Category: Short Film

Film Festivals, Film Review, Films, HollyShorts Film Festival, Live action short, Short Film

REVIEW: Where Beauty Turns to Dread: The Haunting Power of SKIN

In SKIN, writer-director Urvashi Pathania delivers a haunting, emotionally resonant short that cuts deep into the psychological toll of colorism and the pursuit of self-worth. Following its world premiere at Fantasia, the film makes a striking US debut at the 2025 HollyShorts Film Festival, standing out as a searing blend of genre and cultural critique. The story follows a young Indian American woman who accompanies … Continue reading REVIEW: Where Beauty Turns to Dread: The Haunting Power of SKIN

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Film Festivals, Film Review, Films, HollyShorts Film Festival, Live action short, Short Film

REVIEW: In the Quiet Corners of Childhood: RECESSES Confronts the Pain We Can’t See

Dylan Trupiano’s Recesses is a profoundly moving short film that offers a poignant and intricately layered exploration of hidden childhood trauma, delicately navigating the complex intersection of pain and repression. The story centers on Sherry (Solia Cates), a compassionate school secretary who stays behind with Bailey (Charles John Wilson), a young student disciplined for creating an “inappropriate” drawing. As their time together unfolds within the … Continue reading REVIEW: In the Quiet Corners of Childhood: RECESSES Confronts the Pain We Can’t See

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Awards Season, Film Festivals, Film Review, Short Film

Film Review: Boyfighter – A Visceral Vision of Legacy and Love by Julia Weisberg Cortés

Screening at the OSCAR-qualifying HollyShorts film festival In Boyfighter, director Julia Weisberg Cortés delivers a lyrical gut-punch, a film that stares unflinchingly into generational trauma while holding space for tenderness, reckoning, and repair. This Oscar-qualified short, premiering at HollyShorts as part of the 2025 Indeed Rising Voices program, marks a defining moment in Cortés’ evolving career. Known for emotionally intimate work grounded in cultural identity, Boyfighter sees her … Continue reading Film Review: Boyfighter – A Visceral Vision of Legacy and Love by Julia Weisberg Cortés

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Film Festivals, Film Review, HollyShorts Film Festival, Live action short, Short Film

HOLLYSHORTS SPOTLIGHT: LARGO – A Child’s Imagination as Resistance in a World That Has Forgotten Him

Salvatore Scarpa and Max Burgoyne-Moore’s LARGO is a film of haunting beauty and unflinching empathy, one that dares to tell the story of displacement not from the vantage point of policy or politics, but from the fragile, determined heart of a child. At just under 20 minutes, LARGO manages to feel emotionally expansive, focusing on what displacement feels like when you’re young, alone and still … Continue reading HOLLYSHORTS SPOTLIGHT: LARGO – A Child’s Imagination as Resistance in a World That Has Forgotten Him

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Film Festivals, Film Review, HollyShorts Film Festival, Live action short, Short Film

HOLLYSHORTS 2025: Freddie Fox’s THE PAINTING & THE STATUE Blends Elegance with Inventive Charm

Freddie Fox’s The Painting & The Statue is a rare kind of short film – elegant and inventive, it manages to feel both intimate and epic at once. Set entirely in one room, yet spanning 250 years, it tells a love story between two pieces of art – a painting and a statue – who are aware of each other’s presence, but unable to connect. … Continue reading HOLLYSHORTS 2025: Freddie Fox’s THE PAINTING & THE STATUE Blends Elegance with Inventive Charm

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