History of the Short Film

‘A short film is classified as any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences define a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits".’
The increasingly rare term ‘short subject’ roughly means the same thing.

Pixar has screened a ‘short’ along each of its feature films during its initial theatrical run since 1995. Since Disney acquired Pixar in 2005, Disney has also produced animated shorts since 2007 with the Goofy short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater.

‘Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures organize an annual release of Academy Award nominated short films in theatres across the US, UK, Canada and Mexico throughout February/March.’
‘Shorts’ are occasionally broadcast as filler when a feature film doesn't fit the standard broadcast schedule. ShortsTV was the first television channel dedicated to short films
.However, short films generally rely on festival exhibition to reach an audience. Such films can also be distributed via the Internet. Certain websites which encourage the submission of short films, such as YouTube and Vimeo have attracted large communities of artists and viewers.
Short films are a typical first stage for new filmmakers. It helps open doors for people who are trying to get into the media/ film industry.

Short short films are sometimes considered as a category of their own. The International Festival of Very Shorts is a festival based in Paris which shows only films less than three minutes long. Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, has presented and promoted a collection of one-minute films across multiple media since September 2006.