Storytelling is an art form as old as time. Even before we painted pictures on the walls of caves, we sat around the campfire and told stories. The ones who were able to captivate us with a little drama, pathos, comedy and insight, were the ones we relied on to keep our histories, and explain our world. Filmmaking is an advanced form of storytelling where you take sight and sound, and project a world onto a screen that doesn’t exist anywhere else. The short film is a glimpse into that world, not the entire telling, but a slice of it.

We created CUT because we wanted to have a high-end festival in New Jersey that promoted the democratization of motion picture making by celebrating short films. Almost anyone with a vision, a story to tell, and a few friends, can make a film today. We encourage all manner of filmmakers, from professionals to amateurs, to tell stories and put them on a big screen for all to see. We are all used to seeing small videos from YouTube and TikTok, to Instagram and Facebook, but a film festival is an opportunity to see these stories in a venue that is literally larger than life.