Giphy Launches Film Festival for Animated GIFs Under 18 Seconds

Giphy, the online GIF platform founded in 2013, has announced The Giphy Film Fest, a film festival dedicated to micro-films lasting less than 18 seconds. The event will take place on November 8 at the Metrograph Theatre in New York's Lower East Side. A contest open to all GIF creators will award the best animated image a $10,000 cash prize, a five-year Squarespace subscription, and the opportunity to curate an official Spotify playlist. The festival's organizers assert that micro-films up to 18 seconds can be as compelling, fun, creative, and professional as any film featured at world-renowned festivals. Submissions are now closed. The winning GIF will be announced at the event, where participating micro-films will be screened across five categories: Narrative (including comedy, horror, and romance), Experimental (inspired by directors like Steven Spielberg, Kenneth Anger, or Maya Deren), Stop-motion, Animated (using digital or traditional techniques), and Wild card (for unclassifiable works). Giphy's initiative is not the only GIF contest; in 2014, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) launched Gif It Up with DigitalNZ and support from Giphy, promoting historical and artistic materials from digital collections through copyright-free GIFs sourced from Europeana Collections, DPLA, Trove, or DigitalNZ.