Started in 1998, the Extremely Shorts Festival is a juried competition of adventurous three-minute or shorter films and videos from around the world. The short format of the festival encourages innovative approaches to moviemaking in a range of genres including narrative, art, experimental, documentary and animation. Each year a different juror (esteemed filmmaker, film programmer or arts curator) selects 20-25 mini-masterpieces to be shown at a two day screening event in June.

Extremely Shorts Film Festival Screenings and the Closing Party Picnic are scheduled for June 17 - 18, 2011. The early deadline for submissions is April 29th, with the late deadline being May 10th. Audience Choice cash awards are given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

Aurora is honored to have Brent Hoff of Wolphin DVD for this year's juror. Brent Hoff is the editor and co-founder of Wholphin DVD where he films drunk bees, crying competitions, and illegal trans-border volleyball matches. Before that he authored Mapping Epidemics, a book on pandemic disease transmission, made TV at The Daily Show, VH1, and Nickelodeon, and wrote articles about squid. He has four feature film scripts in pre-production including one on the Last days of Old Dirty Bastard. He hopes one of them actually gets made someday.

Wholphin is a quarterly DVD magazine published by McSweeney's, lovingly encoded with unique and ponderable films designed to make you feel the way we felt when we learned that dolphins and whales sometimes do it. IFC describes Wholphin as "...the most relentlessly fascinating and inventive showcase for new short films in the country."

Entry Deadlines:

Early deadline submissions is April 29 Late deadline submissions is May 10

Entry Fees:

Early deadline submission is $15 per title. Late deadline submission is $20 per title. Aurora Picture Show members receive up to three free submissions.

Prizes are Awarded at the Closing Party Picnic:

1st Prize - $250 2nd Prize - $150 3rd Prize - $75

Applicants are asked to review all the submission guidelines and fill out a submission form.