About Minimalen Short Film Festival

Minimalen is an annual, independent short film event, covering new international releases and retrospectives, as well as premiere screenings of new Nordic and Norwegian shorts. Other international contributions are screened in panoramas, with an Audience Award of 500 Euro.

Based in the attractive old town of Trondheim, Norway, Minimalen came to life in 1988. Trondheim is the main city in Trøndelag, the central part of Norway by latitude, and the country's first capital back in the good old Viking days, due to the remarkably good agricultural conditions in the area. More info on Trondheim here >

Over five days in March each year, Minimalen screens around 200 shorts, roughly divided in three sections: Nordic and Norwegian competitions, International panoramas, and special programmes. The Nordic section offers a convenient way for foreigners to be updated on the state of shorts in the whole region. Out of the two Norwegian competitions, the One-minute-film competition is most reknowned and has been with us over all the years. This extreme runtime limit demands economic discipline from the filmmaker, thus being a perfect practising format for young people. Special programmes in 2008 were covering the visiting directors Bill Plympton and Peter Greenaway.

Over the years Minimalen has refined its main objective into finding new ways to use the film as a medium. This often means independent productions with a free spirit attitude to filmmaking and an emphasis on images and film language more than words. The ideal filmmaker should be on a constant quest to find the right form for each story. Not that they necessarily need to tell a story, but basically, each film should have its own fingerprint, a uniqueness which goes far beyond the constant re-telling of the same storyline as in the contemporary film industry. The small gems of up to 15 minutes, fiction or animation films told by experimental means. Not necessarily artistically ground breaking or technically perfect, but with a conformity of form and contents. These are the films that Minimalen are looking for, and this is what sets us a apart from many festivals.

The 26th Minimalen Short Film Festival is due March 12-16, 2014. For international shorts, please note that participation is available by invitation only.

Contact information

Minimalen Short Film Festival
Foundation, Norwegian Organization No. NO 983 418 767 MVA
Address: Kjøpmannsgata 35, NO-7011 Trondheim, Norway
E-mail: festival@minimalen.com
Web: www.minimalen.com
Social: facebook.com/minimalen | twitter.com/minimalen

Festival map here >

Festival Team 2014

Sending a film file (screening copy)

Minimalen operates in a certified D-cinema, and thus prefers DCP as screening format.

Priority 1: Deliver the film as a DCP.

Priority 2: If you do not have a DCP, the film can be delivered as a Quicktime HD file with codec Apple Prores 422 HQ (HD 1080p, 2-channel audio). Minimalen will then perform the necessary conversion to DCP for the purpose of this screening.

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