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...

This one is for the originals. The pioneers. The ones who were there from the beginning. 🙏
We were digging through the Vertifilms archive today and came across our "explainer video" series from the Covid era. Watching them again, we were absolutely blown away. Not just by the creativity, but by the courage.
Years before "microdrama" was a buzzword, this incredible community of filmmakers—many of you reading this right now—was in the trenches, inventing a new cinematic language. You were the ones solving the tough questions: How do you build a world in a 9:16 frame? How do you create intimacy when your canvas is a phone? You weren't just making films; you were writing the first chapter of the textbook that a multi-billion dollar industry is now using.
The techniques you pioneered are now the foundation of a global phenomenon. We were, and are, incredibly proud to have been the platform to showcase your vision.
We've put together a playlist of some of these groundbreaking videos as a tribute to your foresight and talent. To all the Vertifilms alumni, thank you for being ahead of the curve with us. Let's show the world where it all started.
What was your favorite memory from creating these? Let us know in the comments! 👇

Link in the comment.

The question has been answered. 📈

Back in 2016, we saw the potential in vertical storytelling when others saw a gimmick. We launched Vertifilms to give this new cinematic language a platform.

Fast forward to today, and the “niche” has become a global phenomenon.

We’ve watched this space evolve from arthouse experiment to the powerhouse of the microdrama industry. Our focus now? Proving that this format can be more than just a trend. It can be art. It can be cinema. It can be the future.

Follow us for an expert take on where we go from here.