Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Catherine Hardwicke and Jake Lacy are among the star-studded jury lineup for the 21st HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Running Aug. 7-17, the summer festival spotlights the best of short-form cinema, with winners of HollyShorts awards in four key categories earning automatic Oscar qualification: best short film grand prize, best animated short, best live action short, and best documentary short.
Imrie (Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) will adjudicate this year’s selection alongside Wilton (Downton Abbey), Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Jennifer Ehle (Pride and Prejudice), The White Lotus star Lacy, Essie Davis (The Babadook), Lewis Tan (Cobra Kai), Mena Suvari (American Beauty) and Twilight (2008) director Hardwicke.
Director of the Oscar-nominated short Anuja Adam Graves will also sit on the jury, as will journalists Ward Bond, Matthew Carey, and Rahmin Zahed, among others. See the full jury line-up, exclusively given to The Hollywood Reporter, below.
Founded in 2005, HollyShorts has grown into one of the world’s leading platforms short storytelling. This year’s edition has over 400 films set to make their mark from a record-breaking 7,000 submissions.
The hybrid celebration of short films will take place in person, with screenings at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and virtually through the official festival streaming platform, Bitpix TV. The festival will culminate in the awards gala on Aug. 17, where winners will be announced.
“I’m honored to join the HollyShorts jury this year,” said Wilton. “This festival is a celebration of bold creativity and the power of storytelling in its most distilled and impactful form.” Ehle added: “I’m thrilled to join the jury at HollyShorts, a festival that champions emerging voices, and storytelling at its most inventive.”
Belos is the full list of jurors in alphabetical order:
Andrea Bang
Ward Bond
Matthew Carey
Catherine Curtin
Essie Davis
Cecilia Delgado
Jennifer Ehle
Adam Graves
Sonia Gumuchian
Catherine Hardwicke
Anthony Head
Celia Imrie
Bradley James
Aimee La Joie
Jake Lacy
Abi Leiff
Kris Mercado
Caroline Monnet
Sandro Monetti
Joey Moser
Krushan Naik
Lean N.H. Philpott
Colby Schinto
Weiman Seid
Yeardley Smith
Sarah Stunt
Mena Suvari
Lewis Tan
Amelia Tyler
Penelope Wilton
Rahmin Zahed