The history of cinema is founded on short films. It took the lumbering lushness of Calabria (1914) and the technologically advanced but philosophically backward Birth of a Nation (1915) to fully establish the full-length feature as the principal format. Even with a century's store of great short features, animated cartoons and music videos, short films are still given short shrift, as most people (including too many filmmakers) look upon the format as either practice or an audition piece for making a "real" film. It's a type of cinema desperately in need of allies — and it's just received an important proponent here in the Czech Republic.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival moves to Prague for four days this week as the famed institution launches the first Prague Short Film Festival, which will play at three theaters: Světozor, Lucerna and MAT Studio. The festival at Karlovy Vary has always had a short-film component, but finally, the little fellow will have a celebration of its own here in Prague.

There are a number of different programs planned for the three days of screenings. There are evenings that focus on films and filmmakers from Australia and New Zealand, Iceland, and a well-needed nod to local Czech artists. Two profile programs are also offered, one exploring the work of the Swedish filmmaking team of Johannes Stjärne Nilsson and Ola Simonsson, along with a special look at Austrian filmmaker Thomas Woschitz's The Josef Trilogy. The connection with the mother festival will also be acknowledged with the Best of Karlovy Vary 1996–2005, with the winning shorts from those years getting second screenings.

"All the Invisible Children" is a program featuring a number of well-known directors dealing with the plight of abandoned and neglected children. Serbian director Emir Kusturica's Blue Gypsy explores the quandary that a young Romany boy, just released from a juvenile jail for theft, is faced with as he must return to his father, who actually forces him to steal. Bilu and Joao, by the Brazilian Kátia Lund (who co-directed City of God), and Spike Lee's Jesus Children of America also take unflinching looks at cast-off kids in society. Other features in this series include short films by Algerian novelist and filmmaker Mehdi Charef, John Woo, and a short by Ridley Scott and his daughter Jordan, Jonathan, which features David Thewlis, Kelly MacDonald and Jack Thompson.

Perhaps the most eagerly awaited part of the festival is the international competition of short films. The contending titles must all be a maximum of 20 minutes, and the winner will receive a grand prize of 5,000 euros ($5,900/144,000 Kč). The panel of judges includes Dutch actress Johanna ter Steege, German documentary filmmaker Cornelia Klauss, Icelander Skúli Malmquist, Simonsson, and Czech director Jan Svěrák, best known for his film Kolya.