The short film has been the corner stone for aspiring storytellers at SCA since the school was founded. This year, at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, USC crossed a milestone in the medium by representing ten percent of the American films at the world’s largest international short film market.

“We were coming off of Sundance, so it was actually more relaxing in terms of business festivals,” said Jerome Sable, an SCA alumnus whose short film The Legend of Beaver Dam was represented at the festival. “We had already sold some of the big territories, so it was nice to be able to hang out with everyone in France and just be a part of such a huge film market.”

USC has had a presence at the Clermont-Ferrand market since 1989 and has had a dramatic increase in participation in the past five years. The Festival attracts around 3000 professionals from all over the world looking for short films. This year, sixty-five projects from USC students and alumni were included in the film market.

“I hope we can increase the number of students submitting and participating in Clermont-Ferrand each year in order to demonstrate the talent and the importance of this school internationally,” said Sandrine Cassidy, director of Festivals and Distribution at SCA. “The market is a place that everyone goes to when they are looking for talent and programming. On our end, year after year, we learn more about how to use the market to our students’ benefit.”

Two SCA related films have secured sales in Japan, ten have secured sale for Italian broadcast and other sales are pending.

The Clermont-Ferrand short film festival is held annually in February. More information can be found at http://www.clermont-filmfest.com.