Short Films

ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS – 16 Animated Shorts From Around The World Opens in Theaters on December 29th

[caption id="attachment_25815" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Gokurosama[/caption] The ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS returns to theaters across North America and will open at the Quad Cinema in New York on December 29th (with many other cities to follow), presenting 16 exceptional and inspiring animated shorts from around the world. “Because animation is such a natural medium for dealing with abstract ideas and existential concerns, the ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS has always included a number of thoughtful and engaging films,” says founder and curator Ron Diamond. “However, more than in previous years, I believe that this year’s program really offers contemporary animation that expresses deeply felt issues in our own country and around the world.” These films include Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s Annecy Grand Prix-winning “The Burden,” a melancholy, funny and moving film that explores the tribulations, hopes and dreams of a group of night-shift employees, uniquely capturing the zeitgeist of our time. At the other end of the spectrum, David OReilly’s playful and profound “Everything,” based on the work of the late philosopher Alan Watts, explores the interconnectedness of the universe and the multiplicity of perspectives that underlie reality. Perhaps the most relevant film in the show is a 50-year-old short that was restored by The ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS with grants from ASIFA-Hollywood and The National Film Preservation Foundation. “Hangman,” by Paul Julian and Les Goldman, and based on a poem by Maurice Ogden, explores themes of injustice and personal responsibility in its tale of a town whose residents, afraid to speak up, are methodically executed by the title character. Other program highlights include “Dear Basketball,” Disney veteran Glen Keane’s animation of a poem by Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, written on the occasion of his imminent retirement; Academy Award-winning Pixar director Pete Docter’s 1990 CalArts student film “Next Door”; and “Casino,” the latest film from director Steven Woloshen, who, for some 30 years, has been creating award-winning experimental films by drawing directly on film stock. The 19th ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS represents the work of artists from eight countries, including nine women. 16 animated short films presented in order of appearance – Total Running Time: 93 minutes Can You Do It – Quentin Baillieux, France Tiny Big – Lia Bertels, Belgium Next Door – Pete Docter, U.S. The Alan Dimension – Jac Clinch, UK Beautiful Like Elsewhere – Elise Simard, Canada Hangman – Paul Julian and Les Goldman, U.S. The Battle of San Romano – Georges Schwizgebel, Switzerland Gokurosama – Clémentine Frère, Aurore Gal, Yukiko Meignien, Anna Mertz, Robin Migliorelli, Romain Salvini, France Dear Basketball – Glen Keane, U.S. Island – Max Mörtl and Robert Löbel, Germany Unsatisfying – Parallel Studio, France My Burden – Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Sweden Les Abeilles Domestiques (Domestic Bees) Alexanne Desrosiers, Canada Our Wonderful Nature: The Common Chameleon – Tomer Eshed, Germany Casino – Steven Woloshen, Canada Everything – David OReilly, U.S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQH9zrb6V9Q
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10 Documentary Short Films Make Oscar Shortlist

[caption id="attachment_25786" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Edith+Eddie[/caption] The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences narrowed the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 90th Academy Awards to 10 films, of which 5 will earn Oscar nominations. Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018. The 90th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT. The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies: “Alone,” The New York Times “Edith+Eddie,” Heart is Red and Kartemquin Films “Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405,” Stiefel & Co. “Heroin(e),” A Netflix Original Documentary in association with The Center for Investigative Reporting, A Requisite Media Production “Kayayo – The Living Shopping Baskets,” Integral Film “Knife Skills,” TFL Films “116 Cameras,” Birdling Films “Ram Dass, Going Home,” Further Pictures “Ten Meter Tower,” Plattform Produktion “Traffic Stop,” Q-Ball Productions
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10 Animated Short Films Remain in the Running for 90th Academy Awards

[caption id="attachment_25767" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Dear Basketball[/caption] The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today revealed the 10 animated short films that will advance in the voting process for the 90th Academy Awards. Sixty-three pictures had originally qualified in the category. Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018. The 90th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies: “Cradle,” Devon Manney, director (University of Southern California) “Dear Basketball,” Glen Keane, director, and Kobe Bryant, writer (Glen Keane Productions) “Fox and the Whale,” Robin Joseph, director (Robin Joseph) “Garden Party,” Victor Caire and Gabriel Grapperon, directors (MOPA) “In a Heartbeat,” Esteban Bravo and Beth David, directors (Ringling College of Art and Design) “Life Smartphone,” Chenglin Xie, director (China Central Academy of Fine Arts) “Lost Property Office,” Daniel Agdag, director, and Liz Kearney, producer (8th in Line) “Lou,” Dave Mullins, director, and Dana Murray, producer (Pixar Animation Studios) “Negative Space,” Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata, directors (Ikki Films) “Revolting Rhymes,” Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer, directors (Magic Light Pictures)
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Cork Film Festival 2017 Awards – Irish Short Film WAVE Wins Grand Prix Irish Short

[caption id="attachment_25582" align="aligncenter" width="1201"] Wave[/caption] Irish short film Wave is the winner of the Grand Prix Irish Short at the Cork Film Festival 2017 Awards Ceremony. Benjamin Cleary and TJ O’Grady Peyton’s winning short will now go on the longlist for the 90th Academy Awards in the Live Action Short Film category. Wave tells the story of Gasper Rubicon, who wakes from a coma speaking a fully formed but unrecognizable language. Cleary’s 2015 short, Stutterer won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short at the 88th Academy Awards. The winner of the Grand Prix International Short Award, Mahdi Fleifel’s A Drowning Man (Denmark, Greece, UK), will also automatically qualify for the Academy Awards longlist. Speaking at the Awards Ceremony, Cork Film Festival Producer and CEO Fiona Clark said: “Wave is a very deserving winner, and is a worthy inclusion on the Academy Awards’ longlist. The quality of shorts within this year’s Festival program has been exceptional, highlighting creativity and diversity in both subject matter and form. The Shorts Jury, chaired by BAFTA nominated producer Farah Abushwesha, also selected Linda Curtin’s Everything Alive is in Movement, as the winner of the Best Cork Short, while Best Documentary Short went to Mia Mullarkey’s Mother & Baby, a documentary on survivors of the Tuam mother and baby home, which had its world premiere as part of the Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board World Premiere Shorts program. Other prize winners include Untitled directed by Michael Glawogger and Monika Will, which won the Gradam Na Féile Do Scannáin Faisnéise / Award for Cinematic Documentary. The film was created two years after the sudden death of Michael Glawogger by editor Monika Willi who took footage produced during Michael’s filming in the Balkans, Italy, and Northwest and West Africa. The Gradam Spiorad Na Féile / Spirit of The Festival Award went to Rima Das’ Village Rockstars. It follows a young village girl in northeast India who wants to start her own rock band. An honorable mention went to Dafydd Flynn for his performance in Frank Berry’s Michael Inside. The Cork Film Festival Nomination for the 2018 European Short Film Awards was Sebastian Lang’s Container. The Audience Award was won by Frank Berry’s acclaimed Michael Inside, telling the story of an 18-year-old living in Dublin who is sentenced to three months in prison after he is caught hiding drugs for his friend’s older brother. The Cork Film Festival Youth Jury Award went to Last Man in Aleppo, directed by Feras Fayyad. The film allows the viewers to experience the rescue work of Syrian volunteers, The White Helmets. Ms Clark added: “This year audiences had an opportunity to see 115 features, 34 documentaries and 116 shorts. For the majority of the films shown, this was the only chance to see them on the big screen in Cork.” The Cork Film Festival will return for its 63rd edition in November 2018.
