The Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival today unveiled the Official Selections of the upcoming 14th edition taking place August 9 to 18, 2018 at the TCL Chinese Theater, Harmony Gold Theater and other locations in Hollywood. Nearly 400 short films will compete for the festival’s top prizes. Last year HollyShorts finalists included 3 out of the 5 Live Action Oscar nominees and the winning short Silent Child from Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton.
This year, HollyShorts received an all-time record 5,000 submissions from over 80 countries. The competition will feature Live Action, Animation and Documentary Shorts as well as web series, student shorts, music videos, TV pilots, and VR. The festival also features a screenplay competition where the winning short gets greenlit, shot and shown at next year’s festival courtesy of Evil Slave Productions.
This year’s competition lineup is the most star-studded. Standouts include Penelope Cruz’s short documentary SOY UNOENTRECIENMIL which explores childhood leukaemia, Ramon Rodriguez’s (The Affair) ROUND, Liz Lachman’s PIN-UP starring Angela Sarafyan (Westworld), Kelley Kali’s LALO’S HOUSE starring Garcelle Beauvais and Jimmy Jean-Louis, Jarod Einsohn’s Long Walk Home (Produced by Anthony Hemingway) starring Ryan Rottman, Jocelyn Stamat’s LABORATORY CONDITIONS starring Minnie Driver, Kevin Alejandro’s (Arrow) LUCIFER, Fox and Mars Candy Brands short BITE SIZE HORROR (Directed by a team of up and coming horror directors), Choice Skinner’s BLACK LIGHTNING- TOBIAS REVENGE starring Jay Hunter (If Loving you is Wrong), Jack Kenny’s THE BIRDS SING TO LOUD starring Jane Lynch, Mark Lobatto’s STEALING SILVER starring Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), Michael Reilly’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oscar nominated animator Bill Plympton’s MODERN LIVES, Guy Nattiv’s SKIN starring Danielle MacDonald (Patti Cake$), Tyler Winther’s GOLIATH 22 starring Jaylen Moore (SIX), R.H. Norman’s HAJJI starring Ross Marquand (Walking Dead), Lisa Edelstein’s (House) UNZIPPING, Omar Benson Miller’s (Ballers) ADVANTAGE OMAR, Jaclyn Bethany’s THE DELTA GIRL starring Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan) and Caitlyn Carver (I, Tonya) among others.
The festival will announce additional films in the coming week, include opening night and closing night programs.
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