The Dam Short Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Boulder City, Nevada, typically in early February. Lee Lanier and Anita Lanier are the original co-founders of the festival. The festival is currently run by the Dam Short Film Society, a non-profit Nevada corporation. Regular sponsors have included The Art Institutes of Las Vegas, the Nevada Film Office, and the Hacienda Hotel and Casino.
Started in 2005, the Dam Short Film festival is a showcase of only short films, always topping 100 selections. Although most of the festival shorts are from "up-and-coming" filmmakers, the stiff competition means many of the shorts have been produced involving film professionals. These have included Oscar-winner Louis Gossett Jr., "Window," Oscar-winner, Tom Hanks, William Shatner, and Michael York in "Why Shakespeare?" the late Bela Lugosi narrating an animation based on the Edgar Allan Poe classic "The Tell-Tale Heart", Francesco Quinn in "The Gnostic", and Robert Wagner and Lori Singer in "Little Victim ".
In 2008, the Festival moved to the historic 400-seat Boulder Theatre. The Theatre was built in 1931 and currently owned by Desi Arnaz Jr. and his wife Amy. Returning for the 2009 Festival (February 11-14) is the mini Film Market, which features over 1000 short films that may be checked out for viewing.