Exhibition of short films

Sundance:
this is the largest independent film festival in the USA, its held from the 21st-31st of january each year in Park City Utah, Sundance started in 1978,
The festival specialises in both feature and short films in particular Dramatic and Documentary films
Awards Include:
Us Dramatic Competition
Us Documentary competition
World Cinema Dramatic competition
World Cinema Documentary Competition

to actually get your work nominated to take part in sundance your work has to be incredibly well known and you have to at least be a well known director in some way to have the recognition and marketing ability too have your work noticed.

http://festival.sundance.org/2010/

Encounters:

Encounters film festival formally known as Brief Encounters is a film festival that was introduced in 1995 to celebrate the 100 years of film, it was supposed to be a one off event but due to its success its become one of the biggest festivals devoted to short film it happen every november form the 17th to the 21st.
you apply online on the 1st of august until the actual festival itself.

http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/

Tropfest:

Founded by award-winning actor/ director John Polson, Tropfest began as a short film festival in Sydney, Australia in 1993.
Tropfest is known as the largest short film festival in the world It renowned for its support of new film making talent.
Tropfest offers filmmakers a world-class platform for launching their careers through its reach, prizes to help contestants and winners connections within the industry. Celebrity supporters of tropfest include Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Will Smith and many others to help endorse the festival and endorse short film as a whole.

http://www.tropfest.com/

Short film festivals not only promote work but they are a form of exhibition for it, they draw in crowds of hundreds upon thousands of people to watch work created by people world wide to receive some-kind of recognition in the industry, the exhibition is also seen through releases on the internet i.e

www.youtube.com for the more film orientated pieces of work

www.newgrounds.com for the more flash animation orient work

these are far from the only websites, there are hundreds of them out there to publicly exibit work worldwide.