Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto, Canada
100
Tier AFIAPFOscarScreenings
Festival dossier
Film Shortage
Canada · Est. 2012 · Established legitimate festival with meaningful track record
Tier BTrusted
Canada
65
Legitimacy ScoreShould I submit?
Solid signals — do normal diligence
Tier B looks established enough for many filmmakers. Check fees, programming fit, and recent editions before submitting.
- No physical screenings
- 14 years of verifiable history
- 3 verified pro signals
Overview
Film Shortage is home to the next generation of filmmakers, premiering some of the best and most diverse short films online. Featuring mind-blowing new shorts daily from the freshest minds today. Selected films will be featured on our Daily Picks, or our Weekly Features. The films also get a chance to be added to our coveted Vimeo Channel or our growing YouTube Channel. We work closely with the filmmakers of the selected films to prepare the best possible online release (or re-release) through our combined social media reach. Deadlines: Our platform is continually active online. Deadlines and event dates are fictional, and are only present for FilmFreeway requirements. New deadlines will be continuously generated.
Last updated Sep 6, 2026
Legitimacy Analysis
Positive Indicators (+30 pts)
- 14 years of verifiable history
- 3 verified pro signals
- Verified trusted status
- Legitimacy signals outweigh concerns (3 vs 1)
Red Flags (-15 pts)
- No physical screenings
Trust Signals
Positive Signals
- FilmFreeway Gold festival
- Documented history with archived programs
- Has FilmFreeway community ratings
Festival Details
Founded
2012
FilmFreeway communityGold festival
Avg. rating
4.0/ 5
Reviews
27
Synced 4 days ago
- Filmmaker
Great platform with a growing Youtube presence to get your film seen. Thrilled that my film, "Breakfast," got its online premiere on Film Shortage!
- Filmmaker
Marco and Film Shortage are at the forefront of making short films accessible and helping filmmakers find their home online. Fully recommend.
- Filmmaker
I was happy with the experience of having our short film "The Wedding Veil of the Proud Princess" featured on Film Shortage! Their team is communicative, unpretentious (if you have experience with short film distribution you'll understand the value of this in particular), and accommodating of filmmakers' needs. The film received a strong response on their YouTube channel, with thoughtful and meaningful discussions in the comment section. They also helped promote the release through their socials. As with any platform, success depends on whether your film fits their audience, but if it does, and if you care about your film actually reaching people's hearts and not just metrics, Film Shortage is a great team to collaborate with!
- Filmmaker
Thank you for inviting Darcine's Day to stream on Film Shortage!!
- Filmmaker
I have no words to describe how amazing Marco and his team are. They helped us craft the perfect online premiere from the moment they selected our short: they communicated with us regularly, took every request of ours into account, and even helped us deal with unexpected copyright strikes (due to songs in the film for which we had the rights). As they have no exclusivity requirement, I encourage everyone to submit their short to Film Shortage. You won't regret it! A HUGE thank you to Marco and everyone at FS for naming "Island Life" the best short of 2025!
FilmFreeway reviews are filmmaker opinions, not our score. Cross-check red flags before paying fees.
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At a glance
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Scores are calculated from structural indicators: accreditations, physical screenings, award category count, submission frequency, and acceptance rate. Higher scores reflect more verifiable legitimacy signals.
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