My SPW NewsPage View

The organizers behind the upcoming 16th edition of the Oscar^®-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival are unveiling this year’s official lineup. 418 short films have been selected with 128 international short films coming from 36 countries. 

388 shorts will compete for top prizes at HollyShorts, one of the world’s top short film festivals. This year’s festival will take place primarily virtually via the festival’s proprietary streaming platform Bitpix from November 9-15, 2020. 

This year’s festival garnered 6,000 submissions from 110 countries. The United Kingdom has set a festival record with 30 short films selected. 40% of the total HollyShorts selections are directed by women.

For the first time ever, HollyShorts will also host a short film market on Bitpix featuring 30 out of competition selected shorts. The HollyShorts Market Week is targeted towards the leading buyers in short form content and takes place November 16-20, the week after the competition screenings.

All Access passes, the film program and individual block tickets are available for purchase starting today via hollyshorts.com. 

Highlights from this year’s Official Selections include: Oscar-nominated Director Skye Fitzgerald’s new short documentary about the war in Yemen HUNGER WARD; Sophie Kargman’s QUERY starring Justice Smith, Graham Patrick Martin, Armie Hammer, Olivia Sui; Elvira Lind’s THE LETTER ROOM starring Oscar Isaac and Alia Shawkat; Jonathan Glazer’s THE FALL; Michael Schilf’s THE FIXER starring Jesse C. Boyd, Veronica Diaz Carranza, and Danny Trejo; Heather Edwards’ SKY WEST & CROOKED starring Emma Fuhrmann, Martha MacIsaac, Vivienne Rutherford, Ethan Jones, and Matt Jones; Katherine Fisher’s PROOF OF LOSS starring Colette McDermott, Dylan McDermott, Carolyn Michelle Smith; 2019 Oscar nominee Siqi Song’s THE COIN; FLOURISH directed by Heather Acs, Colin Levy’s  SKYWATCH starring Uriah Shelton, Zach Callison, and Jude Law; Ryan C. Jaeger’s PLEASANT CANYON, Jessica Sherif’s IN HOLLYWOODLAND starring Yetide Badaki, Karen David, and Luke Youngblood; Ashley Williams’ MEATS; Dennis Williams II’s CLOUT starring Denzel Whitaker; Lucifer stars Lesley-Ann Brandt and Kevin Alejandro’s short ADULT NIGHT; Poppy Gordon’s FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION starring Samantha Robinson, Juliette Goglia and Ava Capri; Jose Acevedo’s EAGLE starring Daniel Taveras, Antonio Ortiz, and Roy Wood Jr.; Phoebe Tonkin’s FURLOUGH; Paolo Monico’s LACRIMOSA starring David Dastmalchian and LaRecia Hines; Mark Rosenblatt’s GANEF starring Sophie McShera, Lydia Wilson and Danny Scheinmann;  Michael Govier and Will McCormack’s IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU Executive Produced by Laura Dern. As well as three of this year’s Student Academy-Award narrative category winners: Karishma Dube’s BITTU, Rommel Villa Barriga’s SWEET POTATOES, and Talia Smith’s UMAMA.

The United Kingdom has the most shorts ever accepted in HollyShorts with 30 short films in competition. Canada has 14 films, France has 12 shorts, Germany and Australia each have 7 shorts, Sweden and Italy both have 4, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, India, Israel and Mexico each have 3 shorts in competition, with China and Belgium each having 2 shorts in HollyShorts. Other represented countries include: New Zealand, Jordan, Finland, Myanmar, Qatar, Japan, Egypt, Vietnam, Poland, South Africa, Macedonia, Netherlands, Peru, Palestine, Brazil, Estonia, Saudi Arabia, Korea and Taiwan. 

As previously announced, the festival will also feature: Notable films include the animated short CRUEL SHOES written and narrated by Academy Honorary Award winner Steve Martin; I WISH FOR YOU featuring Jeremy Irons; the Will Ferrell, William Jackson Harper, and Fred Hechinger comedy DAVID directed by Avenue 5’s Zach Woods; Deon Taylor’s 8:46 starring Tyrese Gibson and featuring CeeLo Green; Maya Albanese’s FREEZE starring Nora Zehetner and Adrian Grenier; THE PRICE OF CHEAP RENT featuring Wyatt Cenac from directors Amina Sutton and Maya Tanaka; Eli Synder’s INTERLUDE starring Empire’s Skylan Brooks; the high school drama AT LAST directed by Lorena Gordon and featuring George Lopez; as well as Hanna star Esmé Creed-Miles’ directorial debut JAMIE.