Full Frame named Oscar-qualifying festival

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival was recently named an Oscar-qualifying festival for the Documentary Short Subject category. The short film honored with Full Frame’s Jury Award for Best Short will automatically qualify for an Academy Award nomination. For documentary films that don’t play at a qualifying festival, it must be screened in either New York or Los Angeles and be reviewed by a major publication. This can be a challenge, especially for documentary shorts, classified as under 40 minutes. Full Frame Programming Director Sadie Tillery said, “There’s a lot of wonderful work being made in short film and there aren’t a lot of theatrical outlets for it.” Getting a short film screened at a festival is a challenging process, but not nearly as difficult or expensive as having it shown in New York or Los Angeles. Once a short film gets to Full Frame, a three-person Grand Jury, typically veteran filmmakers or people in the industry, select a winner from the eligible films. According to Ryan Helsel, Full Frame’s Marketing Director, “approximately 20 of the films at the festival this year meet the criteria for [the] short [category].” Selection as a qualifying festival reaffirms Full Frame’s status as a nationally and internationally renowned showcase of documentary film.