The Short Film Career Impact Lab is a selective, producer-led programme for filmmakers who want their next short film to meaningfully impact their career and move it forward or in a new direction. Led by an Oscar®-shortlisted producer, the lab is designed for writers, directors and producers ready to think strategically about how their next work will progress them within the industry. The lab interrogates how a project operates at a specific career moment, examining scale, ambition, positioning, and intent. Participants apply with an existing short film project, using the lab to pressure-test whether the current version is aligned with their goals, and how it can be refined to unlock momentum, access, and clear next steps. Across an intensive weekend, the lab combines strategic landscape analysis, career positioning, and scale calibration, alongside an overview of the different ways short films can be used to generate professional impact. The focus is on release ambition, production structure, and script design, considered in direct relation to the outcome the project is intended to create. This lab is for creatives ready to frame their short film work as deliberate career leverage, and to make informed, intentional choices about what their next project is designed to unlock.

The Short Film Full Lab is a selective, producer-led programme for filmmakers who want to rigorously develop, package, and position a short film with clear professional outcomes in mind. Led by an Oscar®-shortlisted producer, the lab is designed for writers, directors and producers ready to commit to a single project and shape it in depth across every stage of its lifecycle. Applications are welcomed from individual filmmakers or core creative teams of up to two people per project (for example writer/director or director/producer teams). Each project is treated as a standalone case study, with focused attention on its specific goals, constraints, and opportunities. The lab interrogates the project in detail, examining concept, scale, ambition, positioning, and intent, and how these choices affect development, financing, production strategy, release ambition, and career leverage. Participants work intensively on one short film project, pressure-testing whether it is designed to achieve the outcomes they want, and refining it across creative, structural, and strategic dimensions. Across four days, the lab combines deep script and project interrogation, producer-led feedback, career and market positioning, packaging strategy, and release planning. The focus is on designing a coherent project architecture aligning creative vision, production structure, and circulation strategy so the film can function as a deliberate professional lever.

The lab breaks down how jobs come in, where to find them, how projects move from brief to shoot, and how directors and producers collaborate with agencies, brands, and production companies throughout the process. Participants gain hands-on insight into commercial production workflows, including scheduling, budgeting, crew structures, shoot-day dynamics, and post-production delivery. The focus is on understanding branded production flow end to end: how decisions are made, how timelines are managed, how creative and client expectations are balanced, and what good producing and directing look like in practice. The lab offers practical industry literacy for creatives looking to build paid commercial work that is efficient, professional, and repeatable.

Led by a producer with extensive experience releasing short films internationally - including sales to streaming platforms, television, and digital outlets, and screenings at over 200 film festivals worldwide - the lab focuses on how release decisions shape a film’s visibility, reach, and professional value. Participants gain insight into real-world release workflows, including festival strategy, premiere planning, PR and publicity, submission timelines, materials, and digital circulation. The lab breaks down how festivals, press, and platforms engage with short films, how release strategies are built and adjusted over time, and how PR and positioning influence how work is received. The focus is on understanding circulation end to end, designing release approaches that help short films travel with intention, reach the right audiences, and support long-term creative progression.

The weekend introduces how short films are thoughtfully developed, funded, produced, and released, and how early creative decisions can shape impact and opportunity over time. Participants work with an existing idea or script, using it as a development case study to see how it can evolve from concept to production and release. The weekend combines guided discussion, strategic script interrogation, structured peer feedback, and development-focused exercises that help filmmakers situate their project within a broader professional context. The focus is on understanding the full short-film journey from development and fundraising through production and release and how strong short films are designed to travel in the world. Participants gain insight into how projects attract support, signal creative capability, and create meaningful impact within the short-film landscape and wider industry. Filmmakers explore what matters most in contemporary short filmmaking, including how ideas are read, how scale and ambition influence outcomes, and how creative and production choices affect funding pathways, collaborators, festivals, and audiences. The emphasis is on building a clear understanding of how short films can be shaped to support different goals and aspirations. This weekend is ideal for first-time and early-career filmmakers who want to approach short filmmaking with confidence, intention, and a sense of direction and who want to understand how a well-developed short film can form a strong foundation for future creative work.