Short.Sweet.Film Fest Expands Into Week-Long Event

A scene from Loose Change. Credit: Courtesy of Short.Sweet.Film Fest

For the past 15 years, the Short.Sweet.Film Fest has been a weekend-long affair. But this year, organizer Michael Suglio decided it was time to expand. The annual event will now take place over an entire week; it runs from Feb. 24 to March 2 at Atlas Cinemas Shaker Square.

“We have added an acting competition, a fashion show and a video game fest,” says Suglio, an instructor at Case Western, CSU and Tri-C, over a few drinks at Forest City Brewery. “We have so many different types of artist and performing arts in Cleveland that have shared interests. I thought, ‘Why don’t we celebrate more than just film over the course of a week?’ Video games are different from films, but there are some similarities. Fashion is different but costuming and design have some correlation. And the acting has an obvious connection. “

Screenings will take place in the ground floor screens at the theater. Suglio says that’s intentional. He wants the festival to be accessible.

Out of 400 submissions, Suglio and panel of judges picked about 275 films to screen.

“The quality was really good this year,” says Suglio. “It’s sincerely really good, and the judges have been contacting me about the films and how good they are.”

The festival’s opening night will take feature only local movies, and the first two that’ll screen are noteworthy.

“If you want to come on Opening Night, you have to see local films,” says Suglio. “The opening film, Bully, is really cute. It’s about a 16-year-old girl who is so mean and has to do community hours at the library and sit down with the girl she’s been bullying and learn about the person she’s been bullying.”

The film that will follow Bully, Buried Treasure?, centers on friends from high school who try to relive the past and decide they want to see the one of their friend’s old drawings.

“He buried them in the backyard of his house when he was a child,” says Suglio. “In the middle of the night, they decide to dig them up. They decide to go to the backyard of this guy’s house and start digging, and the person who lives there now confronts them. It’s really funny.”

Both filmmakers will be in attendance.

Loose Change, another opening night film, tells the story of Skyler, a teen trafficking victim, who decides to break free and ends up seeking help from an unlikely source.

While there is an emphasis on local films, the festival features categories for student movies as well as horror and international. One night will feature animated films. A family films program will feature movies that are rated G or PG, and there will be a LGBTQ program.

In addition, there will be an art show in the theater’s lobby.

Suglio hopes this year’s expansion will continue and that one day the festival will grow even more.

“I hope it’ll be a week-long festival going forward, and I hope I can get to ten days at one point,” he says. “There was a survey that went out for all the film festivals in the world, and the average is ten days. It would be nice to expand again and draw more people.”

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