What Does Running Time Mean?

For feature films, running time refer to the length of time that a film plays for, typically expressed in minutes, starting from the first frame to the last frame. In the case of theatrical releases, this includes any logos presented at the beginning of the film as well as any ending credits or graphics. Other countries can have different movie run times depending on the distribution agent as well as additional graphics and credits.

There are no minimum or maximum limits on movie run times. The perfect length for a movie really just depends on how well a story is told and how long you can hold an audience’s attention, but some of the longest films ever made were not intended for mainstream audiences. Instead, they were meant to be presented at art galleries or other small venues.

The longest film ever released is Logistics, a 2012 Swedish experimental art film. At 51,420 minutes long (35 days, 17 hours), this film had its world premiere at the 2014 Fringe Film Festival Shenzhen.

Another Swedish film, Ambiancé, has already released the world’s longest movie trailer, which is 7 hours and 20 minutes long. The trailer was shot in a single take, and if its length is any indication of how long the actual movie will be, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the full movie will be 720 hours long (30 days). Ambiancé has a projected release date of December 31, 2020 and will be screened globally. You can watch the “short” movie trailer on Vimeo.

Most mainstream movies nowadays hover around the 90-120 minute range, but as far as Oscar contenders go, movies with longer run times (120+ minutes) seem to do better. If you would like to learn more about the trends in movie length over the past several decades, check out this informative article: http://www.randalolson.com/2014/01/25/movies-arent-actually-much-longer-than-they-used-to-be/

The shortest film ever nominated for an Oscar is a 2012 American animated short titled Fresh Guacamole. The one minute, 40 second film was nominated for “Best Animated Short Film” at the 85th Academy Awards but it lost to Paperman. You can watch Fresh Guacamole in its entirety below:

“Fresh Guacamole by PES | Oscar Nominated Short” by PESfilm

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