The 9th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival Kicks Off August 15th, 2013
Hollywood August 5, 2013—SOLMont Events the organizers of the HollyShorts are unveiling the official lineup for the 9th AnnualHollyShorts Film Festival taking place August 15-22 at the TCL Chinese Theatre. The festival has added two high profile star-studded short films to its opening night celebration, taking place on Thursday August 15. Michael J. Weithorn’s superhero short film THE SIDEKICK starring Rob Benedict, Ron Livingston, and Lizzy Caplan will open the festival along with Josh Levy’s award-winning short comedy THE IMMIGRANT starring Scott Thompson, Dave Foley, Deborah Theaker, Deadlee, Michael Cera, Margaret Cho and Will Forte.
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The Immigrant
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THE SIDEKICK and THE IMMIGRANT will screen in a separate short films showcase screening following the festival’s presentation of David Rodriguez’s feature film LAST I HEARD, which stars Paul Sorvino, Michael Rapaport, Renee Props, Andrea Nittoli, and Lev Gorn. Immediately following the feature film screening, the fest will unspool its shorts showcase which includes Chadwick Boseman’s (42) drama short HEAVEN, Dan Carrillo Levy’s ZERO HOUR starring Camilla Belle, Jaime Camil, written by Guillermo Arriaga, and Thomas Jane and Director Phil Joanou’s PUNISHER: DIRTY LAUNDRY. HollyShorts is also unveiling its full slate of 350 films that are in competition. The weeklong festivities include short films in competition in Live Action, Animation, Documentary, Web Series, Music Videos, Trailer and Commercial categories. The full lineup and schedule can be viewed by visiting www.hollyshorts.com .
THE SIDEKICK also stars Josh Meyers, Jordan Peele, Martin Starr, Richard Speight Jr., Ike Barinholtz, Jason Ritter, Sam McMurray, Laura Silverman and Fred Stoller. THE SIDEKICKcenters on a 40-year-old career sidekick, Max McCabe (Benedict), now past his prime in the fast-paced world of superhero-dom. When he is unceremoniously fired by his boss, Captain Wonder (Livingston), Max has no choice but to somehow find a place for himself in the regular world.
THE IMMIGRANT also star Luis Jiminez, and Gilbert Martinez.THE IMMIGRANT tells the story of once-famous comedian Bob London (Thompson), after being deported back to his native Canada, attempts a Hollywood comeback by enlisting human smugglers to sneak him across the Mexico-U.S. border. Bob finds himself rejected by his former manager and famous friends, penniless and alone, he is then adopted by a pair of migrant workers who resolve to show Bob how to make it in America.
HollyShorts received over 1,500 submissions for this year’s festival. 26 countries are represented in competition. For the first time in festival history HollyShorts is showcasing a 3D short film screening presented by Yabazam on Friday, August 17 at 7pm. Following the 3D show is the HollyShorts Horror Program presented by FEARnet at 9:30pm.
Commented Festival Managing Director Nicole Castro: “HollyShorts received a record number of submissions and it’s truly a thrill to once again showcase the next generation of ground-breaking filmmakers with this year’s festival. There’s something for everyone, we’ve got some amazing comedies, top-notch drama shorts with some incredible performances, documentary shorts that tackle global issues and much more. We also are honored to help these films find homes with our participating distribution partners as short films are really becoming an important part of multiplatform programming with the new technologies.” Saturday, August 17 at the festival will mark another primetime Red Carpet celebration with the famed HollyShorts ComedyShorts program, which starts at 9:30pm. Enzo Mileti’s short THE CALLBACK starring Geoffrey Arend, Holt Bailey, and Jana Camp is included in the lineup. The HollyShorts Short Documentaries screenings will take place on Sunday, August 18 at 2pm and Thursday, August 22 at 4:30pm
International Short Films are in competition from: Norway, Australia, Germany, Spain, Russia, France, Haiti, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Iceland, Uruguay, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, Hungary, Japan, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands, Faroe Islands, South Korea, and Italy. The International Shorts are screening on Friday August 16 at 4:30pmand Wednesday August 21 at 11:30am. This past year’s Oscar winner in the Live Action Category CURFEW by Shawn Christensen will also be screening in this program.
HollyShorts 2013 sponsors include: Company 3, Method Studios, Starnow, Newcastle Brown Ale, Rock Star Energy Drink, Uber, Panavision, Indiegogo, Law Offices of Clifford Lo Entertainment Law, Bigpie, Digital Video Expo ’13, Moviola, FEARnet, Martini Crew Booking, You Me and Charlie, Noci Cortinfestival, Showbiz Software, Lightspeed EPS, LAPPG, New Media Vault, The Roosevelt Hotel, Pop Chips, Final Draft, True Vision Entertainment, Yabazam!, Pretzel Chips, Production Hub, Quick Film Budget, Festival Genius, Indie Pix, ShortsHD, EuroChannel, Jungle Software, Los Angeles Hair Studio.
HollyShorts opening night, all access and individual screening tickets are available now at www.hollyshorts.com.
About HollyShorts
HollyShorts Film Festival is an annual short film festival showcasing the best and brightest short films from around the globe. HollyShorts is devoted to the advancement of filmmakers through screenings, Q&A sessions and networking events. TheHollyShorts Film festival showcases the top short films produced 30- minutes or less. For more information please visitwww.hollyshorts.com.
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