Love Your Shorts — About Preview

Sanford, Florida · Since 2010

Small films.
Full-size feeling.

Love Your Shorts brings filmmakers and audiences together inside a 1923 movie palace for the kind of stories that make every minute count.

Get festival tickets
Founded 2010The Ritz TheaterFilms under 30 minutesStories from everywhereFounded 2010The Ritz TheaterFilms under 30 minutesStories from everywhere

Behind the shorts

A festival built for the moment after “cut.”

Founded in 2010, Love Your Shorts is an annual showcase where films from Florida, the United States, and around the world come to life.The festival began at Monroe Hall, part of the Greater Sanford Regional Chamber of Commerce, and grew into a four-day gathering at Sanford’s historic Ritz Theater—one of Florida’s few remaining movie palaces. Screenings, workshops, filmmaker conversations, and lobby discoveries turn a program of short films into a genuine festival experience.Each film runs 30 minutes or less. The impact tends to last much longer.

The setting

Sanford is part of the story.

Sanford is the county seat of Seminole County. Along the St. Johns River, galleries, theaters, restaurants, and public art make historic downtown a natural home for independent film.
The venue

The Ritz Theater

A restored 1923 theater where every screening still feels like an occasion.
The city

Historic Sanford

A walkable cultural district known for its annual art festival, folk performances, and community theater troupes.
The experience

Close to the work

Meet the filmmakers, hear the story behind the story, and discover something unexpected.

From the filmmakers

In their own words.

Two filmmakers share what the festival means from the other side of the screen. Press play, then meet the artists behind the testimony.
Filmmaker testimonial
Director · Actor · Writer · Producer

Lisa Belcher

Lisa is an award-winning director, actor, writer & producer under her Austin based production company, Jump Rock Pictures. She directed the feature thriller/horror House Of Abraham, starring Natasha Henstridge and Lin Shaye. Her many short films have played film festivals all over the world, earned many awards (including Best Director), and also received distribution. She is in development on a feature romantic comedy that will go into production in Austin in 2025.
Filmmaker testimonial
Writer · Director · Actor

Lukas Hassel

Born and raised in Denmark, Lukas Hassel trained and graduated from the Samuel Beckett Theater School, Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Resides in the US.

As a screenwriter, Lukas won the Screencraft and CineStory Fellowship as well as placing top 30 and top 40 in the Nicholl’s Fellowship. Won the Shore Film Fund as well as Fresh Voices TV Pilot competition.

Lukas wrote and directed the sci-fi short film Into the Dark which went on the win multiple awards for acting, writing and directing and played in over 70 film festivals world wide. His latest award winning horror short film, The Son, the Father… got a production deal after winning the Hollyshorts Film Festival competition for best screenplay and has screened on over 60 film festivals winning multiple awards. He’s working on getting his first feature as a writer/director underway.

He has appeared on TV recently as recurring Elias VanDyke in The Blacklist as well as in shows such as Blue Bloods, Limitless, Elementary and more. In features like The Black Room, Art of the Dead, In Sickness and more.

Four days. Hundreds of conversations.

Come see what fits inside 30 minutes.

Festival week returns February 4–7, 2027, in the heart of Sanford.
Explore the programBuy tickets