Kate Walsh stars in “The Dog,” written and directed by Danielle Baynes.
HOLLYWOOD, CA (LA ELEMENTS) 7/22/2024 – The road to an Oscar® nomination for a short film, starts with winning an award from at least one of 63 select film festivals from around the world which includes the HollyShorts Film Festival. This is no doubt why there is always an impressive array of film stars at HollyShorts which returns for its much-anticipated 20th edition from August 8-18, 2024. For this year’s festival the competition was especially intense as out of 6000 entries, only 400 films were selected for this year’s anniversary program.
Last year, the Academy® granted the festival their 4th OSCAR®-qualifying award for Documentary Short Film. This accolade joined their other three top awards: Best Short Film Grand Prize, Best Short Animation and Best Short Live Action. The winners of these awards will be eligible for consideration for a 2025 Academy® Award.
HollyShorts has also launched an inaugural Sports category with NBA Champion, Metta World Peace as the head judge. He is also a producer of a film to be premiered on opening night called, With Love, Charlie.
The festival’s sports category is led by producer Jessica Badawi and will include work from former NBA player and champion Matt Barnes premiering his documentary “Black Mark,” an episode from the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks series “The Sound of the Seahawks”, The Syd & TP Show with WNBA stars Theresa Plaisance and Sydney Colson The show is produced exclusively by TOGETHXR, a media and commerce company founded by four of the world’s greatest athletes Alex Morgan, Chloe Sim, Simone Manuel and Sue Bird. Also joining this new category will be Red Bull Media House’s “Life of Kai’ featuring ESPY award winner Kai Lenny and Race and Surf from Selema Masakela, NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies Marc Gasol: Memphis Made, ESPN 30 for 30 and two documentaries from the Italian powerhouse soccer team AC Milan including Roots: Ismael Bennacer.
Some of the documentary short films selected for the 20th edition include Alok directed by Alex Hedison and executive produced by Jodie Foster, The Final Copy of Ilon Specht directed by two-time Academy® Award winner Ben Proudfoot, Benjamin Alfonsi’s Whitney Houston in Focus, John Beder’s How to Sue the Klan and XCLD: The Story of Cancel Culture directed by Ferne Pearlstein and produced by Trevor Noah.
John Beder’s documentary How to Sue the Klan will screen at the 2024 HollyShorts Film Festival.
The star-studded live-action short film entries include How Can I Help You? directed by Eliza Scanlen and starring Thomasin McKenzie, Marco Perego’s Dovecote with Zoe Saldana, Dammi starring Riz Ahmed and Isabelle Adjani, Ken Cheng’s Summons starring Jimmy O. Yang and Alexandra Shipp, Midnight from legendary Japanese director Takashi Miike, Louisa Connolly-Burnham’s Sister Wives featuring BAFTA Rising Star Award winner Mia McKenna-Bruce, Hearts of Stone with Noomi Rapace and Jessica Barden, French directed by Dylan Joseph and produced by OSCAR® nominee Kobi Mizrahi, Vlog starring and directed by Yvonne Strahovski in her directorial debut, Edge of Space directed by OSCAR® nominee Jean de Meuron, Russell Goldman’s Burn Out produced by Academy® Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis, Fall Risk featuring Victoria Pedretti, directed by Alex Martini, and produced by Bella Thorne, and Jim Cummings’ Pretty Sad, Yasmin Afifi’s BAFTA winning Jellyfish AND Lobster and Tom Stuart’s Good Boy starring Ben Whishaw also join this fantastic lineup.
Tommie Earl Jenkins in a scene from “Burn Out,” produced by Jamie Lee Curtis.
Among the animated short film entries are Nadia Hallgren and Jamie-James Medina’s The Brown Dog with voice performances by Steve Buscemi and the late Michael K. Williams, Paul Shammasian’s An Angel on Oxford Street narrated by Christopher Eccleston, Play Again directed by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Zen Pace, voiced by Benjamin Bratt and Eric Briche’s Volcelest.
Notable music videos include Shania Twain’s “Giddy Up!” and Nikki Lorenzo’s “Lista,” directed by Bianca Poletti and starring Academy® Award nominee John Hawkes.
Additional noteworthy selections include Bella Thorne’s Unsettled featuring Chris Zylka, Eli Newman’s Concrete starring Ed Harris and Sophia Ali, Mackenzie Davis’ directorial debut Woaca, If Not Now, When? starring Kate Dickie, Hanna Gray Organschi’s Merci, Poppy with Victoria Pedretti, Danielle Baynes’ The Dog starring Kate Walsh, Francesca Scorese’s Fish Out of Water, Richie Keen’s The Grievance with Rosie O’Donnell and Kevin Pollack, Mika Simmons’ My Week with Maisy starring Joanna Lumley, Annie Girard’s One in the Chamber starring Wilson Bethel, Hector Prats’ Heaven is Nobody’s starring Roger Guenveur Smith, Michael Perez-Lindsey’s Will I See You Again? featuring Richard Lawson, Blake Winston Rice’s Tea, co-directors Brit Crawshaw and Josh Hayward’s Female Captive starring Pauline Chalamet, Academy Award winner’s Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton’s Slick Films selected shorts include Rhys Chapman’s Ryan Can’t Read and Elizabeth Peace’s The Golden Boy, Benjamin Verrall’s Shouting at the Sea starring Harry Michell, Maia Scalia’s His Mother, Ethan Kuperberg’s Paper Towels starring Josh Brener, and Swollen directed by Roxy Sorkin.
Lewis Ian Brey in Ryan Can’t Read.
HollyShorts is devoted to showcasing the best and brightest short films from around the globe, advancing the careers of filmmakers through screenings, networking events, and various panels and forums. The festival showcases the top short films with a running time of minutes or less.
To view the full list of official selections visit the Holly Shorts site.
This year’s hybrid celebration of short films will take place in person, with screenings at the world-renowned TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and virtually through the official festival streaming platform, BITPIX.
TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and virtually through the official festival streaming platform, BITPIX.
HollyShorts screenings will take place from August 8-18th at TCL Chinese Theatres, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., 3rd Level, Hollywood, CA, 90028, followed by the annual awards gala on August 18th.
To purchase tickers please click on link.
On Friday, July 12, HollyShorts formally announced the films in competition for 2024. You can watch the special announcement right here:
Follow HollyShorts on Instagram .
Follow LA ELEMENTS on Instagram and X. Like us on Facebook.
All movie stills courtesy of HollyShorts Film Festival.
On our cover: Curran Walters in With Love, Charlie.
No Comments