Many feature film directors learned the craft of moviemaking by originally making short films early in their careers. The Damah Festival, one of the most successful spiritually-themed film festivals (which focuses on short films), opens in Los Angeles starting tomorrow. The Damah (the word means transformational art) Festival has a top-notch judging panel including Christian industry experts such as Scott Derrickson and Ralph Winter, who will judge aspiring filmmakers work and provide workshops on breaking into the film industry.

But the biggest improvement to this event is that film buffs who can’t attend the festival can now see some of the past festival winners online or purchase the DVDs. The length of the films–usually anywhere from 5-20 minutes in length–also lends itself to using the films for small group discussion in churches. With intriguing titles such as “An Audience With God” and “Kosher,” numerous religious subjects are tackled from a variety of spiritual perspectives, meaning there is something for all truth seekers to debate and discuss.