
Growing up Indian in America, I was very aware of my skin tone from a young age. Especially as a teenager, I hated what I saw in the mirror. I had a visceral desire to rip my body apart and cobble together something whiter. The violence of that feeling combined with the genuine bodily harm…

Michael Yuchen Lei’s Mushroom Dad is an inventive, heartfelt short that blends surreal comedy with raw emotional truth. Backed by Lena Waithe and developed through the Indeed Rising Voices program, it’s a festival gem that premiered at Tribeca before heading to HollyShorts, earning praise for both its humor and poignancy. The story follows Julian, a rising chef…

In Plastic Surgery, director Guy Trevellyan delivers a gripping environmental thriller that transforms a sterile hospital ward into a pressure chamber of ecological dread. Premiering at the 2025 HollyShorts Film Festival, this bold, atmospheric short reimagines plastic pollution not as a distant catastrophe, but as an insidious threat already flowing through our bloodstreams. Set during…

In We Do Our Best, writer-director Hannah Rose Ammon crafts a tender, perceptive coming-of-age story set over the course of one unforgettable night in New York City. The film follows a single mother (Jennifer Esposito) who sneaks her teenage daughter (Madalynn Mathews) into a Manhattan cocktail lounge, a playful act that cracks opens a space for deeper reflection,…

What drew you to LARGO as a producer, and why did this story resonate with you personally? I was first attached to the project in 2018, when it was a very different story set in Sardinia. For better or worse, we weren’t able to raise the funds at the time. Fast forward to 2022, the…

LARGO is told entirely through the eyes of a child. What challenges and opportunities did that unique perspective present in terms of storytelling and filmmaking? We’re both big fans of films that tell stories from a child’s perspective. It’s a way of looking at the world that everyone can relate to and empathise with, especially…

Official Selection: HollyShorts Film Festival 2025 In Sunday Sauce, a 14-minute cinematic fever dream from writer-director-producer Matt Campanella and his production company C4MP Films, the family dinner table becomes an emotional battleground—where tradition collides with desire, and Catholic guilt bubbles over like a pot of overboiled pasta. With a sharp eye and a deeply personal voice, Campanella…

At the intersection of bruised masculinity and aching vulnerability lies Boyfighter, a stunning short film that marks a vital new voice in cinema. Directed by Julia Weisberg Cortés and featuring a searing performance by Michael Mando (Better Call Saul, Orphan Black), Boyfighter is not just a film, it’s an emotional reckoning. With its world premiere at the Oscar®-qualifying HollyShorts…

LARGO, the stirring new short film from writer-directors Salvatore Scarpa and Max Burgoyne-Moore makes its Los Angeles debut this August at the Oscar®️qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, following a powerful world premiere at Indy Shorts. With visual elegance and emotional urgency, LARGO tells the story of Musa, a young Syrian refugee in the UK, who constructs a makeshift boat…