The festival is truly running strong as we hurtle towards the halfway point, with day four of our coverage of the 22nd Annual HollyShorts Film Festival finally arriving. With multiple categories of films to check out today, it’s good to mention again that those interested can check out the festival themselvs if they’re in the Los Angeles Area by getting tickets here for the screenings held at the TCL Chinese Theaters. Those unable to attend live can see these terrific films after their screening by checking them out online, only on BitPix. Today’s lineup features films from the Sunday Showcase, Rom Coms, Documentaries, Sci-fi and Family Drama. The highlighted films showcase a little bit of everything, but truly every film is worth taking a look at. But let’s get on with the coverage for today!
Sunday Showcase
Crisis Actor – Sarah Steele stars in this Lily Platt film that focuses on Celine (Steele), an unemployed aspiring actress who uses her skills to feed her addiction to being the center of attention and causing drama. From holding onto items belonging to someone else and avoiding giving them back because then you can prolong the experience, to crashing a support group for those whose loved ones are addicts and getting involved in their own struggles, Celine is kind of a disaster. It’s a brilliant look at the line between wanting to be the star on stage and trying to demand that same level of excitement and performance in every day life, with Steele flawlessly playing this kind of socially terrifying character.
Rom Com
Are We Still Married? – Kit Steinkellner has been making interesting things for a long time, and this is no exception. With a terrific two-person cast of Taylor Misiak and Dustin Milligan, it focuses on the pair as they play married couple Laura and Jack, who are struggling with their marriage after Jack becomes a vampire. Scared about what that means for her safety and for her marriage, Laura forces Jack to sit outside and talk to her, refusing to invite him in, a necessity for vampires to enter a space. The chemistry between the two is easy and fulfilling, it instantly feeling like they could be a couple that deeply loves each other but is in a very difficult place. Milligan and Misiak are charming and funny, sweet to each other while also displaying struggle really well. It’s a great concept executed to perfection.
Documentary
The Time My Grandmother Was Held Hostage By Bank Robbers – Rosella Tursi’s absolutely shocking family story is the subject of this documentary, with Tursi interviewing family members about the tale of the time her grandmother was held hostage by two men who broke into her home after robbing a bank. The story itself is fascinating and thrilling, and Tursi ups the ante by finding and interviewing one of the men who held her grandmother hostage all those years ago, getting his perspective and side of the story after decades of only having one part. It’s impressive what Tursi has done to tell this story, and her poise in the face of someone who had a real impact on her family in many ways is really interesting to see.
Sci-Fi
Europa – Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal writes and directs this gorgeous film about a group of three scientists and astronauts who take the dangerous journey into space to the moon of Jupiter that bears the film’s name. Looking for a water source for Earth, the group land on the ringed planet’s moon, only for the spirit inhabiting Europa’s water source creating the circumstances to lead the mission’s water specialist to meet them and give them the ultimate test in the effort to find water. It stars Megan West, Derek Cecil and Victoria Martzloff, all bringing this visually and emotionally stunning film to life.
Family Drama
But I’m Your Brother – Mark Blane and Jeremy Roth-Rose star in this Noah Morse film as brothers Simon (Blane) and Dev (Roth-Rose). Dev manages the grocery store that he and Simon work at, Simon’s interpersonal struggles causing friction between he and Dev when a management position opens that Simon may not be right for. With the signs of social anxieties and/or neurodivergence in Simon, the open position, Simon’s dissatisfaction with how he’s viewed and Dev’s own conflict in caring for his brother and running the business all come to a head, leaving this small store in rural Montana more tense than ever. It’s a great film that focuses on family and bonds, and how those can create rifts and issues between families when external but connected circumstances get involved.
Aside from our coverage, we also got the opportunity to talk to Are We Still Married? director Kit Steinkellner. I would like to thank Kit for their time and for everything they shared with us!
What inspired you to make films?
I loved movies growing up in the craziest way, I watched WIZARD OF OZ every day for two years straight in preschool, my senior year of high school I watched a movie every morning before I went to school, it’s been a lifelong love affair. I’ve been working as a television creator/showrunner for almost a decade now, it’s a dream job, and still there’s been a movie sized hole in my heart, I realized a few years ago that I just love movies too much not to try and make them.
What message were you trying to communicate with this film?
I love genre as metaphor, I think it’s one of the most powerful ways to tell a story, and here we are using a husband becoming a vampire and a wife, deciding if she wants to continue with their marriage by letting her husband back inside the house as a metaphor to explore all the hard lefts that can happen in a marriage, challenges presented that your wedding vows never could’ve imagined covering, and the impossible choices that arise as a result.
What kind of challenges did you face when making this film?
We were originally supposed to shoot in January 2025, the week the LA wildfires began! We ended up, pushing months out, and lost team members in the process. I heard a joke that “God hates movies“ for all the obstacles the universe throws in a filmmaker’s path, and the process of making this film was truly ignoring all the signs from the universe and pushing forward, determining to make this short, no matter what.
How does it feel to be a part of this year’s HollyShorts?
It’s such a massive honor, I’ve been coming for years, I’m always so inspired by what I see on screen and to have our film play in this iconic theater I’ve been going to my whole life, it’s the dream, truly
What’s next for you?
A lot! Working on several projects in the TV space as well as putting together the feature version of this short. I’m also shooting a new short this fall, I’ve been bitten by the bug, can’t stop, won’t stop!
That’s it for day 4! Congrats to all the filmmakers whose films were shown today, and here’s to seeing ever more when we return tomorrow for coverage of day 5! See you then!
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