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15: A QUINCEAÑERA STORY, Five Different Latina Girls Celebrate Quinceañera, will Debut on HBO

15: A Quinceanera Story is a collection of four short films following five Latina girls from different cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds as they transition to adulthood, all observing the traditional rite of passage of the quinceañera, a celebration of their 15th birthdays. Executive produced by renowned music executive Tommy Mottola and directed by Emmy(R) winner Matthew O’Neill and Latin Grammy-winning recording artist Thalía Sodi, 15: A Quinceanera Story, debuts Tuesday, December 19 (7:00-7:30 p.m. ET/PT), followed by a new film at the same time on successive nights – DEC. 20, 21 and 22 – simultaneously on HBO and HBO Latino. “As a Latina, I’m proud to share our culture and shine a spotlight on the dynamic, talented and beautiful young women featured in these four films,” comments director Thalía Sodi. “These young women are fierce and determined, and represent the rising generation of American Latinas who are helping define the future of our country,” adds executive producer Tommy Mottola. “The featured young women are examples of the breadth and diversity of the Latina experience in America – we’re proud to celebrate them and their communities as they contend with the complicated realities of growing up in America today,” says director Matthew O’Neill. “I couldn’t think of a better home for these stories than HBO.” 15: A Quinceanera Story follows young girls and their families as they navigate the complexities of coming of age in the U.S. From grappling with gender identity to the constant fear of having a loved one deported, the issues raised in each piece reflect the current cultural and political landscape. The quinceañera girls profiled include: Zoey (debuting Dec. 19), a young Mexican-American living south of Los Angeles, who was assigned male at birth and celebrates with her trans-madrinas (godmothers), who never had quinceañeras of their own. Rosi (Dec. 20), an American growing up in Florida with a mother from Guatemala and a father from Cuba, who combines all three of her cultures for a quinceañera in Havana. She chooses to celebrate there because her beloved grandfather cannot get a visa to the U.S. Ashley (Dec. 21), an amateur boxer living in East Los Angeles, whose mother is a Dreamer and whose father has been deported. She is as nervous about her first official fight as she is about her quinceañera. Ashley’s coach, who is undergoing deportation procedures, may not get to see her special day. Jackie and Nina (Dec. 22), best friends from San Antonio, who decide to honor their multi-generational Mexican-American heritage by mixing their joint quince with their love of escaramuza, a traditional Mexican horse-dancing display.
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Watch Trailer for THE HEYDAY OF THE INSENSITIVE BASTARDS Starring James Franco, Natalie Portman

Here is the funny trailer for The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards, a series of vignettes ranging from comical to bittersweet to poignant. The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards stars James Franco (This is the End), Kate Mara (The Martian), Natalie Portman (Jackie), Rico Rodriguez (Modern Family), Abigail Spencer (Mad Men), Amber Tamblyn (Django Unchained), Thomas Mann (Kong: Skull Island) and Kristen Wiig (Ghostbusters). Based on short stories from Robert Boswell’s critically acclaimed book of the same name, The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards explores the difference between fantasy and reality, memory and history, and the joy and agony of the human condition, through seven tales. The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards has a theatrical release date of October 27, 2017. Also releasing on Digital & On Demand on the same day.
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Short Film TOKYO PROJECT Starring Elisabeth Moss to Debut on HBO | Trailer

The short film “Tokyo Project,” starring Elisabeth Moss, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Shu Kakizawa, explores a mysterious romance between two strangers. The film, written And directed By Richard Shepard, had its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, and will debuts Saturday, October 14, on HBO. Sebastian (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is on a business trip to Tokyo. Handsome and hip, he represents a high-end Brooklyn men’s grooming product company that has been successful in Japan. But there’s a sadness in Sebastian that’s not hard to notice, a past that’s haunting him. He’s also a film nerd, fascinated by Tokyo’s visual splendor and its rich cinematic history. Sebastian is also fascinated by Claire (Elisabeth Moss), a beautiful and mysterious woman he keeps running into, first at a noodle shop, and later at a hidden jewel of a sake bar. There’s clearly something between them. Claire is a photographer, and roams the rich streets of this amazing city in search of images that will linger. Like Sebastian, there’s more to her than meets the eye – a haunted sadness that proves an undeniable attraction for him. “Tokyo is a city of ghosts,” she says. Out with Shu (Shu Kakizawa), his local business partner, Sebastian reveals what is haunting him. He and his wife lost a child, and many months later are barely hanging on as a couple. Shu jokes that after all this time Sebastian should have an affair with a stranger. “It’s easier with strangers. No history,” Shu says. His idea lingers in Sebastian’s mind, as he’s already intrigued with Claire. So begins an erotic, highly charged night between two Americans in a foreign land. But all is not what it seems. Truth is fiction, and fiction the new reality. And though the film has a haunted feel, this intimate story is also hopeful. Tokyo may be a city of ghosts, but it’s also a mysterious, romantic city of rebirth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8k576d4nkg
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DTLA Film Festival Announces 2017 Short Film Lineup

[caption id="attachment_24691" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Dekalb Elementary[/caption] The 2017 DTLA Film Festival will screen more than 60 short films from filmmakers around the world in 10 distinctly different programs. Local area filmmakers will be showcased in “Only In DTLA,” exclusive to films shot in downtown Los Angeles, as well as a UCLA v. USC student film face-off. Student films from around the world will have their own dedicated program. Other shorts programs include “Wonder Women,” which highlights female filmmakers directing leading actresses, “This Modern World,” contemporary narrative international dramas and “What the Doc Ordered,” its documentary short counterpart, “LOL WTF,” an absurdist amalgamation of some of the festival circuit’s most riotous short comedies, and finally “Unusual Objects,” boundary-pushing short cinema that is experimental in form and unique in its execution. Among the short films of particular note are Reed Van Dyk’s harrowing SXSW-prizewinner Dekalb Elementary, inspired by a real-life 911 call placed during a school shooting, French-filmmaker Jonathan Vinel’s Berlinale-feted Martin Cries, which boldly takes gameplay graphics directly from Grand Theft Auto and mutates them into a masculine, melancholy tone-poem, and finally Janizca Bravo’s surreal black-and-white comedic mind-bender Man Rots from the Head, starring Michael Cera. “I’m always looking for something singular, something immediate, something that from within the film you can feel the violent heartbeat of an artist needing so fervently to express something. Shorts are often a surprising, invigorating form; their so-called ‘rulebooks’ are more amorphous and mysterious than their feature-length sibling. Some projects can only work as a short form, and when all the pieces synthesize, the result can be a brutal, swift gut-punch.” said Robert John Torres, senior curator for short films.
