Short films target audience, institutional context and film festivals.

The target audience for short films is very small, this mainly due to the subject matter that short films output. Unlike big hollywood block busters that appeal to a mass market e.i. James Bond, short films present a message to challenge beliefs and face issues like mental health or human greed forcing the audience to think. Short films are 90% of the time made by small independent film makers as an outlet to show their talent. The short film genre doesn't really follow any basic conventions unlike other genres such as action which have manly conventions some of these being, big budget high action entertainment, heavy use of CGI and special FX to create a hight action film.
A typical action film is die hard:




Ive watched loads of short films and the only convention i can see is the delivering of a message, for example 'black Button'.



The film like many others challenges human greed, the main character has the choice to push a button and get £10m or leave, the catch is if he takes the money someone will die. He pushes the button and he is the one who dies, he could of just left the room and lived but because of his gre proberly ed he dies. This is a typical short film.
I believe that the target audience for short films would mainly be media students and people who are involved in the creative world. If i wasn't a media student i probably wouldn't even bother to watch the short films available.

Because the films have such a small target audience there isn't an opportunity for them to be shown in big cinemas, the only outlet they have apart from the internet is film festivals, most major countries have them according to www.britfilms.com major hollywood blockbusters are shown at the festival along-side short films, the most famous would have to be canes. Film makers win various awards for their work.