Over 400 films from 30 different countries will compete for this year’s top prizes during the Oscar-Qualifying 2019 HollyShorts Film Festival taking place from August 8-17 at TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood.
Last year, four HollyShorts finalists were nominated for an Academy Award with three bringing home the gold, including the Best Live Action Short “Skin” from filmmakers Andrew Carlberg, Guy Nattiv, and Jaime Ray Newman.
This year’s competition lineup is packed and will feature Live Action, Animation and Documentary Shorts as well as Web Series, Student, Music Videos, TV pilots, and VR. The 2019 HollyShorts Oscar Qualifying categories include: Best Short Film, Best Live Action, and Best Animation. HollyShorts also features a screenplay competition where the winning short gets greenlit, shot and shown at next year’s festival courtesy of the Seattle Film Summit. Last year’s screenplay winner “Best Seller” from Nora Kirkpatrick (The Office) will make its world premiere at the festival’s Opening Night celebration on August 8th.
Stand out films include: Erica Dasher’s “Ouroboros” starring Rosario Dawson (Luke Cage), “Robu” with Emmy-nominated actor Jharrel Jerome (When They See Us), Sterling Milan’s “About The People” written by Coffey (Fighting) and featuring Michael Kenneth Williams (The Wire), Hisham Tawfiq (The Blacklist), and Sterling Brim (Ridiculousness), “The Stew” starring Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist and Carlos Valdes (The Flash), Kate Trefry’s directorial debut “How to Be Alone” starring Maika Monroe (It Follows) and Joe Keery (Stranger Things), “I Lost My Mother’s Ashes” featuring Mandy Moore (This is Us), “Food Place” directed by Crashing’s Lauren Lapkus, “It’s a Mess” with Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil), GLOW’s Kimmy Gatewood and Rebekka Johnson’s short “Consent,” Ed Skrein’s directorial debut “Little River Run,” “The Toll Road” with Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex), Martin Starr (Silicon Valley), Anthony Carrigan (Barry), and Billy Gardell (Mike & Molly), “Mi Madre, My Father” starring Arrow’s Stephen Amell, “Bewildered” with Keith David (Armageddon), and “SophiaWorld” starring Westworld’s Evan Rachel Wood and HollyShorts’ first robot, Sophia the Robot. Other notable filmmakers and talent include: Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element), Mike Luciano (Animals), Common, Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets), Kenan Thompson (SNL), Kevin Nealon (Weeds), Patton Oswalt (A.P. Bio), Eric Wareheim (Tim and Eric Saga), Michael Madsen (The Hateful Eight), Childish Gambino, Flea, Malcolm Barrett (Timeless), Steve Zahn (War for the Planet of the Apes), Scoot McNairy (Argo), Darrell Britt-Gibson (Keanu), Paul Walter Hauser (BlackKklansman), Joel David Moore (Bones), Amy Smart (Just Friends), and Madonna.
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