Leiden Shorts

Leiden Shorts is an annual short film festival held in the city of Leiden, The Netherlands. Leiden Shorts (previously known as Leiden International Short Film Experience) was founded in 2009 as a cineclub and has grown to become one of the Netherlands' largest international short film festivals.

History
Founded in 2009, LISFE (Leiden International Short Film Experience) was created by 5 cinema-loving expats. While they were studying at Leiden University, the first and oldest university in the Netherlands, they felt that short film was grossly underrepresented as an art form and sought to create a space where short film could truly be appreciated as a medium.

From their love of short film, a cineclub was born. Held in sporadic locations, it was an open space for cinephiles of all genres. Above all, this cineclub shone a new and open spotlight on short films.

Today, what was originally a one-day festival has grown into Leiden Shorts, one of the most prominent short film festivals in the Netherlands. Fourteen editions later, the now 4-day festival has gone from screenings in Leiden’s underground art spaces to collaborations co-hosted by Leiden’s cinemas.

Next to the main festival, Leiden Shorts is involved in cultural events throughout the year in collaboration with several organisations in Leiden and its surroundings. Examples are Leiden International Film Festival (LIFF), Leiden Observatory, RAP, Vrijplaats Leiden, Cultuurmaand, Nacht van Ondekkingen and Museumnacht Leiden.

Leiden Shorts is a member of Talking Shorts.

Jury
Since 2012, the festival has three categories of awards – General Award, Student Award and Audience Award. In 2020, a National Award was created, and the General Award was renamed International Award. The juries for the National, International, and Student Awards are generally composed of scholars, filmmakers and other film professionals alike. The audience votes during the festival and the results are announced on the last day of the festival. During the festival's retrospective edition in 2023, the Retrospective Audience Award was awarded to three films with the highest audience rating.

1st Edition: 29 May 2009

 * Best Professional Film Jury Award: Spitted by Kiss (dir. Milos Tomić), Czech Republic
 * Best Professional Film Audience Award: Tanghi argentiny (dir. Guy Thys), Belgium

2nd Edition: 28–30 May 2010

 * Best Professional Film Jury Award: Efecto Domino (dir. Gagriel Gauchet), Cuba and Germany
 * Best Professional Film Audience Award: Edgar (dir. Fabian Busch), Germany

3rd Edition: 10 June 2011

 * Best Professional Film Jury Award: Casus Belli (dir. Yorgos Zoi), Greece
 * Best Professional Film Audience Award: Teclópolis (dir. Javier Mrad), Argentina
 * Best Student film Audience Award: Bastagon and the Rainbow Princess (dir. Marc Schlegel), Austria
 * Jury Honorable Mention: Air (dir. Fabrizio Fracassi and Florian Graf), Switzerland

4th Edition: 9 June 2012

 * Best Professional Film Jury Award: Bread (Ekmek) (dir. Koray Sevindi), Turkey
 * Best Professional Film Audience Award: The Hour's Home (A Casa das Horas) (dir. Heraldo Cavalcanti), Brazil
 * Best Student film Audience Award: Assemblé (dir. Miguel Ferraez from Universidad Anahuac), Mexico
 * Best Student film Jury Mention: Grandmothers (Abuelas) (dir. Afarin Eghbal from the National Film & Television School), UK
 * Jury Honorable Mention: The Counting Device (Numărătoarea manuală) (dir. Daniel Sandu), Romania
 * Jury Honorable Mention: The Star (Hviezda) (dir. Andrej Kolencik), Slovakia

5th Edition: 1–8 June 2013

 * Best Film Jury Prize: DYKWLI (Do you know what love is) (dir. Leni Huyghe), Belgium, 2012
 * Best Film Audience Award: Los Retratos (Portraits) (dir. Iván D. Gaona), Colombia, 2012
 * Beste Student Film Juryprijs: Adem'in kuyusu (Well of adem) (dir. Veysel Cihan Hızar), Turkey, 2012
 * Jury Honorable Mention: Marze shekaste (Broken border) (dir. Keywan Karimi), Iran, 2012

