The HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF) is an annual film festival showcasing the best and brightest short films from around the globe. HollyShorts is devoted to the advancement filmmakers through screenings, Q&A sessions and networking events. The HollyShorts Film Festival showcases the top short films produced 40-minutes or less.
HollyShorts Film Festival started in 2005 and takes place in Hollywood, California, USA
The 16th annual HollyShorts Film Festival will open with the premiere of Jackson Lewis Lee’s new short film THOMPSON FARM. Jackson Lewis Lee is the son of legendary filmmaker and Oscar-Winning writer/director Spike Lee. Thompson Farm will screen as part of the HollyShorts opening night lineup on Monday, November 9th.
418 short films, including 128 international short films from 36 countries, have been selected to screen at the upcoming 16th edition of the Oscar®-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival.
Writer-Director Cevin Soling’s animated short “Tiffany Brittany Brooke” will make its festival debut at the 16th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival, November 9th–15th on the Bitpix platform.
The organizers behind the Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival have announced that they will be moving online and rescheduling their 16th annual year. Due to COVID-19, HollyShorts will now take place virtually between November 9-15, 2020 on the new streaming platform Bitpix.
HollyShorts Film Festival announced their top prizes for their landmark 15th year with “Balloon,” starring PEN15’s Jonah Beres and The League’s Paul Scheer, taking home the Best Short Film Grand Prix.
Anthony Russo, one of the leading directors and creators in the entertainment industry, will take part in a Special Conversation at this week’s HollyShorts Film Festival; the 15th edition of the annual Oscar Qualifying Festival. The special Conversation with Russo will take place on Friday, August 9, 2019 at 10:30am at the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters located in Hollywood, CA. Buffalo 8 Partner and Producer Steven Adams will moderate the Conversation.
Legendary Film Critic and Historian Leonard Maltin and his daughter Jessie Maltin, co-host of the Maltin on Movies Podcast, are set to headline a Keynote Conversation and Screening Program at this year’s HollyShorts Film Festival. KEEP IT SHORT WITH THE MALTINS, A Special Conversation and Screening will take place Sunday, August 11 at 10am at the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters. The special event is open to festival badge holders and festival ticket holders.
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.
The Oscar-QualifyingHollyShorts Film Festival announced their star-studded opening night lineup for the festival’s landmark 15th Anniversary. HollyShorts’ Opening Night festivities will be on Thursday, August 8th at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, CA.
Skin Directed by Guy Nattiv took the top prize for Best Short Film at the 14th edition of the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival Awards Ceremony last night hosted by Gabrielle Loren. Grand Jury Prize went to Souls of Totality Directed by Richard Raymond. Best Director went to Randall Christopher for The Driver Is Red. Best Short Shot on Film went to Trapeze USA by Mark Anthony Green. The Panavision Future Filmmaker Award went to Daniel Drummond for A Foreman. The HollyShorts 2018 Screenplay Competition Winner Presented by Seattle Film Summit went to Best Seller by Nora Kirkpatrick.
The 15th Anniversary of HollyShorts will take place on August 8-17, 2019 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters. The festival begins taking early bird submissions for next year’s festival on September 23, 2018.
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.
The award-winning animation music video “Mountains” by filmmaker Laurie Berenhaus for the titular song by Mac/Glidden, will screen this Summer in LA, as part of the HollyShorts Film Festival on Monday, August 13th, 2018.
Illustrating the titular song by Mac/Glidden, “Mountains” is an animated short in which a sylphlike woman, uneasy in her own skin, uses dance as a way to find a sense of personal freedom. As the dancer, played by Anne Marsen, removes various clothing items – her hat, her sunglasses, her cape – she looks more relaxed, more carefree. Similarly, as she discards these trappings of the material world, her movements become freer, more joyous, and celebratory.
Filmmaker Laurie Berenhaus, who directed and animated the music video, was inspired to create the short when Mac/Glidden told her that they wrote the song because of their frustration with city life. Indeed, the song’s opening lyrics are, “Where I’m from, the stars are on the street. We build mountains in our minds and in concrete.”
“Mountains,” then, is a song about confinement; feeling confined within one’s own body. Feeling confined within one’s environment. Berenhaus took this theme and ran with it. As the dancer in the video strips away her clothing, she’s also shedding layers, opening herself up, and becoming more vulnerable.
Berenhaus’s animation style is deliberately loose and gestural, maintaining a “ripped from the sketchbook” quality that recalls the work of legendary illustrators such as Jules Feiffer and Bill Plympton. The film uses this style to explore the main character’s personal journey. As she becomes more relaxed, so do the animation drawings. They become more improvisational, more spontaneous. Facial features are suggested rather than fully rendered. Figures become ethereal, ghostlike. Untethered to anything solid, like a mountain.
The screening at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese 6 Theatres is part of the 14th annual HollyShorts Film Festival, running from August 9th to August 18th, 2018. In April of 2017, “Mountains” was shown at the Brooklyn Music Video Festival. This kicked off a worldwide series of screenings for the unique and charming music video, which was subsequently shown at the International River Film Festival in Italy, the KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival in the Netherlands, and the Academy Award qualifying- Leeds International Film Festival, among other prominent venues.
Along the way, “Mountains” has earned much critical praise. In November 2017, the Leeds International Film Festival in England raved, “‘Mountains’ is a glorious and giddy music video which creates a world of awe and wonder through a deceptively simple animation.” And the LA Femme Film Festival offered similar praise in October of last year, saying of Berenhaus, “Her talent is magical.”
Now the film is making it’s Hollywood debut, in the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres. Berenhaus is thrilled to finally be able to share it in the heart of Hollywood where the dynamic HollyShorts Film Festival continues to advance the artform of short film content.
Screening Date: Monday, August 13th, 2018
Screening Time: 10pm, Music Video Block HollyShorts Film Festival
Screening Location: TCL Chinese 6 Theatres 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028
This event is open to the public.