A national film festival that condenses the traditional film format into a 90-minute compilation of comedy shorts will premiere for the first time in Baton Rouge at 8 p.m. Friday at the Shaw Center For The Arts.
The films featured in the Laugh Out Loud Short Film Festival are English-language comedies that are no longer than 22 minutes each, according to Executive Director Joe Edick. These shorts are submitted from places all around the world, including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Edick was involved with another film festival for 10 years prior to LOLSFF that featured all types of films. The inspiration for LOLSFF came from the desire to create a smaller niche festival that showcased comedies, one of his favorite genres.
At each showing, there are two awards that are voted on: the Best Short Film Award and the Audience Choice Award. The Best Short Film Award is voted on by the booking agents, who book the films for the different locations, and the Audience Choice Award is voted on after each show via mobile device.
The votes for each award are tallied over the course of the year. Edick says that every film has been chosen for the Audience Choice Award at least once at various locations.
The selection process for picking each film is typical of most film festivals. First, the festival jury solicits entries from across the globe, then the jury grades each film.
After they see all the films, the jury will re-watch them and decide which shorts are alotted into the 90-minute time frame. According to Edick, the first half-hour of content is chosen unanimously, but the last hour is a battle.
The difference between this year’s festival and last year’s is that 2012 festival was composed of 17 family-friendly comedic shorts, and this year features 9 shorts that are “unrated, uncut and unapologetic,” which make way for a different type of filmmaker.
Although LOLSFF wants to make people “laugh out loud,” it also aims to expose “the wealth of undiscovered filmmakers” that deserve more attention than they receive.
Edick says that some might recognize a few familiar faces in the films, though he didn’t reveal any names  — alumni of the festival include people from popular commercials and regulars on sitcoms.
In the future, Edick looks to expand the fest to include more locations and possibly do a campus tour because their product would be perfect for college students.
Tickets are $8.50 and can be bought at the door or through the Manship Theatre website at manshiptheatre.org.