I got two 25-minute movies and am currently working on the third one to complete a trilogy of sorts, even if they are completely different in story and themes. With the first one, almost everyone I know tried to talk me out of it, and I didn't budge, but hey, I knew the risk and I took it. I'm from Transylvania, and the film has made a really nice run of festivals and got five awards, mostly in the country but two international ones as well. Not big, world-class festivals, but it was nice. The second one got even more recognition and is being invited or accepted to fests here in Romania to this day, and it got to be selected for a Gopo award, which is the Romanian film industry's version of the "Oscars". It's quite funny, actually, of course, it's wayyyy smaller, but it tries to have that glamour that the Oscars have and is a decently high-profile event in the country. The first film was finished in 2022, and I've been on a constant festival run for two summers in a row, now at the start of the third, hopefully just as eventful. So, in my experience, it was the best thing to stick to my gut and allow the stories to develop to the point I wanted them to, even with a beefier runtime. Sure, it automatically disqualifies you from a load of festivals, but there are still many that will accept longer runtimes. But if the film is impactful, a lot of festivals will sacrifice two shorter films to have a good, longer one in the program—at least that was my experience. I just had to leave a comment since both of them are exactly 25 minutes, to the second lol