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Discover the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival

Published 26 January 2022

Every year Clermont-Ferrand hosts the short film festival (Festival international du court métrage), which is today the world's largest film event devoted to short films.

In terms of attendance, it is the second-largest film festival in France after the Cannes Film Festival, and an international benchmark. If you can free up a day or more, you will discover a fascinating world, whether by watching dozens of films or by meeting producers and other directors.

We strongly recommend planning your visit in advance, as the festival attracts a lot of visitors. It is a popular event for meeting lots of people, talking about films and projects in development, and enjoying plenty of high-quality short films.

Over one week, you can attend more than 300 screenings showcasing the creativity that drives contemporary cinema. For the 2022 edition, for example, the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival was set to offer no fewer than 315 screenings devoted to short films.

As well as being a meeting place between the public and filmmakers, it is also a chance to rediscover the pleasure of the cinema. And to try some unusual screenings, such as the cinema-pool session at the stade nautique Pierre-de-Coubertin, where spectators are invited to watch films comfortably settled on rubber rings! There is also the Pop-Up competition (described as a window onto short films from the web, to " build a bridge between emerging digital creation and film festivals "), the YouTube prize for short fiction films, and the Queer Short Film prize (prix du Queer Métrage), which rewards a film from one of the three competitions (national, international and Lab) for its openness to the "world resisting norms".

The heart of the festival lies along boulevard François Mitterrand, at the Maison de la Culture, the Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand, the salle Conchon and the amphi Agnès-Varda (formerly Gergovia, on university premises), but also at La Jetée, the Dollet student residence, the École supérieure d'art de Clermont Métropole and the stade nautique Pierre-de-Coubertin. The festival shop (which also sells tickets, as does the Maison de la Culture) is usually in the Centre Jaude 1.

Festival dates: every year, in early February.

Official website: https://clermont-filmfest.org/