latin America.

Within the "En Breve" section dedicated to short films, a program for development projects will be carried out, entirely curated by The Short Film Lab, and for shorts in post-production, jointly curated by both institutions.

In collaboration with Bogoshorts and the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, The Short Film Lab and Ventana Sur aim to continue promoting the short film industry globally.

Acerca de

Neither rehearsal, nor anteroom, nor test.

We believe in the short film as a production format, as an autonomous cinematographic piece with its own purpose.

We believe in its artistic, technical and narrative value and quality.

That is why we created The Short Film Lab.

Direction

We are Facundo Lema and Maca Herrera Bravo, image and sound designers, graduated from the University of Buenos Aires.

We are part of Imprudencia, the short film production company with which we made Monstruo Dios, directed by Agustina San Martín. That short film has won the special mention of the jury in the Official Competition of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.

Our short film was declared of interest by the Senate of the Argentine Nation and since its premiere in 2019 has participated in more than 40 festivals worldwide, including four festivals classified as class A according to FIAPF.

Facundo Lema

Director

Maca Herrera Bravo

Director

Facundo has built his professional career within prestigious film festivals including the Dubai International Film Festival, the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, and BAFICI. He served as Coordinator of BAL - Buenos Aires Lab, the project development and co-production platform of BAFICI - Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival.

He is a graduate of EAVE Puentes and Locarno Industry Academy. Facundo is actively involved in IFFR PRO, the industry section of the Rotterdam International Film Festival, where he also contributes as a member of the CineMart Selection Committee.

Furthermore, he is a partner at Imprudencia, focusing on the development of short films, and he is as co-director of The Short Film Lab.

Maca has served as Communications Director at the Ministry of Culture of the Province of Buenos Aires. She has worked at film festivals such as the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and BAFICI, where she also served as Coordinator of BAL - Buenos Aires Lab, a platform for co-production and development of Latin American projects. Additionally, she curates the training and industry activities of the European Film Festival in Argentina.

She is an associate producer of the documentary Los Paisajes, directed by Hernán Fernández (International Competition, DOKLeipzig 2022). Maca was also a producer and assistant director on Victoria Giesen's Hector, which premiered at the 69th Berlinale Shorts.

She is a co-founder of Imprudencia and The Short Film Lab.

Partners

The Short Film Lab is a non-profit program that promotes young professionals in independent production, collaborating with their insertion in the market, a fundamental aspect from the point of view of cultural economies.

This platform provides tools to obtain the best results for each distribution plan. Either to close a good deal with a potential distributor or sales agent, or to absorb this work internally, as often happens in the independent circuit.

It connects people and institutions with the common goal of amplifying new, diverse, de-stereotyped and honest stories.

We invite institutions and entities to collaborate with economic contributions and alliances of all kinds.

We welcome ideas, proposals and the union of many small forces to achieve a great impulse.