This study discusses the rise of digital cinema and the role of curatorship in the programming and selection of contemporary Brazilian short films in three film festivals: Cine PE - Festival do Audiovisual, Festival de Brasília do Cinema Brasileiro and Mostra de Cinema de Tiradentes. The time frame takes place between the years 2017 and 2021 due to the encounter between a progressive popularization of access to digital sensors with the immersion of Brazil in a severe and polarizing political-social crisis. The study resumes and analyzes the notion of aura, as proposed by Walter Benjamin in his essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction; and it also takes up the idea of programming and curation as forms of post-production, as proposed by Thomas Elsaesser. One of the objectives is to analyze the change in scenario - favored by the entry of digital technology - where the Brazilian short film starts to have a gradually more significant symbolic and cultural value. The three aforementioned film festivals were chosen because their curatorship or event conditions underwent major upheavals due to the different political and social contexts in the country. Lastly, it is relevant for the study to discuss the role of curatorship and festivals within the process of historical and artistic legitimation of films as well as the relationship between filmmakers and the construction of an imaginary about national cinema.