Emmy-winning director/producer Anthony Hemingway will be the recipient of the 2018 HollyShorts Film Festival Indie Maverick Award. He will be presented the Award during the festival’s opening night celebration this Thursday August 9 at the TCL Chinese Theater. Past HollyShorts Indie Maverick honorees include Paul Haggis, David Lynch, Eli Roth, Joe Carnahan and Matthew Modine. The festival’s opening night celebration will be hosted by Ben Lyons host of ‘The Oscars: All Access’ for Oscar.com and ABC News.
Anthony Hemingway is on a hot streak, he’s one of the most sought after TV Director/Producers. He recently helmed the pilot episode of USA Network’s and Syfy’s The Purge series, based on the horror film franchise of the same name. The show hails from Universal Cable Productions and Blumhouse Television. In 2016, Hemingway directed and co-executive produced the FX hit-series “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” which garnered him an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Limited Series,” a Golden Globe for “Best Miniseries or Television Film,” a BAFTA TV Award for “Best International Programme,” a PGA David L. Wolper Award for “Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television,” a NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special,” and an Emmy nomination in the “Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or a Dramatic Special” category.
HollyShorts opening night will feature English actress Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) who will premiere her short film RUN (Directed by Alex Lanipekun). Joining Emmanuel on opening night will be Mark Lobatto’s short STEALING SILVER which stars Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones, Lisa Edelstein’s (The Girlfriend’s Guide) short film UNZIPPING, Jesse Bradford’s (Shooter) short film THE DAY OF MATTHEW MONTGOMERY, Jocelyn Stamat’s short film LABORATORY CONDITIONS, Carlson Young’s (MTV’s Scream) short THE BLAZING WORLD and JAMESON, a short film written by John Humber.
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 Seattle Film Summit.