![Box[ur]Shorts Film Festival](/images/stories/99.templates/logo.png){kind=logo}
box[ur]shorts™ Film Festival was conceived in 2005 after Giacun Caduff presented the idea of screening movies in jukeboxes to collaborator Ryan Reichenfeld. The two met a few months earlier at a reality TV show and decided to start a short film festival where filmmakers get a lot more exposure than at other short film presentations. “box your shorts!" – box[ur]shorts™ will put short films literally in a box. At Giacun’s apartment in Los Angeles, they constructed the prototype box that would later find its first home at Catch 22 Café in West LA.
The inspiration for the project roots in a 1970s art project where Giacun’s uncle Silvio Caduff would hang paintings in a menu box outside a restaurant in Basel, Switzerland. Taking the concept into the 21st Century, box[ur]shorts™ added LCD screens and interactive panels and gave birth to the movie jukebox. Silvio was named the project’s official Godfather.
Silvio Caduff
The first box was radical. It featured a 7-inch screen, speakers, headphone jacks and even a radio transmitter. Later, an interactive panel, start and restart button were added to the groundbreaking design. Artists painted the jukeboxes and even the inner life was a piece of art, or chaos, depending on how you want to look at it…
The year 2006 marked the kick-off of the 1st film festival competition. The goal was to screen the films in multiple locations, non-stop, throughout the year. A jury would name the best movie and award it with a pair of golden boxer shorts. And it all worked out! The first awards night took place in December 2006 and four lucky winners picked up their box[ur]shorts™ trophies.
During the first year, box[ur]shorts got established at a variety of places and presented the competing short films in locations from Los Angeles to New York City, Basel Switzerland to Hiroshima Japan. The venues included coffee shops, bars, laundromats, and later also a hair salon. In order to provide each location with a box, Giacun and Ryan went back to Home Depot and purchased a bunch of materials to construct more jukeboxes (see all).
Another milestone for the festival happened in 2007. Generous sponsorships made it possible that the winners got prizes worth $5,000 along with their trophies. The awards night also moved into the New Beverly Cinema where it takes place every January.
New Beverly Cinema, Los Angeles
Every year, the box[ur]shorts™ team programs around 50 short films that go on to stream throughout the jukebox network as well as online at boxurshorts.com – The movies are judged by industry professionals such as actor Joel David Moore, actress Sophia Myles, 007-director Martin Campbell, Scott Prendergast and most recently Japanese writer/director Shunji Iwai. Other notable judges are SONY executive Stacey Kalish, producer Shannon Riggs and film critics Kit Bowen from Hollywood.com and Erik Childress from the Chicago Film Critics Association (view all juries).
The festival went under transition during 2009. Before, the short films were screened for a year and it wasn’t until the following January that filmmakers were honored in a ceremony for their accomplishments. Starting in 2010, the Awards Night will kick-off the festival competition and roll out the films inside the movie jukeboxes during the coming year.
box[ur]shorts™ Film Festival is a division of A Bale Pictures, Inc. It is run by festival director Giacun Caduff and head programmer / assistant Bridgette Wiener who first started working for the festival in 2008 as a volunteer. Ryan Reichenfeld stepped down from his active duty but will further serve the project as an advisor and indie ambassador. There are also many volunteers who are invaluable for the festival in order to make the annual awards night in January possible.
