The mission of 24fps is to celebrate and encourage student and independent filmmakers. Festival public screening programs are designed to highlight the creator as much as the work itself. All exhibited films are introduced by a commentator, and filmmakers in attendance are given the opportunity to speak to the festival audiences at the close of their film’s exhibition.

The films are presented as part of three curated programs. All films are screened in the festival exhibition venue, the landmark Paramount Theatre.

The Paramount is a restored 1930s performing arts facility, home to the Paramount Film Series, ballet, opera, concerts, musical theater, countless local organizations, and the 24fps International Short Film Festival.

The facility features state-of-the-art digital projection and sound, making it one of the most well-equipped theatres in the Southwestern United States. The facility is on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2024 over 2,000 projects were submitted to the 24fps International Short Film Festival. Of those projects, 30 will be selected to screen as part of our 20243 Competition and Public Exhibitions.

Now in its 25th year, the 24fps International Short Film Festival has earned a reputation for presenting some of the most acclaimed and challenging exhibition programming on the festival circuit.

It's an exciting yet tumultuous and uncertain time for movies, the world's greatest art form.

As feature films have shifted more and more toward massive "sure thing" studio tentpoles, it seems that creative risk-taking has taken a back seat... but quietly and with less fanfare, smaller independent movies backed by companies like A24 and NEON (among many others) have been swinging hard for the fences.

What fuels this movement, and where do these filmmakers come from? Short films. Short films are the breeding grounds for keeping our world's greatest art form alive. Short films and their gifted makers are the artistic spearheads of the future of movies, and nowhere else will you see so many in one place as here. We need them and should be grateful for them. I'm honored to be a witness to such talent and to be a part of this great festival.