Love Your Shorts turns sweet 16

Exclusive to MeierMovies, February 9, 2026

Love Your Shorts Film Festival is turning 16. How sweet it is!

The festival will screen 81 short films (under 30 minutes in length), from 15 nations, February 12-15 at the historic Ritz Theatre, part of the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center, in Sanford, Florida.

The event kicks off Thursday at 7 p.m. with Education Day, presented by the Organization of Independent Filmmakers (OIF). Local filmmaker TL Westgate will moderate a panel discussion, which will be accompanied by a screening of five short films by local filmmakers Jennifer Coe, Nick Marinucci, Gregory Mohn, Fernando Tosetti and Chad Wengel.

“Education night is a great kickoff to the Love Your Shorts Film Festival,” says Westgate. “The Organization of Independent Filmmakers selects films from its yearly challenges to showcase what local filmmakers are producing, followed by a fun Q&A. I’m honored to emcee for the second year in a row.”

The main part of the fest will launch on Friday at 7 p.m. with the Opening Night block, containing eight films of various genres. That will be followed by the always popular Opening Night Party, which will have a Parisian cabaret theme this year.

The fête will continue on Saturday with six more blocks: E for Everyone at 10:30 a.m. (nine films), Animation at 1 p.m. (17 films), Documentary at 3 p.m. (six films), International at 5 p.m. (five films), Comedy at 8 p.m. (nine films) and Sci-Fi/Horror at 10 p.m. (eight films).

The Sunday blocks are: Drama at 1 p.m. (six films), Florida Flavor at 3 p.m. (eight films) and Best of the Fest at 7 p.m. That latter group will be comprised of the films audiences have selected from the previous nine blocks, plus potentially one extra film chosen by the selection committee. (So don’t forget to vote at the end of each block!)

This year’s event will see the return of many festival alumni, including Lukas Hassel. The New York-based actor, originally from Denmark, is known for the NBC show Blacklist and the CBS show Blue Bloods, among other projects. His movie, Up Close, which he directed, wrote and stars in, will close the Sci-Fi/Horror block.

“[It is] a very different short film, almost experimental, as I was trying to do something outside of the box,” says Hassel. “[It is] in the direction of my sci-fi Into the Dark [from the 2015 festival], but minus sci-fi and taken to the nth degree, … trying to see if I can tell a compelling story by what you DON’T see.”

Go here for more information on Hassel.

Each block costs $12 except for the free Education Day and the E for Everyone block, which is $5. A weekend pass goes for $85. Visit LoveYourShorts.com for more information and to purchase tickets.

© 2026 MeierMovies, LLC

Disclosure: I help manage and am co-owner of Paul Meier Dialect Services and the International Dialects of English Archive, which are sponsors of Education Day. I am also one of the five judges. But I have no financial, creative or organizational connection to the festival or any of the films being presented.

Allow me to recognize my fellow judges in advance of the festival: Sarah Fisher, Tracy Frenkel, Charles Frisby and Brooke Hill.

 

Results

Congratulations to the dark comedy/social commentary Stimulants & Empathogens and its director, Mateusz Pacewicz, from Poland, for winning best of the fest.

For ratings of all the films, see the short-film lists on my lists page.