PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Oregon Short Film Festival is, truly, a short film festival, movies that are 30 minutes or less. Many of the films from moviemakers around the world are 5-10 minutes long.

The festival kicked off Wednesday at a newly created drive-in theater at the Sunshine Mill Winery in The Dalles. The 200 films are serious, humorous, profane, animated — just about any topic under the sun, and all made by up-and-comers in the small film segment — and all from the comfort and safety of your own care.

Mikel Fair, who founded the short film festival back in 2016, said small moviemakers really do value opinions of people here to see their films.

“They look forward to just having Oregonians sit down, relax and really take in their film. and they know that we’re not as concerned with star power of who is in the film,” Fair said. “They just want to sit back and have a good time.”

In short the Oregon audience is a sounding board for small moviemakers, a way to get instant feedback on their short stories, to find out what seems to resonate with the audience and what doesn’t.

One short on the list this week is a 7-part series premiering on Facebook called Brewcrew. It’s an animated film that won Comedy Series Award for animated cartoon.

Its not for kids, but it’s funny to its fans. Creator Zachary Madson, a film maker from Tigard, said as the tools of movie making have become cheaper and accessible, it has democratized movie making giving more people with diverse and creative talents a chance at making short films.

“If you can tell a story, you can make a film for a couple thousand dollars and a lot of people will just scrape that money together among friends,” Madson said. “So now as a writer I like it because it puts story at the forefront.”

Not everything on the drive-in big screen in The Dalles will make it big time to Netflix, YouTube or other distribution channels. But some likely will and they’ll be able to say they got their start at the Oregon Short Film Festival underway through this weekend in The Dalles.

Tickets are sold by the car and some are still available. They have food, pizza delivered and drink. It’s a night out at the drive-in movies. Shows start at 6 p.m. and go until about 11 p.m. through the weekend.