The International Competition takes place within the so called Short Film Week. From Monday 8th to Sunday 14th September 2008, Acireale revolves around various events connected to the short film.

The Week opens with the presentation of the two new publications taken from Lorenzo Vecchio´s writings and goes on with Giro Giro Corto – mostra di cinema piccolo, a festival focused on short films for teenagers and made by teenagers (two categories: juniors and teens) and awarded by a jury of ordinary spectators. This year more than 50 works coming from all around Italy are submitted to the preselection. The second half of the Week goes on with the traditional four-day international competition, but there are a few changes, too. 680 submissions, an audience of over 1500 people, 16 national and international guests.

In addiction to the international competition, Magma offers the international section Ponti, an overview of three short film producers and distributors in Europe and in the Mediterranean: the Tangier Mediterranean Short Film Festival (Marocco), Internationales Videofestival Bochum (Germany) and the Comma Film project (Great Britain) based on poetry into fiction. The screenings, each introduced by their representatives, take place over dinner at the indoor pub Bambuddha. Every night, after the cinema screenings, also at Bambuddha the audience takes part in video lounge screenings based on videoarte works. Added to this, discussion panels, concerts and video-parties.