The first VIS Vienna Independent Shorts was held from June 6th to June 12th in 2004. It resulted from the merger of several student initiatives, which had already organized short film events in Vienna in the previous years. While the opening and the closing night were organized together, the organization of the five days in between was incumbent on the respective initiatives separately. 125 films out of over 300 submitted short films from 21 countries were shown. The main festival locations were the Viennese art-house cinemas Top Kino, Schikaneder and De France as well as in the courtyard of the Reformed Church near to Hofburg castle.