The DTLA Film Festival – a leading showcase for independent film in the historic center of the Film Capital of the World – has announced its lineup of short films that will premiere at its 15th annual edition, November 1-5 at Regal Cinemas L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles.
This year’s lineup includes 46 short films within 11 short film programs with various themes, including L.A. Stories, Queer It Up!, The Female Gaze, Funny Threads and Dystopia Now. The festival’s focus on diversity is reflected in short films that tackle narratives often ignored by mainstream Hollywood.
“The festival’s goal is to provide a forum for voices from all over the world, no matter their race, religion, gender or sexuality. This year’s short film programming underscores that great stories can take many different shapes and forms,” says short films curator Wellington Almeida.
More than half of the short films screening this year are by women directors, with 24 female filmmakers’ work featured.
Notable short film titles at the festival include Headprickles, an eight-minute animated short from Poland directed by Katarzyna Miechowicz, which consists of more than a dozen animated epigrams and follows the motif of life’s absurdities; 3 Dialogues About the Future, a 14-minute science-fiction short from Romania directed by Alina Manolachel, which follows three A.I. robots as they attempt to interpret the world around them and attempt to adapt to human nature and thought processes, and Palestine 87, a 14-minute political short from Palestine directed by Bilal Alkhatib, which focuses on an elderly lady who hides a Palestinian soldier in her house from the Israeli army to prevent arrest and possible death.
The festival’s other branch of short-content programming – TV pilots and web series – will be announced later. The complete short film lineup can be found on the festival’s website https://dtlaff.com.