LA Comedy Short Winner 2012

It was announced at Sundance London recently that Americans love short film. It certainly seems they are embracing it beyond the traditional ‘stepping stone’ viewpoint of larger film festivals. Take the LA Comedy Shorts Festival, now in its 4th year, which screened over 100 short films with highlights that included a celebrity short film block with work by Margaret Cho, Michael Cera and David Alan Grier; a discussion with screenwriter Buck Henry (“The Graduate,” “Catch-22”), and a panel Saturday titled “Famous People Talking About S&*%.”

Co-founder Gary Anthony Williams, who has previously written for Malcolm in the Middle, said one of the initial goals of the festival was to encourage actors and comedians to create short films they could use as calling cards to show their skills. However, as the popularity of short form content online gathers pace year on year, short filmmakers are finding themselves being wooed by the likes of Fremantle, Disney and CTV.

“Now there are so many short-form comedy content providers on the Internet,” Williams said, citing websites such as Fremantle Media’s Atomic Wedgie, Yahoo Screen, and Funny or Die (a festival sponsor). “Everybody’s looking for producers and writers and people who can make stuff really funny, really well and really fast.”

Take a look at this year’s Best Comedy Short Winner by Olde Money Boyz. These young Berkley dudes make super-low budget mini-movies inspired by well-loved film and TV shows. Their winning short was an absurdist revenge action drama spoken in an entirely made up language (with an 80’s Soviet Bloc vibe). Check out their other excellent videos here

2012 LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival Winner