The annual Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying short film festival, HollyShorts, is back this month. With fresh faces and film legends sharing the screen in these short films, here are 5 shorts we have seen (so far) to help you choose your next festival watch.

The Sisters of Scott County (dir. Courtney Hoffman)

Executive produced by Cate Blanchett and starring Kaitlyn Dever, Courtney Hoffman’s The Sisters of Scott County packs a lot into its 11-minute runtime. The film highlights a sweet sisterly bond between five strong and distinctive female characters whose relationship feels authentic the moment they are introduced. The story of Cherry (Dever) taking her truck road test while her sisters hold off enemies of their family criminal enterprise makes for a sweet and surprisingly thrilling ride.

Spilled Milk (dir. Jared Leaf)

The song that plays out as the credits roll in Jared Leaf’s Spilled Milk repeats the phrase, “who am I, if you’re not what I thought”, an idea that echoes through this story of a father going to confront his own estranged father, in a convenience store that is not all that it seems. Created as part of Jordan Peele’s NO DRAMA global short film development initiative, Leaf shows true promise in the world of horror, leaving me wanting more of this story while also perfectly tying it up in just 12 minutes. The performances are professional, and every beat of this story is earned.

Floored (dir. Emily Alpren and Marchelle Bradanini)

Directed by Emily Alpren and Marchelle Bradanini, the film follows a group of women who are reaching an older age and beginning to feel forgotten by a newer, sexier generation. They work with a pelvic floor specialist who helps them embrace their bodies and their sexualities again. The film seems to try to blend a few too many genres, including horror, comedy, drama, and an overall absurd vibe, that feels like too much for a film that is really only saying the same thing since the beginning, with an ending that felt unearned. The women are fun, and the film’s message is inspiring, but the tagline describing the film as “a comedy about women’s rage” led me to expect something very different from what I actually got.

I Am The Prize (dir. Sai Karan Talwar)

I Am The Prize stars Russell Tovey as a polarizing self-help figure, one that male incels look up to ferociously. When his carefully crafted image begins to shatter during a lecture tour, the film speaks to many issues we see in the current real-life community of lonely men, from a very focused look at Tovey’s character. The hypocrisy of this community is staggering in this film, as it is in real life, and I appreciate the film’s effort to focus solely on the self-help figure’s experiences. It never shows us the reaction of those who follow him to the revelations about his life, but instead uses a clever final shot to tie the story together in a very forward way, trusting its audience to understand the type of men who would attend this kind of misogynistic lecture series.

(0, ∞) (dir. Mar Sudac)

In (0, ∞), spoken as Zero, Infinity, a married couple, Gus and Clark, live in a futuristic world and want to apply for a mortgage. To do so, they must undergo a series of government-mandated tests to verify their sexuality. The film uniquely comments on the current state of government surveillance and tells a story of defiance in a world that is constantly trying to define everything in it. It queers the common cautionary tale of relationships in a future governed by technology and laws that disregard true human emotion and has a sweet ending, but is missing depth in its characters to actually make me care.

The films were screened as part of the 2026 HollyShorts Film Festival, which will run until August 23, 2026. Image courtesy of London Flair PR.