Here is a simple django template filter that will format a date according to the DATETIME_FORMAT variable in the settings file.

from django import template
from settings import DATETIME_FORMAT
from django.template.defaultfilters import date

register = template.Library()

@register.filter
def default_datetime(value):
	try:
		v = date(value, DATETIME_FORMAT)
	except:
		return value

	return v

Save this in a file named default_date_filters.py and place it in a directory called templatetags in your application directory (along with a file named __init__.py.

You can then use the filter in a template like so:

{% load default_date_filters  %}

{% item.created_date|default_datetime%}

You can find more information and how to create and use custom template filters in django here and here. You can find information on django settings here.