ShortFest: American Dreaming, the From Minutes to Movies documentary short competition, has announced its second annual winners. The best short films will be screened on November 10th at a special screening and gala hosted by Stand Together Theater at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream in Washington, DC.
The event is hosted by Imagine Entertainment, The Film Zone, Stand Together and MCAAD. “We are proud to partner with Imagine Entertainment and the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream to celebrate the filmmakers who brought the American Dream to life in all its complexity and potential,” said Brian Fuchs, Stand Together Chairman and CEO. “As we approach our nation’s 250th anniversary, their work reminds us that the American Dream is a living story that we all help shape.”
The festival will include the announcement of the rankings and the screening of director Ziyu Lou’s American Daydream, which won first place. The project tells the story of an illegal immigrant who has always relied heavily on his legal daughter to survive in America, but when the daughter pursues her dreams, everything begins to change.
Lou will receive the Moonshot Grant, which provides filmmakers with the opportunity to develop, finance and produce new projects in collaboration with digital content companies Portal A and Imagine Entertainment.
In second place was Greg Bishop’s “George Goodman’s Many Worlds,” a sci-fi adventure about a high school baseball coach who struggles to return to his family after being attacked by a double from another dimension and transported to an unknown parallel universe. Third place in the competition was awarded to Slava Denisov’s ‘The Ride’, a follow-up to the ’76 Plymouth, which reflects its journey and changes over the course of a human life as it passes from one owner to the next.
This is the event’s second year, and we hope to continue elevating emerging creators across scripted, unscripted, and experimental formats, with an emphasis on personal stories. The festival provides opportunities for short-form media alongside feature-length development and distribution.
