The Palm Springs International ShortFest announced its complete lineup Tuesday ahead of the upcoming event in three weeks.
The 32nd annual short film festival will take place June 23-29 at Festival Theaters. The festival will showcase 329 films from 71 countries and territories, including 52 world premieres, 21 international premieres, 40 North American premieres, 30 U.S. premieres and 79 Californian premieres.
“ShortFest is a lot of things, and one of the best parts is discovering filmmakers we’ll be obsessed with,” Lili Rodriguez, artistic director of the Palm Springs International Film Society, said in a statement. “This year’s lineup is funny, strange, emotional political, chaotic, gorgeous — everything short films should be.”
The lineup includes “Oh” starring Jamie Linn Watson, “The End is at Hand” starring Efren Ramirez and Richard Kind, “First the Blush” written and directed by and starring Mariam Al Ferjani, “Following” starring Melissa Joan Hart, “Going Home” written by and starring Patton Oswalt and co-directed by Alyssa Limperis, “Kiloran Boy” starring Alan Cumming, and “Chop Cheese” directed by Sophia Meloni and starring Christopher Meloni and Michael Gandolfini.
The selection committee received more than 7,000 short films submissions from 145 countries and territories. Additionally, 136 out of the 329 films were directed by women.
Juried award winners — drawn from five Oscar-qualifying award categories — will be revealed on June 28 and accompanied by cash prizes totaling $38,000. The Best of the Fest program will close out the event the following day.
ShortFest will support young filmmakers in the Coachella Valley with two events. On June 25, a Filmmaker Bootcamp will give high school students across the region access to filmmaking and a chance to talk to industry professionals. The Curator Fellowship will provide individuals ages 18-25 an opportunity to work alongside the ShortFest programming team to create the Valley Vision program, which will be screened at 2 p.m. June 23.
“The Palm Springs International ShortFest has long been a place where the world’s most exciting new voices come to be discovered, and this year’s lineup is a testament to that tradition,” Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said in a statement.
Tickets will be available on Saturday, and the full lineup can be found at psfilmfest.org.