2017 DTLA FILM FESTIVAL | SHORT FORM LINEUP

MAIN COMPETITION SHORT FILMS
DEKALB ELEMENTARY USA | Narrative | 2016 | 20’ Director: Reed Van Dyk Inspired by an actual 911 call placed during a school shooting incident in Atlanta, Georgia. STUDENT UNION Hungary | Narrative | 2016 | 9’ Director: György Mór Kárpáti The return journey on a train from a freshman summer camp, where 18-year-old Dóra has just been sexually abused. Now the president of the students’ union wants to talk with her. JOHNNY USA | Narrative | 2015 | 19 min. Director: Micah Stuart A night with a troubled stranger forces a young male sex worker to confront a haunting moment from his past that he thought he’d left behind. LUNCH TIME USA | Narrative | 2017 | 15 min. Director: Alireza Ghasemi A 16-year-old girl deals with the responsibility and harsh bureaucracy of having to identify the body of her mother. CONNIE USA | Narrative | 2017 | 9 min. Director: Joel Garber Ambivalent about her pregnancy, Connie attempts to withstand the desert, her husband, and herself. An under-explored dive into the complex psychology of expectant motherhood. THE MOTH USA | Narrative | 2016 | 15 min. Director: Sam Icklow An insomniac writer gives in to the dark pull of a Berlin winter. ACROSS MY LAND USA | Narrative | 2016 | 15 min. Director: Fiona Godivier Arizona 2016, the portray of an american family at the Mexican border. An evening, as the mother is costly watching TV with her daughter, the father and his son get their rifle prepared for a patrol tour along the border wall. In their path, they will encounter others ‘minutemen’ but also illegal immigrants. NIGHT SHIFT USA | Narrative | 2017 | 16 min. Director: Marshall Taylor Tunde Adebimpe plays Olly Jeffries, an on-again off-again actor whose career has stagnated over the years and ends up gigging as a bathroom attendant in a LA nightclub, called “The Fix”. Quick easy, tax-free money to hold him over between jobs is what he told himself when he first tried it out one weekend at the suggestion of a friend, but quickly convinced himself it wasn’t so bad and found a strange solitude that agreed with him. It’s the joy he finds in being invisible, something he calls the art of disappearing. MARTIN CRIES France | Narrative | 2017 | 16 min. Director: Jonathan Vinel Imagine you wake up one day, all your friends have disappeared. The friends that should be there are gone. So you look. You look everywhere. Every hiding place, each inch of the city, all the marshes, all the rivers. You look, but cannot find them. IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE EASY USA | Narrative | 2016 | 12 min. Director: Keith Ewell A couple fights to save their relationship that has been surreptitiously driven by the paternalistic, cultural, and media driven expectations on love ingrained in us all. INVISIBLE USA | Narrative | 2017 | 4 min. Director: William Rowe A homeless mother’s world is turned upside down when she begins to vanish from reality. She sets out on a desperate race against time to find someone to help her before she is gone forever. THE BASTARD USA | Narrative | 2016 | 24 min. Director: Jeoff Hanser A man has sex with a sex doll; a year later a plastic baby shows up on his doorstep. MAN ROTS FROM THE HEAD USA | Narrative | 2016 | 16 min. Director: Janicza Bravo A door-to-door salesman (Michael Cera) runs into an odd lot on a bum route. BLUA Colombia | Documentary | 2015 | 21 min. Director: Carolina Charry Quintero Humanity and animality are enigmatically confronted and entwined. Combining rich high-contrast 16mm images with crisp digital color scenes, BLUA composes an uncanny entry into the relationship between human and animal existence. Unfolding like a tapestry, its montage complicates the relationship between observation and fiction. Reaching for equal beauty and strangeness, BLUA is an assertion of the uncanny, a cine-poetic philosophical speculation. I MADE YOU, I KILL YOU France, Romania | Documentary | 2016 | 14 min. Director: Alexandru Petru Badelita “I have always been ashamed to talk about my childhood and I think that this caused me a lot of sadness.” THE POINT SYSTEM USA | Narrative | 2016 | 9 min. Director: Conner Bell In a candid interview on raising her two young sons, a mother reveals the system by which every aspect of her children’s lives is monetized, including affection. XYLOPHONE USA | Narrative | 2016 | 9 min. Director: Jennifer Levonian When a woman impulsively steals a goat from a petting zoo, her morning routine turns into a madcap romp through her neighborhood. NYO VWETA NAFTA Portugal, Mozambique | Documentary | 2017 | 21 min. Director: Ico Costa Inhambane. Mozambique. King-Best. Samsung Galaxy. Versace. Babes. White rooster. There are no toothpicks in Norway. Coconut trees. Baobab fruits. Superfruits. Vitamine C. Passiflorine. Alpha-linolenic acid. SMS in Chinese. Megabytes. Hotel Cardoso. Coffee is a white man’s addiction. Ngadzango. My woman. Nafta. A MEDITATION USA | Narrative | 2016 | 15 min. Director: Joe Petricca A man who is a little lost finds himself connecting with a surprising woman who shows up to buy the DVR he is selling on Craigslist. LAPS USA | Narrative | 2016 | 6 min. Director: Charlotte Wells On a routine morning, a woman on a crowded New York City subway is sexually assaulted in plain sight. HOLD ON (HOUVAST) Netherlands | Narrative | 2016 | 22 min. Director: Charlotte Scott-Wilson During an important concert one of the strings of Kyra’s cello comes loose. She gets a panic attack and gets stage fright for the first time. Kyra tries everything to lose the panic attacks and be able to play again in front of an audience. FERTILE MYRTLE USA | Narrative | 2017 | 4 min. Director: Julie Orser One woman’s absurdist struggle through the uncertain and frustrating path of infertility told in cutout animation. (OUT)CASTE USA | Narrative | 2016 | 21 min. Director: Shilpi Shikha Agrawal When a manual scavenger cannot continue her work, her 11-year-old daughter picks up where the mother left off. LUCIA, BEFORE AND AFTER USA | Narrative | 2016 | 12 min. Director: Anu Valia After traveling hundreds of miles, a woman must wait another twenty-four hours before she can get an abortion. dont f with me Australia | Narrative | 2016 | 11 min. Director: Fiona Percival This film was made with over 1000 teenage girls via Facebook who shared stories about sexual assault. LETTING GO Sweden | Narrative | 2016 | 4 min. Director: Nathalie Alvarez Sanna is forced to take care of her little brother when their mother is emotionally unavailable. BEAUTIFUL FIGURE (SZEP ALAK) Hungary | Narrative | 2016 | 16 min. Director: Hajni Kis A high-school cleaning lady falls in love with one of the female students in the school. Her love is impossible from the beginning, but she still decides to show her feelings. AMERICAN PARADISE USA | Narrative | 2017 | 19 min. Director: Joe Talbot A forgotten man in Trump’s America attempts to shift his fate with the perfect crime. Inspired by true events. SHIT KIDS USA | Narrative | 2016 | 18 min. Director: Kyle Dunnigan What happens when the most self-obsessed generation in history meets boundary-less parenting? Children who feel entitled to murder their parents. It’s a Romeo and Juliet tale, if Romeo and Juliet were total assholes. VICTOR & ISOLINA USA | Documentary | 2016 | 6 min. Director: William D. Caballero In the Unique style of Hybrid animation…Living apart, Victor and Isolina (now in their 80’s) answer questions about their