A lot of filmmakers around the world typically state of short films being nothing more than calling cards to showcase potential producers/studios on what your skills are as a filmmaker. I can’t blame them fully as generally, we weren’t educated on recent and ever growing platforms either dedicated to shorts/videos beyond just YouTube and Vimeo… and only educated in film schools that the only way to earn any money is from private premiers and hopefully win prize money from film festivals. 

And before you go ahead and say “But surely distributors can grab my film from me and put it out there on NETFLIX and Amazon prime and such…” Oh you sweet yet naive idiot. 

Firstly, notable and underground distributors generally don’t take shorts unless its made from Pixar or a famous director or something since they get as much eyeballs as a feature or documentaries.

Secondly, Most popular streaming services as a rule of thumb don’t insert shorts into their catalogues. Not many people watch as much shorts in the same way we watch features or doco’s, therefore, they would consider it a waste of money for streaming services to acquisition into their catalogues if not many people by design are going to watch them frequently.

But that’s not to say its all doom and gloom with no way to earn something from your shorts. Luckily, upon during my research on film distribution whilst making my first short outside of film school “FULL CIRCLE” I would like to shed some hopeful light on new filmmakers out there that have just created a short and clueless with what do do with them more than just slot them into your showreel or film festivals. Here are the tips, ideas and platforms you can submit and monetise your shorts;

. Theatrical releases = You can contact a local cinema to hire a cinema hall for you to showcase your short film on a certain date and create a ticked screening event. If their quotes aren’t listed on their websites, you can ask for a quote to help calculate costs (including marketing & DCP testing). It would be wise to contact and network with local filmmakers where you can showcase other filmmakers shorts to aid with splitting the screening hire costs. In exchange you can offer a profit share system with all involved. Make sure you invest into marketing your event locally via word of mouth and social media’s to get bums on seats. You can also offer mercy to throw into the mix like posters, t shirts, USB’ etc… if done right, this can be a potential source of income from your short film.

. Website = You can create a filmmakers website to showcase and sell your shorts directly from your followers and customers. The price is up to you and can create one via Wix, square space, Shopify etc… Kinda meta bringing this up whilst you’re reading this on my website eh?

. Shortly = Shortly is a platform/App with the intent of exclusively streaming short films around the world. It’s a Combination of SVOD/AVOD options for filmmakers to monetise their shorts when they submit here. It’s a relatively new platform but its gaining traction amongst new filmmakers and new streamers.

. Vidiverse = founded by Notable Director Alex Proyas (The Crow, iRobot, Gods of Egypt), Vidiverse was created with the intention of kickstarting the commerciality of shorts in both auteur and non auteur style shorts. Shorts there can be viewed via a transaction or through a subscription. There are a few originals along with being able to directly submit your short here.

. INDIEFLIX = IndieFlix takes almost any bit of video content independently made from shorts to features to series to documentaries. They do a 50/50 split of the total generated revenue of the platform as a whole with the platforms and filmmakers. 

. Film hub = (kanopy, slash shorts, filmocracy, Filmzie) A platform where filmmakers big and small can self upload almost any form of content wether they are Features, shorts, Documentaries or music videos. They’ll be forwarded to all the streaming platforms under their belt that accept your content and have some big streaming companies like Amazon prime, Apple TV and Hulu etc… Their primary methods of earning money are TVOD, SVOD and AVOD. There’s no upfront fees to upload your shorts but they do take 20% of total revenue made monthly or quarterly.

. Cineshort = An app platform where they showcase short films around the world both old titles to award winning festival run shorts. Their primary method of earning money are TVOD, SVOD and AVOD.

. WeShorts = A short film streaming platform based in Italy but they accept shorts that contain any language. They operate under an SVOD model.

. Facebook watch = This one goes without saying but for those living under a rock for a few years, you can upload and monetise all kinds of video content on facebook watch. As long as you have a facebook account/page, you’re good. They operate and monetise on via ads per certain views (they fluctuate and very due to type of content and from location to location). This seems to be an ever growing platform for short form content.

