“It is a marriage made in heaven,” said Konstantia Kontaxis, assistant professor of Motion Picture and Video-Film. “The Miami Short Film Festival is now the school’s baby.”

New this year, sponsors Yahoo! and Telemundo have partnered with the festival to display some of the films online. Miami-Dade College is also sponsoring the event.

The festival will open Nov. 26 at the Miami Science Museum and Planetarium with two shorts by School of Communication students, Kirsten Strom’s “Blackbird” and Marc Ruiz’ “Walk in the Park.” Opening ceremonies begin at 7 p.m. The festival runs through Dec. 2.

The majority of the films will be screened at the Cosford Cinema, the Cinematheque in Miami Beach, and the Tower Theatre in Little Havana. Several shorts geared toward children will show at the Miami Children’s Museum Dec 2. More than 100 films will compete for a $12,000 prize.

Four major categories make up the festival—narrative, experimental, animation, and documentary. Thirty minutes is the longest time allotted per film.

“The short is like a quick fix,” Kontaxis said. “You only have to deal with five, 10 minutes if you don’t like the film.”

To expand public appreciation of short film, the Miami-Dade public school system and festival organizers held a series of workshops for high school students interested in film in September.

Kontaxis, along with associate professor Ed Talavera and student volunteers, held the workshops at the Cosford Cinema. 

In another effort, a contest was also established for School of Communication video-film and motion picture students to create a 30-second public service announcement. One is currently available at http://www.miamishortfilmfestival.com.

Kontaxis, who began judging the festival three years ago, has since dropped the gavel and is now the festival associate director.

The judging takes place in three stages, she explained. Once the final list of entries is submitted, the short films or “shorts” are screened before professionals and students.

This year, Kontaxis, Talavera, and Festival Director William Vela hosted a screening for Assistant Professor Evelina Galang’s ENG 405 Creative Writing class. There, students critiqued the films and were shown how to draw inferences between their work and the films.

“It is a great way to expose students to new work and to see what gets programmed into festivals,” Kontaxis said.

In the second stage, two groups of film professionals pared the list even further.

A panel composed of Dean Sam Grogg, “The Devil Wears Prada” director David Frankel, and other professionals chose the final entries.

Though in its sixth year, the festival continues to grow. Goals for next year include expanding the festival to attract more Latin American films and more year-round programming.

“There are not a lot of short film festivals in South Florida,” Kontaxis said. “We are a niche.”

For more information visit www.miamishortfilmfestival.com.