Submit Your Short!

film festival

THE HISTORIC VICKERS THEATRE

We are beyond excited to celebrate award-winning short films at the 100-year-old Vickers Theatre in Three Oaks, MI (only 1.5 hours from Chicago). You can look forward to:

Award-Winning Short Films
Filmmaker Q&As
Networking Events
SOTR Swag, and more!

Join our film-loving Vickers Theatre community this Fall for an amazing festival.

FESTIVAL GRAND jURY foREMAN: john hancock

Oscar-nominated and legendary director John Hancock will head up our first-annual Grand Jury to help select which filmmakers will go home with cash and prizes. John is best known for directing the 1973 baseball drama Bang the Drum Slowly along with his cult favorite Let’s Scare Jessica To Death.

“I wanted to do a movie that was legitimately terrifying.”

Hancock created an hallucinatory, nightmarish film in which Zohra Lampert’s Jessica – just released from a mental institution – slowly questions her own sanity while staying in a remote farmhouse.

special screening: oscar-nominated short AND live Q&A

Join us for a one-of-a-kind evening with director John Hancock where we will screen his 1970 Oscar-nominated short Sticky My Fingers... ... Fleet My Feet. This was the short film from 1970 that started it all for John's career...

The story of a group of touch football playing everymen faced with the reality of their aging bodies when defeated by a youthful rival. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film, and played both before Woody Allen’s Bananas in cinemas and on TV during the half-time break of a major American football game. A finely performed, richly characterized film, Sticky My Fingers…Fleet My Feet would form something of a template for Hancock’s future work.

After the screening of this short film, join us for an interview with John followed by an audience Q&A.

MULTIPLE AWARDS & CASH PRIZES

All screened films will be eligible for awards and cash prizes at the end-of-festival ceremony held at the Vickers Theatre. There are multiple ways to win...

Our SOTR team, a panel of Entertainment Industry Judges, and our Jury Foreman will select the festival winners.
The Audience Choice Awards will give festival audiences a chance to vote for their favorite films and award cash prizes to help fund future film projects.

So whether your film has been screened at our partner theaters throughout the year, or it's a new submission, we look forward to considering your work. Here's to celebrating amazing short films this fall in scenic Harbor Country, Michigan!

SUBMIT YOUR SHORT

you help CHOOSE the winners!

Many of the top-scoring films from our Audience Voting System throughout the year qualify to be screened at the annual Shorts on the Road Film Festival (date TBD).

Along with voting all year long at Shorts on the Road theater events across the country, you'll be able to vote live at the festival to help decide which filmmakers go home with awards and prizes.

We will also choose additional submitted shorts to give festival goers a first look at films that will be included in upcoming Shorts on the Road film blocks that will be part of upcoming theatrically distributed shorts blocks.

COME FOR THE FILMS... STAY FOR FOOD & FUN in SCENIC harbor country

We look forward to you joining us at one of the top vacation destinations in the Midwest (and the country). The string of towns along the eastern shores of Lake Michigan are well known for food, art, culture, and community – the ideal location to celebrate the art and culture of the short film community. Here is just some of what our "Third Coast" community has to offer in and around Three Oaks, MI...