. Twitter/X = Thanks to their recent ad revenue share program, you can upload your short film and posts related to your content in general and start earning even use from ads and sponsors.. There are some conditions you must follow through however to be eligible, like having a premium account, a minimum of 500 followers and at least 5M organic impressions within 3 months, so try to drive as much traffic as you possibly can to achieve this creator to start making money on twitter.

. FENIX360 = A growing TVOD platform dedicated to artists and creators as a marketplace for them to sell their content. These range from pre ticket releases to mercy to videos to even NFT’s. You can manually set the price on your short film to any amount desired during the upload process.

. Instagram reel/TikTok = cmon, you don’t really need me to let you know this is a good way right? You can re export your shorts into vertical aspect ratio along with cutting them into bite size chunks in top multiple parters and release them accordingly.  If you’re based in the USA, They can be monetised via their creator programs where they may show on a previous reel and earn a portion of the ad revenue from that. The ad revenue varies anywhere from $0.20-$0.40 per 1000 views.

. Argo media = an established streaming service that’s dedicate to showing shorts from first releases to award winning shorts straight from Sundance. There are some shorts there with now prolific talent like Benedict Cumberbatch. Who would’ve thought?

. Dailymotion = Another form of YouTube that operates on the same basis but doesn’t seem to be  as popular compared to YouTube for some reason. Their CPM seems quite alright being $75 per hour played on your video per 1000 views, regardless of the type of content. If you can market your short well to draw people in to Dailymotion, you’d be making a good move I believe.

. Bitchute = A version of YouTube that’s more aligned with non fiction content, however you’re still at liberty to upload fictional shorts and such. This would seem like an ideal platform for short videos/documentaries. They’re operated and monetised via a shared AVOD scheme akin to twitters new scheme.

. Indie shorts = An app platform specifically for indie short films. They showcase shorts from no budget to relatively high budget shorts in any genre. They operate and monetised via AVOD.

. Shorts TV = A very notable platform tailored for shorts that has been going on for a while now. Most of their viewers stem from the UK and Europe but are growing to a global scale. They operate and monetised via AVOD and SVOD methods. 

. Shortindies = ShortIndies is…you guessed it, another exclusively short film streaming platforms primarily popular in Europe. They’re a combo of SVOD and AVOD options.

. NetIndie = NetIndie is a streaming service showcasing indie film projects. We specialise in short, experimental films and other filmed entertainment. We are pleased to offer one of the most lucrative monetising packages to our content providers so that our filmmakers can create more great content for our viewers.

. Minute shorts = This is an OTT platform for short films based in the UK. However, they also include western short films. Primarily AVOD based structure.

. No budge = A unique platform for short film distribution and streaming that doesn’t discriminate on any quality and genre of short films. You can submit for a small fee like $25 or something and its there forever. Fully accessible and fully monetisable to the filmmakers. Since you pay an upfront free, you keep 100% of the residuals earnt from your short on there.

. Vimeo/Vimeo OTT =  This one is pretty known in the filmmaker circles. Think of it as YouTube for creatives. You can see content ranging from music videos to feature length films. They can operate and monetise via TVOD and AVOD methods. You can either set a custom price for people to directly buy or just place ads before hand for free for people to enjoy.

. YouTube = This is an obvious one. If for some reason you don’t know what this platforms , its the biggest online video platform to date. You can earn money from uploading your short film onto here. It’s a 55/45 split with average CPM being $18-36 per 1000 views (at least in Australia, rates vary from location to location) but can generally earn a bigger CPM if your short is longer than 10 minutes.

. Patreon = A platforms where you can connect a YouTube account with and get people to donate to your channel for exclusive perks that you can custom create for your donors. You can control donation amount and different level of perks per subscription. 

. Buy me a coffee = Basically a newer alternate version of Patreon. Similar details as written above for Patreon.

. Crypt TV = a network for short form content where they’re open to other filmmakers to submit your shorts onto their platform for an agreed upon cut per frequency of time.

. Gumroad = Just like FENIX360. Gumroad is a reputable TVOD platform dedicated to artists and creators as a marketplace for them to sell their content. These range from e-books to merch to videos. You can manually set the price on your short film to any amount desired during the upload process.