life-long, complex and arduous relationship, posed from behind the lens of their documentary filmmaking Grandson. An adorable, touching, poignant love story in a funny he said/she said account. I KNOW JAKE GYLLENHAAL IS GOING TO F*#@K MY GIRLFRIEND USA | Narrative | 2016 | 15 min. Director: Nino Mancuso After Sean and his girlfriend see a Jake Gyllenhaal movie and suspecting his girlfriend has a crush on the film star, Sean’s paranoia actually seems to manifest the fateful encounter with the actor. LOST DOGS (잃어버린 개) USA | Narrative | 2017 | 15 min. Director: Cullan Bruce A woman ridiculed by her family longs to escape. Striking a deal with her brother to clear his illegal debt, she delves deeper into darkness HOT WINTER: A FILM BY DICK PIERRE USA | Narrative | 2016 | 18 min. Director: Jack Henry Robbins Dr. Manly, the world’s leading Climate Scientist and Bodybuilding Champion, gets to the bottom of global warming. VHS, 1982. THE ROBBERY USA | Narrative | 2016 | 10 min. Director: Jim Cummings Crystal robs a liquor store. It goes pretty ok. GREETINGS FROM ALEPPO Netherlands | Documentary | 2017 | 17 min. Directors: Issa Touma, Floor van der Meulen and Thomas Vroege ‘Greetings From Aleppo’ reveals how little the news about Syria corresponds with the experiences of everyday life. Photographer Issa Touma keeps away from bold declarations; he films life, the inconsistencies and perseverance as they reveal themselves in front of his camera. War is tragic and absurd. Surviving is often highly surreal and touching in this war-torn city. SLEEPING WITH THE DEVIL USA | Documentary | 2016 | 23 min. Director: Alisa Yang A documentary short of based on a recorded Skype exorcism. PERFECTLY NORMAL USA | Documentary | 2016 | 12 min. Director: Joris Debeij A man who often seems lost in an imaginary world, but works hard to keep his feet on the ground, proving that one can make deliberate choices to maintain stability. GOODS Brazil | Documentary | 2017 | 15 min. Director: Carla Villa-Lobos Upon the arrival of a newcomer, six women share their experiences, desires and fears as sex workers. PEHELWANI USA, India | Documentary | 2017 | 10 min. Director: Joao Canziani The fascinating story of a group of young men that practice the ancient art of ‘pehelwan,’ or mud wrestling, at the Bhuteshwar Akhara in the town of Mathura, India. We get to witness the strict yet ultimately joyous way these men live, the tight bond they have with each other, and the reverence for the soil they wrestle upon. “THE TALK” TRUE STORIES ABOUT THE BIRDS AND THE BEES Canada | Documentary | 2016 | 9 min. Director: Alain Delannoy There are things in life you never forget. One of them, like it or not, is “The Talk”. IN THE WAKE OF GHOST SHIP USA | Documentary | 2017 | 21 min. Director: Jason Blalock Last December, Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse fire claimed 36 lives, the nation’s deadliest fire in over a decade. It also set off a wave of scrutiny of live/work spaces across the country. Seven miles from Ghost Ship, a legendary punk collective called Burnt Ramen is fighting back against sudden eviction.
STUDENT FILMS SERIES
REST IN PEACE USA | Narrative | 2016 | 18 min. Director: Salma Amer A girl gets possessed by her father’s spirit. NOBLE CREATURES USA | Narrative | 2017 | 20 min. Director: Daniel Lafrentz Two adversarial escaped convicts – with different ideas about how to hold onto their freedom – are hunted through the Louisiana swamp by a tortured, but resolute, female corrections officer. MOTHER OF THE YEAR USA | Narrative | 2017 | 15 min. Director: Makena Costlow Sam, loving mother of two, is a hot mess. She can’t seem to handle the chaos of her daughter’s teenage rebellion and her son’s over-involved schedule. When she disappoints those who matter most to her, her mother comes to the rescue. Sliding a clear bag across the table, she introduces Sam to a drug that might solve everything. It’s powers convince Sam to volunteer herself to host the neighborhood block party. Thanks to her newly found addiction, Sam has no problem balancing her kids and her party planning. LIGHT SIGHT Iran | Narrative | 2016 | 8 min. Director: Seyed M. Tabatabaei M.E., the imprisoned character in a room is attracted to a hanging light and tries to catch it. But the room itself becomes an obstacle on his way. OPHELIA USA | Narrative | 2017 | 4 min. Director: Julia Balayan Inspired by true events, ‘Ophelia’, tells a story of a girl, whose young love meets a tragic end. Embodied by a trio of cellist, pianist and a ballerina, the video is an ode to her undying love and a tribute to her eternal memory. DEVIL WEARS A SUIT Australia | Narrative | 2017 | 20 min. Director: Eli Mak A high-concept drama/sci-fi about a Jewish boy who must decide whether to ‘cure’ his homosexuality with an injection or be ostracised from his community forever. CAMERA OBSCURA USA | Narrative | 2017 | 10 min. Director: Ashley Kroon Tessa and Vera are best friends with the shared dream of creating a final film for their high school art class that’s so sensational, it goes down in history. There’s only one problem: they don’t have a subject. Then, they meet Strange Boy.
UCLA VS. USC STUDENT FILMS
BECOMING LUCY UCLAx | 10 min. Director: Luisa Novo Lucy, 15, blames her mother for her father leaving them for a 24 year-old blonde. When she finds out her crush at school likes blondes, she dyes her hair to get the attention of both men. CHANGES UCLAx | 10 min. Director: Roberto Escamilla Garduno Changes is a coming of age dramedy following the story of Mitchell, a 16 year old boy, who is taken by his friends to a shady motel to have his first sexual encounter. There she will meet Destiny, who will show him new horizons in an unexpected way. DEAD FLOWERS UCLAx | 15 min. Directors: Pablo Riquelme & Stephen R. Scott Alex is the only living son of two. He takes care of his memory damaged mother until one day their past becomes their present. SEARCHING SKIES UCLAx | 9 min. Director: Vivian Hua When a Syrian refugee family is invited to a Christian family’s house for Christmas, they are caught between opposing viewpoints — until an unexpected event occurs. STRINGS OF HOPE UCLAx | 11 min. Director: Eva Merz In 1945, a German ex-soldier has to overcome his reservations about the American troops, playing a puppet show in exchange for food for his family. FUCK USC | 6 min. Director: Nicole Danser Fuck is a bittersweet comedy that looks at the rise and fall of a couple through charting the word “Fuck” in their relationship. GEETA USC | 16 min. Director: Sohil Vaidya 16 year old Geeta has been brought to the United states as domestic worker by an Indian couple with the promises of giving her the American Dream. It is not long until Geeta slowly realizes that her financial, personal and social freedoms are slowly being stricken away from her. GOOD GIRL USC | 6 min. Director: Sade Joseph Good Girl follows Marci-Lee McKinley, an American high school student who must navigate life between her dysfunctional Jamaican Immigrant family and her predominantly-white private school. MORGAN IN MAYWOOD USC | 7 min. Director: Kevin Alexander Gallo In 1982 New Jersey, a teen boy, Morgan, has an love affair with his older manager at his part-time roller rink job. However when he discovers his manager has been keeping a secret from him, Morgan is faced with a tough decision. TECATO USC | 6 min. Director: Ronald Trejo After a run in with his AA counselor, Dom must make a decision to tell someone or not.
