The Main Idea
UCLA’s Campus Events Commission’s Shorttakes Student Film Festival is an annual student short film competition, open to both current undergraduate and current graduate students from colleges and universities nationwide. We accept short films (under ten minutes) in either live-action/film narrative or animation/digital media categories. The top submissions in each category will be judged by a panel of notable members of the film, television, and entertainment industries. The top submissions will be screened at UCLA at the Shorttakes Festival Finale, where the winners will be announced. Please explore our site to find out more information about our history, this year’s Shorttakes Festival, and how to submit!
History of Shorttakes
The journey of a filmmaker is a difficult one, and finding people to recognize you and your talents can be tough. For this reason, the UCLA Campus Events Commission established Shorttakes in 1992 as a showcase of UCLA student work. Recently, Shorttakes has expanded to accept student work from all over Southern California, and now from all over the nation! This year, we are celebrating our 16th Shorttakes Festival, and we’re here to honor your efforts and shine a light on aspiring student filmmakers from around the nation.
We're proud to say that for the past several years, finalists' films have been reviewed by a panel of distinguished professionals in the entertainment industry. Past judges include:
- Steven Banks, head writer of Spongebob Squarepants
- Adam Rifkin, screenwriter of Underdog, Mousehunt, Small Soldiers, and Zoom
- Daniel Chun, writer on The Simpsons and The Office
- Andrew J. Cohen, associate producer of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Talladega Nights; co-producer of Funny People
- Brendan O'Brien, co-producer of Funny People
- Erik Weise, exec. producer and co-creator of Nickelodeon's The Mighty B!
- Cynthia True, exec. producer, writer, and co-creator of Nickelodeon's The Mighty B!
- Jeff Probst, host of Survivor and writer/producer of Finder's Fee
- Rich Wilkes, screenwriter of xXx: State of the Union and Punk Like Me
- David X. Cohen, writer on The Simpsons and head writer/producer of Futurama
- Steve Evans, VP of Sundance Channel
- Peter Abraham, producer of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
- Bob Dohrmann, production manager on Little Miss Sunshine and Thank You for Smoking
- Jared Hess, director of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre
- Roman Coppola, producer of The Darjeeling Limited and music video director
- Don Hertzfeldt, creator of Rejected and The Animation Show
- and many others.