My guide and experience at Encounters 2021 — Part 1.

Encounters is a festival that has been around since 1995. This means that the films entered into the competition have changed to reflect the time and the events that are going on in the world. The festival this year was online meaning that there was plenty of options available for filmmakers to show and for viewers to enjoy. The online element can add many positives but also drawbacks to what filmmakers can get out of the event. On the positives, there are more chances for watching different voices be told through the short films.

The importance of diversity is shown within all the short films. The messages within the short films helped me feel more attracted to the characters and made me more interested in the short films. This gives a chance to show work from people who are not normally represented in mainstream media and therefore help these filmmakers grow a bigger audience. Having films from different perspectives is so important in today's modern era. It can help a filmmaker watching these films have a new perspective on their art through seeing multiple types of perspectives.

Within Encounters, each section is organized into a theme that either represents the meaning or genre of the short films. This can work both in favor of the filmmaker and against the filmmaker. This type of format means that the viewer can be pickier about what short film they want to watch so the description and the thumbnail for the film have to be impactful. The importance of having a theme makes the stories flow…