7 ENEMY NATIONS SHORTS
SING FOR ME Iraq | Documentary | 2015 | 38 min. Director: Sama Waham ‘Sing For Me’ is a poetic documentary that contemplates the notion of belonging and inherited nostalgia, while investigating the viewpoint of fractured diasporic identities and ethnic solidarity, and meditating on Mandaeanism; a fading ancient practice that goes back to Babylonian history. A LIFE STORY Libya | Narrative | 2016 | 14 min. Director: Muhannad Lamin The story of Amen, a young man who left home and across the Sahara in order to provide for his family in militia controlled Libya. THE AUDITION Somalia | Narrative | 2015 | 4 min. Director: Zak Salad The Audition portrays the narrative of two Black Actors who go on an audition for a tv series, they are subjected to numerous negative stereotypes and various versions of racial profiling. ONE WEEK AND TWO DAYS Sudan | Narrative | 2017 | 20 min. Director: Marwa Zein The relationship of a loving couple is challenged when they were trying to conceive a baby. Big decision should be made by both in such critical times. NOT COVERED Yemen | Narrative | 2017 | 7 min. Director: Ezat Wagdi When the camera becomes a passion, a curse, and at the same time a tool for disclosing the antinomies between Yemen and the rest of the world.
WEBSERIES
555 USA | Narrative | 2017 | 40 min. Director: Andrew DeYoung An anthology of eerie, luscious fables set in the cinematic underbelly of Hollywood. Watch as Kate Berlant and John Early morph into different characters that trace the border of comedy and hell. THE GAY AND WONDROUS LIFE OF CALEB GALLO USA | Narrative | 2016 | 40 min. Director: Brian Jordan Alvarez A fast-paced, fringe-meets-mainstream miniseries examining a group of young friends desperate for love. VERY ANIMATED PEOPLE USA | Narrative | 2016 | 4 min. Director: Joseph Bennet An animated series featuring comedians telling stories from their lives set to animation. OUR HAPPY APOCALYPSE USA | Narrative | 2017 | 15 min. Director: Tyler Manzo In a post-apocalyptic bay area, a group of drifters are all looking for an object of great power known only as ‘The Chest’. THE DRUNK LONELY WIVES BOOK CLUB USA | Narrative | 2016 | 19 min. Director: Mary Lou Belli When four neighbors found a ladies-only book club in 1963, friendships are formed and broken, secrets are revealed, social conventions are challenged, and juicy discussions are had — few of which have anything to do with the monthly book! THREE TREMBLING CITIES Iran | Narrative | 2016 | 8 min. Director: Arthur Vincie An intimate portrait of the inner lives and daily struggles of the immigrants that make NYC’s heart tremble with hope. FRANKIE + EMMA UK | Narrative | 2017 | 3 min. Director: Emily Seale-Jones Scatty, passionate, permanently broke, impulsive and accident-prone, the two girls lead each other in and out of a series of tight holes in which sometimes friendship and mutual support cause more problems than they solve. LIFE COACHED USA | Narrative | 2016 | 16 min. Director: Chloe Lenihan A renowned NYC Life Coach struggles to follow the advice she gives her clients on a daily basis. GOD’S 17 Australia | Narrative | 2017 | 10 min. Director: Nir Shelter God’s 17 is a web series about a community of well-meaning religious people and revolves around the group’s founders; Brother Aaron and Sister Tammy. IN ABSENTIA USA | Narrative | 2017 | 12 min. Directors: Jessica Silvetti, Ethan Kogan The series focuses on characters confronted with the absence of both the material and intangible.The series focuses on characters confronted with the absence of both the material and intangible. CTRL ALT DEL USA | Narrative | 2017 | 3 min. Directors: Margaret Katch & Roni Geva Character anthology web series set in an abortion clinic. It’s a comedy! Based on real interviews, created by women, shot by women, with an all-woman crew. CRYSTAL USA | Narrative | 2016 | 4 min. Director: Crystal Correa Crystal, newly-single workaholic, decides to avoid dealing with her breakup which ends with a sticky result. FAKERS USA | Narrative | 2017 | 7 min. Director: Ryan Mitchel Fakers is an indie web series that highlights and celebrates the absurdity of New York City. BECCA ON CALL USA | Narrative | 2016 | 15 min. Director: Jenness Rouse, Matt Draper Aspiring authoress, Becca C. Johnson, dreams of becoming the next Jane Austen of the 21st century. OHNI CASE FILES USA | Documentary | 2017 | 18 min. Director: Aimee Galicia Torres Ohni Case Files is a medical docuseries about the surgical team at Osborne Head and Neck Institute. Each episode tells a unique story about the doctors and the patients they treat. MY FRIEND D-RONE USA | Narrative | 2016 | 9 min. Director: Jack Martin A socially awkward techie’s perfectly mundane life gets flipped upside down when a sentient, sassy drone arrives in the mail. NEW MOMMIES USA | Narrative | 2017 | 9 min. Director: Matthew Mullen, Boris Undorf New Mommies explores the lives of a freshly cuckolded odd couple as they begin their quest to find “new mommies” for their beloved pets. THE FEMINIST COOKING SHOW USA | Narrative | 2017 | 1 min. Director: Lauren Keating A Food Network frame on Broad City living. POT LUCK Australia | Narrative | 2016 | 8 min. Director: Ness Simmons Three friends make a pact which turns their weekly Pot Luck dinners into a search for love. Or not. OCEAN PARKWAY USA | Narrative | 2016 | 5 min. Director: Nicole Haran Fresh from a major tragedy, a downwardly mobile family of four—five if you count New Guy, the cat—is starting over in a borrowed, temporary home. UNDERGRADS USA | Narrative | 2016 | 8 min. Director: Zoe Robyn After a summer under the thumb of their parents two best friends are ready to catch up on all the TV that they missed; however, after moving in with their least favorite people in the world they find out their goal is further away than they thought. They decide to go on a journey to get the free television they feel they deserve. DROPPING THE SOAP USA | Narrative | 2017 | 12 min. Director: Ellie Kanner Shit’s about to get real for the cast and crew of the long-running (awful) soap-opera “Collided Lives” when new Executive Producer Olivia Vanderstein (Jane Lynch) shows up to shake things up.
