About the Festival

The Fortress of the Arts Festival of Shorts is a seasonal film festival created by Kat Reilly of the Fortress of the Arts and Sean McKnight of Cinema Alliance and the Philadelphia Film Industry Meetup Group.

The festival is held in the Fortress of the Arts, one of Philadelphia's most unique and innovative art centers. Since the Fortress welcomes artists from multiple disciplines (film, photography, music, etc.) the events held there end up being a cultural / artistic mix with something for everyone!

The festival is a seasonal film event held 4 times a year, giving filmmakers plenty of opportunities to get their work shown!

As for the types of films shown, we only show short films (so we can fit in a lot of different films) and we don't discriminate based on our own personal tastes or politics. We show everything from narratives to documentaries, music videos and trailers. What we don't show is the YouTube style of video made by someone goofing around with their friends and their camera phone.

We accept films from filmmakers from all over the world, so we typically get films from a wide array of filmmakers that vary in style, scope and level of production.

To find out when the next installment of the festival is taking place, be sure to visit the Events and Schedule page.