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“I Just Need More Money To Make the Longer Version of It”: On the Proof-of-Concept PROOF Film Festival
Take Me Home (Photo: photo by Film Gate Still) From Half Nelson to Whiplash, Bottle Rocket to Short Term 12, making a short film as a feature proof-of-concept has been a time-tested independent film strategy to generate screenplay interest and secure feature financing. But, in the past, the “proof-of-concept” part of a short’s identity is usually hidden to audiences, revealed only by the filmmakers as they then circulate their screenplays and pitch decks. More recently, though, the proof-of-concept short has come into its own as a sub-genre worthy of its own consideration and showcase. Currently in the middle of its three-day third edition is the American Cinematheque’s PROOF Film Festival, held at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles. Founded by lead programmer Imani Davis, the festival is a way to support future generations of filmmakers, she says, as well as show more shorts at the Cinematheque by highlighting their industry potential.
About the implicit pitch of a proof-of-concept short, Davis says, “It’s even easier when you [can say], ‘This is what I want to do. This is a little bit of it. You can help make the full thing happen, especially if you already like this little bit. I just need more money to make the longer version of it.”
Davis collaborated with Hanna Mason, PROOF film festival manager, to come up with ways to support the festival’s filmmakers. In addition to screening their shorts in blocks, PROOF features panels with managers and agents as well as producers who champion first-time filmmakers. Mason’s work for the festival has also given her insight into what makes a proof-of-concept short successful. She cites Thunder Road and Shiva Baby as examples. “[They] show character and dynamics quickly, and [they’re] contained,” Mason says.
But there are different answers to the question “what makes a proof of concept short good?” Many of the producers and filmmakers I spoke with argue that a good proof of concept short is something that simultaneously works on its own and makes you want to eventually watch the feature version. It’s like an appetizer: satisfying in and of itself but not so filling that it prevents you from enjoying the main course. Says Kyle Stroud, founder and CEO of Carte Blanche Films who served on the jury of last year’s edition of PROOF, “The best [shorts I saw] were the ones that could stand alone as short films…you could show [them] to someone and [they would] not have any idea that it was a proof of concept,” he says.
For Anne Hollister, co-founder and executive at Billy Magnussen’s production company HappyBad Bungalow and a juror at the same edition of PROOF, that’s not always the case. She feels a good proof-of-concept short can excel by showing that a neophyte filmmaker can execute scene work or capture a vibe specific to the project. In that case, it does not necessarily need to provide a satisfying ending or a message in the way that a standalone short does.
“Some excellent proofs do a great job of leaving you on the edge of your seat and wanting to see the full feature,” she says.
PROOF also requires statement of intent videos from the filmmakers, which play after each short is screened. They provide an opportunity for the filmmakers to directly communicate what they need to adapt their work into a feature.
Filmmaker Alex Backes’s visually rich and narratively clever short That’s Our Time played at PROOF during its first year. He originally intended That’s Our Time to tell a stand-alone story before he recognized its potential as a possible feature. It took Backes two years to write the feature version of That’s Our Time, which he finished before attending the festival. The short version went on to win the Grand Jury Prize, which led to more people asking to read the feature script.
Two years later, Backes is frank yet optimistic about his short’s chances of becoming a feature. It has not yet entered production, but he and his collaborators have part of their budget covered by a private investor. Gersh is attached to the feature version of the screenplay and is sending it around to attach production companies and talent.
Writer-director Adi Kalidindi attended PROOF in 2024 with producer Anand Mahalingam and their vibrant comic short, Ronnie California: The King of Artesia . There they connected with a producer who has since been working to get the funding from financiers needed to make the feature version. Mahalingam, who also plays Ronnie California, credits the short with helping him get more representation. “I’ve been with my agents [Rachel Tolliver for theatrical and Jodi Silber for commercial at FSE Talent] for six years, but [Ronnie California] was definitely the premier piece of the submission packet that I [submitted] to the management company [Steinberg/Hanible Talent] to get [my] manager [Sana Hanible],” he says.
One of the most successful recent examples of how a proof of concept short can help a filmmaker fulfill their dream of making a feature is Liz Sargent’s Take Me Home. She wrote and directed this moving short starring her sister Anna as a woman with a cognitive disability (which she has in real life) who navigates crises brought on by the sudden death of her mother. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, won the Grand Jury Prize at the second edition of the PROOF Film Festival in 2024, and then won Tribeca’s AT&T’s Untold Stories prize this past June — the latter awarding the filmmakers $1 million towards their feature.
Other PROOF selections in post-production include Giselle Bonilla’s The Musical, which wrapped production in August; Rex Provost’s Youthful Pleasures, and Minos Papas’s Motherwitch, an early cut of which played at the Frontières Platform in Cannes in the Buyers Showcase category this year. Papas’s proof-of-concept short, then titled The Song of the Witch, played PROOF’s first year festival, and there his wife — Sargent — noticed the visibility it created for the feature project, which he shot several months later. “For both of us it’s been a launching point,” she says.
While proof of concept shorts are an effective way to generate interest and support for a longer version of the same project, they face the familiar daunting odds. This year, PROOF accepted 38 shorts out of over 600 submissions. In addition, sometimes a filmmaker could use the time and resources spent on the short on their feature instead. “The time when it is most obviously important to make a proof of concept is if a first-time director is going after a very specific story or tone,” Hollister says.
Still, proof-of-concept shorts are increasingly visible within the independent film development industry. This past September, The Gotham Film and Media Institute (Filmmaker’s publisher) had its second “Shorts to Feature” section during its annual Gotham Week. Writer-director Gabriela Ortega, whose genre-bending short Huella played at both inaugural events, says that winning the gold award at PROOF and meeting producers thanks to her Gotham selection helped create momentum.
“Both experiences were great because the people that approached you really wanted to be [at these events] and were speaking to you because they were already interested in your project,” she says.
Launching along with this year’s PROOF is PROOF Development, which will give development grants ranging from $500-$2,500 to the prize winners. The plan is to ultimately turn the fund into an endowed one that will help filmmakers pay costs related to the feature versions of their shorts.