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2017 Fantastic Fest Announces Short Film Lineup, CERULIA, THE BURDEN, and More

[caption id="attachment_24409" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] CERULIA by Sofia Carrillo[/caption] The 2017 Fantastic Fest announced the short film line up for the 13th edition of the festival, which runs September 21 to September 28, 2017 at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX. This year, to celebrate the festival’s Arabic theme, veteran festival programmer Peter Kuplowsky and Fantastic Fest creative director Evrim Ersoy have added a unique sidebar to the festival’s regular short-subject programming. YALLA! ARAB GENRE SHORTS assembles four remarkable genre productions from Arab countries, each with a distinct sensibility and style that further expands the breadth of genres traditionally showcased at the festival. The 48 film lineup, culled from a record submission pool of nearly 1200 entries, spans 23 countries and features a trio of stop-motion mini-masterpieces including the North American premiere of the chilling CERULIA by Sofia Carrillo (who genre fans will be familiar with from her contributions to the anthology feature XX) and the US premiere of THE BURDEN, Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s award-winning musical. Other highlights include an acclaimed and mind-melting short about escaping a Red Lobster commercial (GREAT CHOICE), and a potent sci-fi skewering of government bureaucracy so incendiary it was banned in Turkey (THE LAST SCHNITZEL)! Speaking on the program, curator Kuplowsky commented: “With the proliferation of digital distribution channels, the audience for short films is growing exponentially and the mode of filmmaking is becoming more relevant than ever before. I’m thrilled that Fantastic Fest can be the first stop for so many of these fantastic films on their road to people’s eyeballs.” The complete lineup, divided by program, is as follows:
FANTASTIC SHORTS
ANIMAL Iran, 2017 US Premiere, 15 min Directors: Bahram & Bahman Ark A desperate man adopts the guise of a ram in a plot to penetrate a heavily guarded border crossing. THE BURDEN Sweden, 2017 US Premiere, 14 min Director: Niki Lindroth von Bahr Lonely fish, tap-dancing mice and telemarketing monkeys harmonize in their collective angst towards the apocalyptic banality of the modern age in this epic stop-motion reverie. DEAD HORSES Spain, 2016 Texas Premiere, 6 min Directors: Marc Riba & Anna Solanas A child caught in a war zone innocently grapples to understand his horrifying surroundings in this grim stop-motion parable. FUCKING BUNNIES Finland, 2017 Texas Premiere, 17 min Director: Teemu Niukkanen The comfortable routine of Raimo’s middle-class life is interrupted when a Satan-worshipping sex cult moves next door. A wickedly funny comedy of manners. JUST GO! Latvia, 2017 Texas Premiere, 11 min Director: Pavels Gumennikovs Young Just may not have legs, but that doesn’t prevent him from proverbially kicking ass in this remarkable slice of action inspired by the star’s extraordinary life story. KAIJU BUNRAKU USA, 2017 Regional Premiere, 13 min Directors: Lucas Leyva & Jillian Mayer The Japanese art of bunraku puppetry dramatizes the existential crisis of a despondent denizen of a Kaiju-infested region of Japan; a rigorous theatrical tradition soaked in profound absurdism. THE LAST SCHNITZEL Denmark, 2016 US Premiere, 22 min Directors: Ismet Kurtulus & Kaan Arici The world is ending, but the president of Turkey won’t let it until he has a chicken schnitzel. Gleefully silly science-fiction satire with political bite. LET THEM DIE LIKE LOVERS USA, 2017 World Premiere, 16 min Director: Jesse Atlas Fantastic Shorts Award Winner Jesse Atlas (RECORD/PLAY) returns to the section with an arresting sci-fi character study about a body-hopping assassin. THE NIGHT I DANCE WITH DEATH France, 2017 Regional Premiere, 6 min Director: Vincent Gibaud The consequences of saying “hell yeah, I’ll try that” at a party. A marvelously animated kaleidoscope that collides liberating euphoria with crippling anxiety.
SHORT FUSE Presented by Stage 13
CERULIA Mexico, 2017 North American Premiere, 13 min Director: Sofia Carrillo The brilliant animator behind the stop-motion segments of XX spins an eerie fable about a young woman’s repressed memories luring her back to her childhood home. CRESWICK Australia, 2016 Regional Premiere, 10 min Director: Natalie Erika James Creeping dread meticulously escalates to an understated but deeply unsettling coda as a father and daughter pack away the contents of their family home. EARWORM USA, 2016 Texas Premiere, 5 min Director: Tara Price When a few measures of music get stuck in a man’s head, the consequences are almost as disturbing as the source of the tune. GREAT CHOICE USA, 2017 Austin Premiere, 7 min Director: Robin Comisar A woman is trapped in a Red Lobster commercial. Sublime absurdity that crescendos to nightmarish heights and remarkable emotional resonance. HIGHWAY Australia, 2016 Texas Premiere, 10 min Director: Vanessa Gazy A teenage hitchhiker traverses a lonely mountain highway and begins to pick a mysterious radio broadcast rife with ominous reports of the near future. LATCHED Canada, 2017 International Premiere, 17 min Directors: Justin Harding & Rob Brunner Spilt milk is nothing to cry over but when it inadvertently awakens a voracious woodland creature, this funny and freaky short makes the case that it might be something to scream over. SETACEOUS Australia, 2017 World Premiere, 11 min Director: Tel Benjamin An incessant car alarm attracts the curiosity of a cul-de-sac’s residents with chilling consequences. A measured slice of suburban horror that implies and terrifies. STAY USA, 2017 World Premiere, 9 min Director: David Mikalson Satan sucks, but this pitch-black comedy about catching the eye of the prince of darkness is the best. THURSDAY NIGHT Portugal, 2017 US Premiere, 8 min Director: Gonçalo Almeida Hypnotic cinematography buoyed by a ghostly soundscape envelopes remarkable canine performances in this moody, experimental nightmare. TOOTH FAIRY Uruguay, 2017 World Premiere, 6 min Directors: Jeremias Segovia & Gonzalo Torrens A greedy young boy discovers that the Tooth Fairy is a stickler for the rules in this frightening permutation of the folk figure. VOYEUR Canada, 2017 US Premiere, 4 min Directors: Claire Stradwick & Charlotte Lam The private spaces of women are unnervingly encroached upon by a masculine other in this confrontational work that shifts cinema’s scopophilic gaze back on the audience.
