Palm Springs International ShortFest lines up 330 films
“Saturday Night Live” alumnus Will Forte stops off at the Cinefamily Theatre in Los Angeles as he promotes his new movie, “Nebraska,” with with Bruce Dern.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)Hugh Hefner, who founded Playboy in 1953 and turned it into a multimedia empire, remains the magazine’s editor in chief.
(Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times)Actor Vin Diesel is the producer and star of the sci-fi thriller “Riddick.”
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)Director Guillermo del Toro, in the mixing studio at Warner Bros. in Burbank, has a new movie coming out called “Pacific Rim,” a shot of which is on in the background, about an alien attack threatening the Earth’s existence. Giant robots piloted by humans are deployed to fight off the menace.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)The 2013 Palm Springs International ShortFest & Short Film Market, now in its 19th year, will feature 330 films from 49 countries, including 70 world premieres, 55 North American premieres and 14 U.S. premieres.
The films will be showcased in 53 programs that will screen June 18-24 at the Camelot Theaters in Palm Springs.
“We are so delighted to present new works at the ShortFest from so many unique countries, this year especially African countries of Burundi, Mali and Burkina Faso,” said Kathleen McInnis, ShortFest Film curator and director of industry programming, in a statement Monday morning.
Among the shorts featured in the festival are Australia’s “A Cautionary Tale,” starring Oscar winner Cate Blanchett; “The Egg Trick,” from Britain, starring Ian McKellen; France’s “Frank-Etienne,” with Gerard Depardieu; “Likeness,” from the U.S., starring Elle Fanning; and Italy’s “The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars,” starring Nastassja Kinski and Julian Sands, directed by Edoardo Ponti, the son of Sophia Loren.
Sydney Netter, founder of SND Films, “The Artist” actress Missi Pyle and L.A. Times film critic Betsy Sharkey will serve on the ShortFest jury. Awards will be handed out in 19 categories.
Eleven films have also be chosen for the ShortFest Online Film Festival and will be played on a special section of the festival’s website.
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Susan King is a former entertainment writer at the Los Angeles Times who specialized in Classic Hollywood stories. She also wrote about independent, foreign and studio movies and occasionally TV and theater stories. Born in East Orange, N.J., she received her master’s degree in film history and criticism at USC. She worked for 10 years at the L.A. Herald Examiner and came to work at The Times in January 1990. She left in 2016.