About SFO

Short Film Otago supports screen-drama in Otago. We encourage writers to develop short film scripts. The best scripts submitted are guided through a rigorous script editing process.

Two or three are selected each year for production with the Short Film Otago executive producer team overseeing the process (click here for more details).

 What we seek

The kind of short films we seek should:

  • Have a strong story – an effective ending is probably the most important factor

  • Be visually powerful or interesting

  • Be compelling in originality, character and setting

  • Be stories of today although we won’t rule out an interesting futuristic or historical treatment

  • Be tragedy or comedy or horror or just simply dramatic

  • Normally have a maximum length of 10 to 15 minutes

  • Be fiction rather than documentary

  • Appeal to a significant audience

  • Above all something must happen.

In the first instance (unless you already have a script written) we want to see just a one or two page outline of your short film and do not require a budget. It must however be a film achievable on a modest budget. Strong in its ideas and simple in production.

We are keen to see projects from writers, directors, and teams of a writer and a director or writer and producer. It would be possible for a producer to recognise a compelling short story and submit that.

The film will have to be shot in Otago but it doesn’t have to be about Otago necessarily. Either the writer or the director should be normally resident in the province or have strong family connections with Otago.

Our role

  • Support screen-drama in Otago

  • Manage publicity for the initiatives, including newspaper, a website and a road-show of seminars

  • Organise short film script writing workshops

  • Assess scripts

  • Appoint script editors to work with writers

  • Gather a data base of prospective production talent & facilities

  • Judge the best scripts to go into production

  • Facilitate production teams for the chosen films

  • Executive produce the chosen films

  • Manage the administration of Short Film Otago

Our Funding

We are very grateful to the Otago Community Trust who are our principal funder.

We are also very appreciative of the Accounting services provided by Crowe Howarth and the generous support provided on many levels by Natural History New Zealand.