SHORTS WITH LEGS
THE ALIENS USA, 2017 World Premiere, 4 min Director: Alex Lee A punk ruminates on the consequences of an alien invasion during some katana practice in the park. beans. USA, 2017 World Premiere, 7 min Director: Maxwell Nalevansky An acerbic narrator reflects nostalgically on the profound pleasure that was afforded to him upon once being offered a free bowl of beans. CALL OF CUTENESS Germany, 2017 Austin Premiere, 4 min Director: Brenda Lien A parade of cat meme tributes mutate into a disturbing animated critique of how these sublime objects of cuteness belie a more sinister cycle of exploitation and control. THE CURE USA, 2017 Texas Premiere, 20 min Director: Mike Olenick A surreal sci-fi soap opera that collides the idiosyncratic private lives of both humans and aliens in a parade of hypnotic slow-zooms and kitschy feline totems. HOMER_A Canada, 2017 World Premiere, 10 min Directors: Milos Mitrovic & Conor Sweeney Conor Sweeney of ASTRON-6 and FF alumni Milos Mitrovic smash the characters of THE SIMPSONS with the aesthetics of TRASH HUMPERS, and the results both haunt and disturb. Ay caramba. LA TRISTESSE DURERA TOUJOURS USA, 2017 Texas Premiere, 12 min Director: Vinny De Giulio Vinny De Ghoulie returns to SHORTS WITH LEGS with what may very well be his 8 ½. This is a maddening deconstruction of his own process culled from the remnants of a feature film he mounted, but failed to to realize. As amusingly bemusing as it is devastating. MÖBIUS USA, Canada, 2017 Regional Premiere, 15 min Director: Sam Kuhn A hallucinogenic dive into the consciousness of a teenage poet in the wake of her lover’s mysterious death. Exquisitely photographed and seemingly assembled in a Lynchian dreamstate. THE TESLA WORLD LIGHT Canada, 2017 Texas Premiere, 8 min Director: Matthew Rankin Visionary inventor Nikola Tesla makes one last appeal to his benefactor in Matthew Rankin’s mesmerizing live-action/animated hybrid that paints with light itself to conjure its indelible abstract visuals. THE VETTING USA, 2017 Texas Premiere, 19 min Director: Matthew Dunehoo A twitchy and hysterically garish political satire in which a US senator is vetted for a Presidential nomination by a 6,000-year-old telepath that secretly rules the Earth. THE VIEW FROM HERE Canada, 2017 US Premiere, 9 min Director: Sofia Bohdanowicz A delirious puppet-theatre libretto that depicts two lovers nostalgically yearning for the good-old-primordial-soup days of yore.
YALLA! ARAB GENRE SHORTS:
DUNIA Qatar, 2017 North American Premiere, 15 min Director: Amer Jamhour Little Dunia is asked to wait in the car in an effort to shield her from her mother’s desperate decision, but when a curious cop comes a-knocking, Dunia’s innocence is suspensefully put to the test. FEAR: AUDIBLY Saudi Arabia, 2017 International Premiere, 22 min Director: Maha Al-Saati Anxious that Judgment Day is on the horizon, Amal keenly awaits to hear the Trumpet of Doom; could the incessant mewing of cats in her office be the first harbinger? An eccentric and experimental rumination on the end of days. KINDIL Algeria, Kuwait, USA, 2016 Regional Premiere, 40 min Director: Damien Ounouri The spectre of a murdered woman returns to the site of her death, claiming the lives of those responsible, as well as those who turned a blind eye. An arresting social critique in the guise of a vengeful ghost story. LAST DAYS OF THE MAN OF TOMORROW Germany, Lebanon, 2017 World Premiere, 29 min Director: Fadi Baki A remarkable mock-doc that profoundly explores Lebanon’s turbulent history through the life and times of a reclusive metal automaton that once was emblematic of the country’s hopes and dreams.
PAIRED WITH FEATURES:
THE ACCOMPLICE USA, 2017 Regional Premiere, 7 min Directors: Jon Hoeg & John F. Beach A man discovers his unwitting participation in a bank robbery across a series of increasingly incriminating (and hilarious) answering machine messages. CATHERINE Belgium, 2016 Special Presentation, 11 min Director: Britt Raes Delightful animation depicts the origins of a crazy cat lady, while disturbingly proving the axiom: “You always hurt the ones you love.” THE DROP-IN Canada, 2017 US Premiere, 13 min Director: Naledi Jackson A hairstylist confronted with her past fights to protect her future in this stylish, genre-hopping metaphor for the immigrant experience. THE DUNDEE PROJECT USA, 2017 Texas Premiere, 19 min Director: Mark Borchardt Cult filmmaker Mark Borchardt (as seen in AMERICAN MOVIE) takes a trip to the UFO Days festival in Dundee, Wisconsin. Eccentric personalities abound as Mark poetically ruminates on why the compulsion to seek out little green men seems to converge in his home state. THE END OF DECAY USA, 2017 Texas Premiere, 12 min Director: Chris Todd A paraplegic scientist attempts a dangerous experiment to reclaim his mobility in this visceral bit of gruesome, wince-inducing body-horror. GIRL AT THE DOOR South Korea, 2017 Texas Premiere, 11 min Director: Song Joo-sung A young girl gleans a few choice maneuvers from gym class that enable her to turn the tables on her abusive father. MANILA DEATH SQUAD Philippines, USA, 2017 World Premiere, 13 min Director: Dean Colin Marcial An ambitious journalist challenges the leader of a violent vigilante group to a high-stakes drinking game that may score her a scoop or a bullet to the head. NEONATAL USA, 2017 Austin Premiere, 15 min Director: Andrew McDonald In this tense Austin-bound thriller, an expectant mother is lured into a sinister plot by a disturbed and desperate woman. NOTHING A LITTLE SOAP AND WATER CAN’T FIX USA, 2017 Regional Premiere, 9 min Director: Jennifer Proctor An exhaustive and illuminating deconstruction of how horror films frequently feature the bathtub as both a private sanctuary for women and, damningly, as an impromptu sarcophagus. THE PASSENGER Russia, 2017 International Premiere, 11 min Director: Egor Abramenko A Russian cosmonaut grapples with post-traumatic stress following his return from orbit. But that’s not all he’s brought back. UFO DAYS USA, 2017 Austin Premiere, 9 min Director: Quinn Else A fascinating fusion of documentary and fiction against the backdrop of UFO Days that juxtaposes a Ufology lecture with the rural wanderings of an enigmatic “visitor.” VIULU Finland, 2017 Texas Premiere, 12 min Director: Ramin Sohrab When a precious violin is snatched by gangsters, an ex-hitman wreaks some serious martial-vengeance in an effort to reclaim it. YOUR DATE IS HERE USA, 2017 Austin Premiere, 6 min Directors: Todd Spence & Zak White An old Mystery Date-style board game holds more evil than amusement in this expertly wound fright flick. ZARR-DOS Switzerland, 2017 North American Premiere, 7 min Director: Bart Wasem Two grotesque floating heads engage in an aerial waltz of wanton destruction in this spectacularly animated epic. You won’t have a clue, but you’ll appreciate the cosmic justice.
