Vertifilms

10 years of vertical dreaming is heading to the big stage! 📱🇫🇷
When we launched Vertifilms in 2016, "vertical video" was a MISTAKE. Today, it’s a global industry worth over $11 billion. It’s no longer a mistake—it’s a new language of intimacy and emotion that we call Smartphone Cinema.
We are thrilled to announce that our founder, Kryštof Šafer, has been invited to speak at Festival SERIES MANIA 2026 in Lille, France!
Kryštof will be joining an international panel on Wednesday, March 25, at the Théâtre Louis Pasteur to discuss the explosion of Microdrama apps. Alongside industry leaders Bethany Thompson (Sea Star Productions) and Hasret Ozcan (Inter Medya), he’ll be exploring whether this new format is just a tech trend or the future of digital storytelling.
A huge thanks to Bastien Gave for making this happen and for recognizing the decade of work we’ve put into the 9:16 frame.
We’ve moved past the "newsreel" phase of TikTok and Instagram. Now, we’re entering the era of real drama on the small screen. See you in Lille!
#916

Looking back at where we started.

Vertifilms, the festival that believed in vertical film before TikTok In 2016, in Prague, when TikTok didn't yet exist and vertical was still seen as a framing error, Krystof Safer created Vertifilms, a festival entirely dedicated to films shot in 9:16. Interview with Krystof Safer, founder of the Vertifilms festival, conducted by Wenwen Han.For him, a vertical film i...