===6th Edition: 1–3 May 2014 ===
 * Held at Scheltema Leiden
 * General Award: Baghdad Messi (dir. Sahim Omar Kalifa), United Arab Emirates and Belgium, 2013

7th Edition: 30 April–2 May 2015

 * Held at Meelfabriek Leiden
 * Audience Award: Mama Agatha (dir. Fadi Hindash), Netherlands, 2014
 * General Award: Symphony no. 42 (dir. Réka Bucsi), Hungary, 2014

8th Edition: 29–30 April 2016

 * Held at Haagwegvier Leiden
 * Audience Award: Within Four Walls (dir. Hyo Kaag), Netherlands, 2015
 * General Award: Allegory of the Jam Jar (dir, Boris Kuijpers & Ruth Mellaerts), Belgium, 2015

9th Edition:13–14 May 2017

 * Held at Het Leidse Volkshuis
 * Student Award: Digital Immigrants (dir. Dennis Stauffer & Nortbert Kottmann), Switzerland, 2016
 * Audience Award: Watu Wote (All of us) (dir. Katja Benrath), Germany, 2016
 * General Award: Il Silenzio (dir. Ali Asgari), Italy and France, 2016

10th Edition: 11–13 May 2018

 * Held at Kijkhuis
 * Student Award: Fast Alles (dir. Lisa Gertsch), Switzerland 2017
 * Audience Award: Why I Wrote The Bible (Pourquoi J'ai écrit la Bible) (dir. Alexandre Steiger), France, 2017


 * General Award: 5 Years After The War (Cinq ans après la guerre) (dir. Samuel Albaric, Martin Wiklund, Ulysse Lefort), France, 2017

11th Edition: 9–12 May 2019

 * Held at Kijkhuis
 * Student Award: Weltschmerz (dir. Jesper Dalgaard), Denmark, 2018
 * Audience Award: The Fathers Love Begotten (dir. Ian Thomas Ash), Japan, 2019
 * General Award: Between the Shadows (dir. Alice Guimarães & Mónica Santos), France and Portugal, 2018

12th Edition: 10–13 September 2020

 * Held at Kijkhuis
 * Theme: Climate (In)Justice
 * Student Award: Here and There (dir. Melisa Liebenthal), France and Argentina, 2019
 * National Award: Baba (dir. Sarah Blok & Lisa Konno), Netherlands, 2019
 * Audience Award: Invisível Herói (Invisible Hero) (dir. Cristèle Alves Meira), Portugal, 2019
 * International Award: Carne (Flesh) (dir. Camila Kater), Brazil, 2019

13th Edition: 2–5 September 2021

 * Held at Kijkhuis
 * Theme: Rooted: Dutch Multicultural Society
 * Student Award: Filipiñana (dir. Rafael Manuel), Philippines and UK, 2020
 * National Award: Dear Chaemin (dir. Cyan Bae), Netherlands, 2020
 * Audience Award: White Eye (dir. Tomer Shushan), Israel, 2020
 * International Award: Heaven Reaches Down the Earth (dir. Tebogo Malebogo), South Africa, 2020

14th Edition: 9–12 June 2022

 * Held at Kijkhuis
 * Theme: Between Fact and Fiction
 * Student Award: Ob Scena (dir. Paloma Orlandini Castro), Argentina, 2021
 * National Award: Minimal Sway While Starting My Way Up (dir. Stéphanie Lagarde), Netherlands, 2021
 * Audience Award: From the Balcony (dir. Aris Kaplanidis), Greece, 2021
 * International Award: It’s Raining Frogs Outside (dir. Maria Estela Paiso), Philippines, 2022

15th Edition: 14–16 September 2023

 * Held at Kijkhuis and Nobel
 * Theme: Re-Thinking | Re-Showing
 * Retrospective Audience Award (the three films with the highest audience rating, in alphabetical order): Love, Dad (dir. Diana Cam Van Nguyen), Czech Republic, 2021 | My Uncle Tudor (dir. Olga Lucovnicova), Belgium, Portugal, Hungary and Moldova, 2021 | Sisters (dir. Katarina Rešek Kukla), Slovenia, 2021