Short films are a film which have a running time of less than 40 minutes (credits included). This definition was drawn by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The industry of shorts boomed within the 1920s, where comedy films would only be produced to be short, opposed to being a full-lengthed feature film. 

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They are often screened at local, national or international film festivals, such as Raindance or London Short Film Festival. Short films can be made by international filmmakers for no profit with a very low budget, if any. They can also be funded by film grants, non-profit organisations, or from personal funds. Short films are often made by new filmmakers within the industry to gain experience, recognition and to prove their talent to existing production companies and other big names.

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Pixar take a keen interest in short films, as they have screened a short film before all of their feature film during initial theatrical run since 1995. Since Disney have bought the rights to Pixar in 2006, they have also produced their own short films since 2007. Their first short created was about Goofy and was called 'How to Hook Up Your Home Theater'. They also went on to producting a series of short films, which they uploaded onto Youtube, to promote their upcoming film 'The Muppets' in 2011.