Ever since the European Film Academy (EFA) was founded it has been its intention not only to honour the outstanding achievements of established filmmakers, but also to support and promote talented newcomers. To draw the attention to a new generation of European directors means to build up the future of European cinema.

This is why, in 1998, EFA established the presentation of the European Short Film Award as a part of the annual European Film Awards, in co-operation with several partner festivals across Europe. Each of these festivals presents a short film award which includes an automatic nomination in the European Film Awards’ short film category. The initiative currently includes the following festivals (in chronological order):

• Flanders International Film Festival Ghent (Belgium)
  www.filmfestival.be
• Corona Cork Film Festival (Ireland)
  www.corkfilmfest.org
• Valladolid International Film Festival (Spain)
  www.seminci.com
• Premiers Plans – Festival d’Angers (France)
  www.premiersplans.org
• International Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands)
  www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com
• Berlin International Film Festival (Germany)
  www.berlinale.de
• Tampere Film Festival (Finland)
  www.tamperefilmfestival.fi
• Krakow Film Festival (Poland)
  www.kff.com.pl
• Norwegian Short Film Festival Grimstad
  www.kortfilmfestivalen.no
• Edinburgh International Film Festival (UK)
  www.edfilmfest.org.uk
• Curtas Vila do Conde - International Film Festival (Portugal)
  www.curtas.pt
• Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
  www.sff.ba
• Venice International Film Festival (Italy)
  www.labiennale.org
• International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece)
  www.dramafilmfestival.gr

Eligible are directors born in Europe or with a European passport, whose films match the genre regulations and time limits of the respective festival.

When the annual cycle is complete in September, the nominees will be presented to the EFA members. The 2,000 members of the European Film Academy (including Europe's finest directors, producers, distributors, writers, actors, etc.) form the high-profile jury to screen the nominees and elect the overall winner: the European Film Academy Short Film, which will be presented at the annual Awards ceremony in one of Europe’s film capitals on the first weekend of December.

In the following year, EFA compiles a tour of all nominated short films in the so-called SHORT MATTERS tour and showcases these films at around 25 further festivals in Europe and beyond.