The 4th Indy Shorts International Film Festival, under the theme “A Short Escape,” will run July, 20-25, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana showcasing a lineup of 201 independent short films in 33 themed programs. The 6-day festival is offering 3 different ways to experience the Academy Award®-Qualifying Festival with indoor, outdoor, and virtual viewing options.
Magnet Releasing released the trailer for the indie coming-of-age comedy film First Date directed by Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp that premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The film starring Tyson Brown and Shelby Duclos, opens in theaters and on demand on July 2.
Variance Films will release Scales, the debut feature film by Saudi Arabian writer/director Shahad Ameen that premiered at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, where it won the Verona Film Club Award.
The Salvadoran film “Unforgivable” directed by Marlén Viñayo was awarded the Greater Palm Springs CVB Best of the Festival Award at the 2021 Palm Springs International ShortFest making the film now eligible to compete at the upcoming Academy Awards.
AFI DOCS 2021 concluded the six-day festival with the festival’s Audience Award for Best Feature going to Storm Lake, directed by Jerry Risius and Beth Levison. The Audience Award for Best Short went to Shelter, directed by Smriti Mundhra.
Filmed during the height of the pandemic, the documentary film Last Call: The Shutdown of NYC Bars, directed by Johnny Sweet explores the social and economic impact of COVID-19 on the NYC hospitality industry. The film will have its NYC Premiere on July 3rd at Queens World Film Festival, and will open in theaters on Friday July 16 at Laemmle Virtual Cinema.
A total of 368 short films from 64 countries will screen in the Competition sections and special programs of the 33rd Filmfest Dresden set to take place July 13 to 18, 2021 in Dresden, Germany.
Lorraine Price’s short film The Hairdresser (La Coffieuse) shares the story of a woman who does hair for terminally ill patients in hospital. This documentary short received its world premiere at the 2021 Hot Docs International Film Festival where it received an honourable mention for Best Canadian Short and finished second in the shorts Audience Choice Awards. It also screened at Atlanta Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival and at AFI Docs Film Festival this month.
Filmmaker Antonio Méndez Esparza’s first documentary film Courtroom 3H, has its North American premiere at AFI Docs. The documentary takes inspiration from the words of James Baldwin: “If one really wants to know how justice is administered in a country, one goes to the unprotected and listens to their testimony.”
The Waco-based Deep in the Heart Film Festival returns for its 5th edition with a film lineup of 133 films (5 features, 128 shorts and music videos), including a celebratory return to theaters as part of its hybrid presentation July 22-31, 2021.
The Santa Fe Independent Film Festival (SFiFF) returns for its 13th edition with a full program of in-person film screenings and events this upcoming October 13th–17th, 2021.
Sony Pictures Classics will release the documentary film WHO WE ARE — A Chronicle of Racism in America, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jeffery Robinson’s powerful and groundbreaking talk on the history of U.S. anti-Black racism. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival where it won the Documentary Spotlight Audience Award.