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VIDEO: Watch Trailers for 2 Netflix Documentary Shorts Premiering at 2017 Telluride Film Festival

Here are the trailers for two Netflix original documentary shorts – Heroin(e) and Long Shot premiering this weekend at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival. Heroin(e), making its world premiere, focuses on the once bustling industrial town, Huntington, West Virginia that has become the epicenter of America’s modern opioid epidemic. With an overdose rate 10 times the national average, the crisis threatens to tear this community apart. West Virginia native Sheldon highlights three women working to change the town’s narrative and break the devastating cycle of drug abuse one person at a time. Heroin(e) shows how the chain of compassion holds one town together. The Netflix original documentary short, by Peabody award-winning filmmaker, Elaine McMillion Sheldon (Hollow), will launch on September 12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khSO7qEKbvo Also making its’ world premiere, Long Shot, an improbable story where justice prevails with a series of events that could only happen in Hollywood. An innocent man is accused of murder, leading his dedicated attorney on a wild chase to confirm his alibi among thousands of people in a baseball stadium. To tell the whole story, the search would lead him from the LA Dodgers, to a cellphone tower, to the office of the entertainer Larry David. On the night in question, television cameras happened to be positioned throughout the stadium, and captured a story of remarkable circumstance. Directed by Jacob LaMendola (Anosmia), Long Shot launches September 29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDxISykYRc4
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11 Finalists Selected for 2017 Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival Short Film Competition

[caption id="attachment_23996" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Once Upon a Line by Alicja Jasina[/caption] Eleven short films have been selected as finalists for the Juried Short Film competition at the 2017 Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival. More than 300 entries from 25 countries were submitted for review. To be eligible, the films must have been completed within the past year and be under 20 minutes in length. All eleven films will be screened the night of Saturday, September 9, at the Capawock Theater. At the conclusion of the shorts program, a panel of judges will announce the winning film. A cash prize of $1,000 will be awarded to the winning filmmaker(s).
2017 Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival Juried Short Film Lineup
5 Films About Technology Directed by Peter Huang (Canada) Time: 4:39 minutes A look at the dumber side of technology. El Atraco (The Robbery) Directed by Alfonso Díaz (Spain) Time: 9:53 minutes What’s going to happen when these tough times get worse and there are more robbers than bars? Caramel Mou (Unleavened Bread) Directed by Wilfried Méance (France) Time: 8:30 minutes Vanessa is in love with Rémi. Rémi is in love with Vanessa. Only one damper: his bread won’t rise… disillusionment of 10 point font Directed by Greg Condon (USA) Time: 1:12 minutes A collection of playfully animated words, created on a typewriter. Elevator Lesson Directed by Linda Kuriloff (USA) Time: 5:27 minutes Aiden Walker has a chance encounter gone wrong with Maggie Reynolds with whom he ends up stuck on the elevator. The Finger Directed by Chris Carfizzi (USA) Time: 10:08 minutes A guy’s simple injury has an unexpected and profound effect on his special evening with his girlfriend. If We Must Die Directed by Giovanni Ferrari (USA) Time: 18:37 minutes Adapted from a short story by the internationally acclaimed author Kurt Vonnegut, IF WE MUST DIE tells about the unforgettable day of three destinies who collide in the wake of a small town murder. A police chief, his prime suspect, and a ten-year-old paperboy all defend their versions of the truth. Nature will be the final judge. Once Upon a Line Directed by Alicja Jasina (USA) Time: 7:05 minutes A man leads a monotone, humdrum existence until he meets somebody. Rabbit Punch Directed by Keith Farrell and Hannah Salt (UK) Time: 15:00 minutes Rabbit Punch is a redemption tale, based on a true story of a teenage boy who has come to Manchester, UK from the Congo as a young refugee. When a chance encounter leads him to his local boxing club, his life takes an unexpected turn, but can this club help him to escape his past? Time Flies When I Am Having Fun Directed by John Tappert (Sweden) Time: 4:30 minutes From personal experience Marianne knows that time passes too quickly when she is having fun. She therefore tries to live as boring as possible, which turns out to be harder than she thought. La Vista (The Visit) Directed by: Romina Scheduler (USA) Time: 12:30 minutes During an encounter with his aging mother, a man must face an unsettling truth about himself.
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2017 HollyShorts Film Festival Announces Winners, Brett Rattner Receives Icon Award

The Academy Awards® qualifying 13th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival came to a close Saturday night with the HollyShorts Awards. The evening kicked off with a special Keynote conversation by Brett Ratner moderated by Steve Bellamy, Kodak’s President of Motion Picture and Entertainment. Following the Keynote HollyShorts Presented Ratner with its 2017 Icon Award. Previous recipients include: David Lynch, Eli Roth, Paul Haggis, Joe Carnahan, and Matthew Modine. The night’s big winners were: Skinner Meyers who took home the Grand Jury Prize for his short Frank Embree, Kevin Wilson, Jr. who took home Best Director for My Nephew Emmett and Best Short Film went to Konstantina Kotzamani for her short LIMBO.
2017 HollyShorts Film Festival Awards Winners
Best Action Two Bellman Three Daniel Malakai Cabrera | Mark David Spencer Best Animation POST NO BILLS Robin Hays | Andy Poon Best Cinematography The Ningyo Miguel Ortega Best Comedy Hot Winter: A Film by Dick Pierre Jack Henry Robbins Best Coming of Age A Boy Called Su Vedrana Music Best Commercial Making It On Time – Christian Siriano Sophia Banks Best Director My Nephew Emmett Kevin Wilson, Jr. Best Diversity Il Silenzio Ali Asgari | Farnoosh Samadi Best Doc The Tables Jon Bunning Best Drama Benny Got Shot Malcolm Washington Best Editing Miss World Georgia Wu Best Female Director Waste Justine Raczkiewicz Grand Jury Award Frank Embree Skinner Myers Best Horror Wandering Soul Josh Tanner Best International Pushing Night Away Jade Aksnes Best LGBT In a Heartbeat Beth David | Esteban Bravo Best Music Video “Starman” IAMEVE Thor Freudenthal Best Narrative Fry Day Laura Moss Panavision Future Filmmaker Verano 78 Serapi Soler Best Period Piece Hope Dies Last Ben Price Best Producer Oh What a Wonderful Feeling François Jaros | Fanny-Laure Malo Best Romance Just Go! Pavel Gumennikov Best Sci Fi Unbound Maggie Mahrt Best Screenplay Jameson John Humber Screenplay Runner Up Modern Love Hannah Dillon Screenplay Runner Up Echo Chamber Travis Lemke Best Shot on Film Little Bird Georgia Oakley Best Short Film Grand Prize LIMBO Konstantina Kotzamani Best Student Filip Nathalie Álvarez Mesén Best Thriller Midwife Blake Salzman Best TV Category Shoot Me Nicely Elias Plagianos Best VFX Real Artists Cameo Wood Best Visionary The Ceiling Jussi Rautaniemi Best VR If You Go Away Soheila Golestani Best Web Series Gunner Jackson Christian Strevy Best Youth A Birthday Card Anvar Madraimov Honorable Mention Yes, God, Yes Karen Maine
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