With summer officially underway, California definitely seems like an enticing location for a film festival this time of year. The upcoming Palm Springs International ShortFest promises an array of quality film-going in a warm climate. Now in its 19th year, a portion of the official lineup of short films that will play at the festival has just been announced. Running from June 18 to June 24, the 2013 edition of the festival is set to feature over 300 films from a variety of different countries on the international front alongside the bevy of U.S. shorts.
“A wealth of newly emerging talent and new storytelling trends are the big news from this year’s ShortFest lineup” said Festival Director Darryl Macdonald. “While the U.S., Australia, the U.K., France and Spain remain at the forefront of the international short film renaissance, we’re seeing a wellspring of exciting new talents emerge from Scandinavia, Latin America, the Benelux countries and Africa. The work itself is more adventuresome, too, eschewing standard genre-based filmmaking in favor of character-driven stories and genre-bending formats. It makes for a much richer cinema.”
This year’s edition of the festival also definitely has no shortage of star power, as everyone from Sir Ian McKellen to Cate Blanchett to Elle Fanning is featured amongst the selected short films this year. SND Films founder Sydney Netter, actress Missi Pyle and film critic Betsy Sharkey have been selected to serve as the ShortFest jury, and will be presiding over the $110,000 worth of cash prizes that will be awarded in 19 categories to short films in the competition. The complete line-up will be posted on the festival’s website on June 11.
Below, find a portion of the release that lists some of the shorts playing at the festival:
This
year’s star-studded shorts feature Academy Award winners and nominees, as
well as film and television stars. Jason Ritter in Boats
Against the Current (USA); the voice of Rachel Griffiths in Butterflies
(Australia); the voice of Cate Blanchett in the North American Premiere
of A Cautionary Tale (Australia); Tom Sizemore in The
Charlatan (USA); Christopher Lloyd in the World Premiere of The
Coin (USA); Shannyn Sossamon in The Cyclist (USA); Yvan Attal
and Anne Parillaud in the North American Premiere of Delicate Gravity (France);
Alan Rickman in Dust (UK); Ian McKellen in the
World Premiere of The Egg Trick (UK); Christopher Eccleston and
Felicity Jones in the World Premiere of Emily (UK); Gerard
Depardieu in Frank-Etienne (France); the voice of Bill Nighy in
the North American Premiere of The Hungry Corpse (UK); Missi Pyle
in Killing Vivian (USA); Brenda Blethyn and Tom Jones in
the World Premiere of King of the Teds (UK); Anson Mount directs Last
Time We Checked (USA); Elle Fanning in Likeness (USA); Nick
Cassavetes in the World Premiere of Love and Skin (USA)
directed by Virgina Cassavetes; voices of Hugh Bonneville and Andy
Serkis in the North American Premiere of The Magnificent Lion Boy
(UK); Nastassja Kinski and Julian Sands in The Nightshift
Belongs to the Stars (Italy) directed by Edoardo Ponti; Hugo Weaving in
No Budget (Australia); David Lyons marks his directorial debut in
the North American Premiere of Record (USA); Lee Meriwether in Remember
to Breathe (USA); Lauren Ambrose and Adam Driver in The
River (USA); Frances Conroy in Sequin Raze (USA); Shohreh
Aghdashloo in Silk (USA) directed by Catherine Dent; Jordana
Spiro directs Skin (USA); Denis Lavant in the North American
Premiere of Spring Tides (France); Lisa Edelstein and James Le
Gros in the World Premiere of Three Hours Between Planes (USA); Emma
Thompson in Walking the Dogs (UK); Brooke Shields and Mireille
Enos in the World Premiere of Wild Horses (USA); and Camilla
Belle in Zero Hour (Mexico/USA).
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