From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (1895): due to limitations of the film format, early films were necessarily all
short subjects.
is a format description originally coined in the
North American film industry in the early period of
cinema. The description is now used almost interchangeably with
short film; either term is often abbreviated to
short (as a noun, e.g. 'a short'). Although the North American definition generally refers to films of between 20 and 40 minutes long, the definition refers to much shorter films in
Europe,
Latin America and
Australasia. In
New Zealand, for instance, the description can be used to describe any film that has a duration longer than 1 minute and shorter than 15 minutes. The North American definition also tends to focus much more on character whereas the European and Australasian forms tend to depend much more on visual drama and plot twists. In this way, the North American form can be understood to be a derivation of the feature film form, usually acting as a platform for aspirant Hollywood directors. Elsewhere, short films tend to work as showcases for cinematographers and commercial directors.
