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'Dimmer' and other Sundance shorts will be screened Friday at the UCLA Hammer Museum.

Every year, industry execs flood the streets of Sundance hoping to find the next great filmmaker, temporarily transforming the snow-covered mountains of Utah into the Hollywood hills. The constant wheeling and dealing of Sundance puts insiders like Hollywood’s Weinstein brothers into the warm auditoriums but leaves the average festival-goers out in the cold.

On every Friday in July, the Sundance Institute attempts to change this by showcasing a selection of short films at the UCLA Hammer Museum in the series “Sundance Summer Shorts.” Since the beginning of the series two weeks ago, over 1,500 filmgoers have ventured to the Hammer in order to get a taste of Sundance here in Los Angeles. The final screening is this Friday, in a self-explanatory collection dubbed “The Nonfiction Faction.”

Before its start at the Hammer, the series played in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, garnering attention for its broad assortment of short films as well as the unique experience of watching them in a beautiful museum.

However, the Hammer’s open courtyard allows for a film-going experience completely different from New York. Encouraging visitors to bring picnic dinners and lounge before the screening, the programmers at the Hammer hope to create a fun, vibrant atmosphere unlike the tense hysteria at the actual Sundance Festival.

“The Hammer’s courtyard is a beautiful space where people can have dinner, be comfortable and watch films,” said James Brewley, the head of public programs at the Hammer.

Unlike many other film festivals or screenings in Los Angeles, this series focuses solely on the short film, a very difficult genre, according to Sundance short films programmer Roberta Marie Munroe.

“It’s a very difficult genre of filmmaking where you need to have a beginning, middle and end in a short time,” Munroe explained. “The films showcased are the best of the best.”

The nature of short films as a distinct art form plays right to the objectives set forth by the Hammer Museum.

“At the Hammer we want to support new and emerging forms,” Brewley commented. “This series hopes to highlight the genre and bring an informed and intelligent audience that appreciates quality.”

The unique experience, coupled with the large film-going crowd in Los Angeles, has attracted throngs of people inside the Hammer’s doors. Brewley attributes the strong reception to the Sundance brand name and all it entails.

“This is the kind of program that sells itself,” Brewley explained. “People come to expect a certain level of programming at the Hammer, and this is it.”

The popularity of “Sundance Summer Shorts” not only brings attention to the museum, but also to the films showcased and their prospective directors.

“It’s kind of a kiss of death to be in Sundance,” Munroe quipped. “Being in Sundance gives off this perception that you don’t need help, thus screening your work in Los Angeles is a great way to get noticed.”

The filmmakers themselves agree that screening films in Los Angeles can help open doors.

“The series is giving us another opportunity to reach another audience,” explained Vasco Nunes, co-director of “Recycle,” one of the seven shorts being screened this Friday. Other co-director Ondi Timoner echoed the same sentiment as her collaborator, stating, “Sundance was an incredible incubator, and Los Angeles is another launching pad.”

With more and more people discovering their films at the Hammer this summer, it won’t be hard to imagine these filmmakers pushing the Weinsteins outside at Sundance in the future.