The Brits are taking over the prestigious HollyShorts Film Festival this year, with 47 short films included in the diverse line-up. Some of the phenomenal selections include Ricky Gervais’ 7-MINUTES, IN TOO DEEP by Academy® Award Winner Chris Overton and Karen Bryson MBE’s MONOCHROMATIC.
The festival is taking place from August 10th-20th at the prestigious Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
HollyShorts are thrilled to bring their audience such a distinct selection of short films. Some of the incredible titles include Makez Rikweda’s FAT GIRL where we follow a lonely teenage girl who is obsessed with her favorite Tik Tok star, but things take a dark turn as she descends into DIY cosmetics. Klaas Diersmann takes us on an emotional rollercoaster as Galyna has just one phone call to ensure her family’s safety during the Ukraine war in A DAY IN FEBRUARY. MBE Karen Bryson MONOCHROMATIC is set in 1977 after the aftermath of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech as seen through the eyes of Grace, age 6. The world as she sees and experiences it, innocent, carefree, and mischievous. Grace is black. MY BRUDDA is a BFI Funded short film about Jamal – a hustler and a recent father who spends his days driving around London in an exquisite car selling fake watches, directed by Ntando Brown. Abdou Cissé’s FESTIVAL OF SLAPS is an action-packed tale straight from the palms of a Nigerian mother, who on one fateful night serves her son a set of slaps so powerful that it will change his life forever. In Alex Lawther’s FOR PEOPLE IN TROUBLE Jenny and Paul meet at a pub, quickly falling in love. Their relationship blossoms as civilisation falls to climate change, the escalation of the world being doomed begins to show the strain.
Other films to keep on your radar include Marc De Luca’s FOREVER where we follow Shani and Amar, two half-dead girls, being sex-trafficked with a high price tag. HAPPY RETIREMENT MR PICKERING by Keshav Shree shares the internal turmoil of a closeted homosexual man who has recently retired. Nathan Morris’s MY EYES ARE UP HERE tells the tale of a disabled woman who sets off on a mission to get the morning after pill. The only thing in her way is… everything. Three archetypal woodland spirits explore the conflicting human drives of creativity, possessiveness and our desire for status in Ainslie Henderson’s SHACKLE. In Andrew Rutter’s THE HERITAGE we follow a man who makes a gargantuan discovery when meeting his biological father. A road trip pushes a dysfunctional family to the brink after their journey descends into a claustrophobic hallucinatory nightmare in Simone Smith’s THE MÖBIUS TRIP.
The annual Academy Awards-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF) brings together top creators, industry leaders and companies and has launched many filmmakers into the next stages of their careers. HollyShorts, regular on MovieMaker Magazine’s “Top 50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee list”, also engages its community and spotlights short films year-round through monthly screenings, panels, and networking events.
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