HollyShorts Announces First-Ever Drive-In Celebration

The organizers of the 16th edition of the Oscar®-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival announced today the festival will host a special Drive-In Celebration on Monday, November 16, 2020. The evening, which will follow the competition screenings of the festival (which runs November 9-15 virtually on Bitpix), will feature a lineup of spooky shorts and a special presentation of Justin Simien's horror feature film BAD HAIR from Neon and Hulu. Simien will also be honored at HollyShorts with this year's Indie Maverick Award. Past HollyShorts honorees include David Lynch, Eli Roth, Joe Carnahan, Matthew Modine, Anthony Hemmingway, Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Libatique among others.

The HollyShorts 2020 Drive-In Celebration will take place at Electric Dusk Drive-In in Glendale, CA (236 N. Central Ave, Glendale, CA 91203). Tickets are available for purchase here.

BAD HAIR is written, directed, and produced by Simien. The film stars Elle Lorraine, Jay Pharoah, Lena Waithe, Kelly Rowland, Laverne Cox, Chanté Adams, James Van Der Beek, Usher Raymond IV, Blair Underwood, and Vanessa Williams.

The shorts lineup for the HollyShorts Drive-in Celebration features a mixture of spooky and otherworldly short films including two projects from 20th Digital Studio's "Bite Size Halloween" series, both directed by HollyShorts alums -- Stefan Dezil's Thirst, executive produced by 88th Street Productions, and award-winning Kenyan-American filmmaker Wanjiru Njendu's short thriller Stray. Also premiering on the shorts side is alumni Nik Kacevski's sci-fi thriller Soulmate, Kevin Ryan's Bad Suns produced by Shane Black, and Bishal Dutta's Inferno. This year's HollyShorts is supported by SAGindie, DUST and ALTER, Easter Seals, Zoe Kevork Law, Seattle Film Summit, LA Media Consultants, Alta Global Media, 88th Street Productions.

HollyShorts 2020 Drive-In Celebration Lineup

Shorts Program

Soulmate by Nik Kacevski - Starring Holly May Lewis, Stefania Kocheva, and Martin Paunov.

Set in the near future, a thirteen-year-old girl plays a deadly game of cat and mouse in a world where overpopulation has caused a desperate law that forces citizens to kill their designated 'Soulmate'.

Bad Suns by Kevin Ryan - Starring Kevin Ryan, Timothy V. Murphy, Alexis Knapp, and Cherie Jimenez.

Los Angeles 2028---a military escalation between China and the U.S. has had devastating consequences for the world. Within a desolate LA, during a period of Martial Law, we meet a lone ranger (Jake) who discovers a young girl (Lilly) in desperate need to reunite with her mother. Their journey takes them to Fort Mojave, a government accredited "safezone" where Lilly's mother is believed to be located.

Inferno by Bishal Dutta - Starring Taylor Cloyes and Craig Ng.

Trapped in a dingy motel room by something monstrous, a woman fights for her life by any means necessary.

Thirst by Stefan Dezil - Starring Charlie Barnett, Adriana DeGirolami, and Tiffany Abney.

In dystopian future South Los Angeles, a father & daughter avoid sweating, crying, and drinking water while trying to escape moisture-sensitive monsters.

Stray by Wanjiru Njendu. Starring Trinity Moriah Jones, and Peres Owino.

A murderous spirit metes out vengeance on those it believes responsible for it's death by luring their children away.

Feature Film Presentation

Bad Hair by Justin Simien presented by Neon and Hulu- 1h:55m

In 1989 an ambitious young woman gets a weave in order to succeed in the image-obsessed world of music television. However, her flourishing career may come at a great cost when she realizes that her new hair may have a mind of its own.

418 short films were selected for the Oscar®-qualifying HollyShorts with 128 international short films coming from 36 countries. 388 shorts are competing for top prizes at the festival, 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 HollyShorts Film Festival garnered 6,000 submissions from 110 countries. 40% of the total HollyShorts selections are directed by women.

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