They may be pint-sized productions, but the market for short films is growing taller, says the organizer of Toronto’s Worldwide Short Film Festival.

‘There are more opportunities now for shorts, especially with some of the new specialty channels,’ says Brenda Sherwood, the festival’s founder and artistic director. ‘Film festivals around the world are pushing their short film sections. It’s booming. I think we can build a really strong market here.’

The festival, now in its second year, runs from June 4-9, features more than 150 films and includes special sections on Japanese entries and kids’ shorts.

This year’s event will take place at the Famous Players Backstage and other downtown theaters and will feature workshops at the Park Plaza Hotel. ‘There will be an emphasis on the market this year,’ says Sherwood. ‘We have a library set up at the hotel with 1,200 films available for screening.’

Sherwood acknowledges that the festival ‘just broke even’ last year. ‘We showed over 130 films and about 5,000 people attended. We are more organized this year and expect a higher attendance.’

As part of her ongoing efforts to promote shorts, Sherwood has convinced Famous to air one or two of the short films before its children’s features, both before and during the festival. ‘Everyone wants short films to get back to the theater,’ she states. ‘It’s a big issue in Europe and I’m doing what I can here.’

This year’s workshops, which Sherwood says, ‘will be in a larger room than last year and will still be affordable,’ range in topic from writing and financing short films to cd-rom animation and digital editing technologies.