About the Festival

In the mid-90’s Eric Donaldson, Shane May and a handful of other would-be film makers started a festival for low-budget / no-budget films in Rochester called the Happy Penguin Film Festival. The festival was a real success for several years and a source of a lot of fun and creative output.

The Happy Penguin was eventually retired and I and other former participants lamented over the loss.  Then, roughly three years ago, I and Mike Pruett, the CEO of MLT Group Advertising & Marketing, decided to stop complaining and start producing. We began sponsoring a new festival in Rochester for independent short films, utilizing the resources of MLT Group and other community sponsors like Johnson Printing to create what has grown into a terrific annual film festival celebrating independent short films.

The films entered in our first two festivals spanned a wide range from wacky comedies to dark, brooding dramas. As we move closer to this year’s event we are excited by the continued high quality of entries. We are also thrilled to have a new sponsor in Cinemagic Theatres and the opportunity to run the festival showings for a full week at one of Cinemagic’s outstanding stadium seating facilities!

Possibly best of all, is the Red Carpet event planned for Friday November 9th, 2007. This glitzy affair, complete with red carpet, limos and champagne, will provide our film makers, actors and other notables the opportunity to walk the red carpet, talk to fans, do interviews with media and soak up the fun of having their creative works on the big screen!

A night out at the 3rd Annual Rochester Independent Short Film Festival is an opportunity to be thrilled and tickled by a wonderful variety of highly creative short films by a colorful cast of talented folks, as yet unspoiled by the money-making imperatives of Hollywood.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Ted St. Mane
Director of Operations
MLT Group Advertising & Marketing