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Hollywood Comedy Shorts will highlight short comedy, web series, TV episodic, Comedy Screenplays, and Dark Comedy shorts with the goal of screening the best comedic content from around the world for a Hollywood industry audience! The festival will take place at the world famous TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, two days of screenings, filmmaker Q and A's, panel, parties, and the awards party! 

All Access pass includes all screening events plus:

• All Opening Night Events April 14, 2017
• All Screenings & Parties April 15-16, 2017

Panel & Afterparty- Friday, April 14th

• 6pm - Panel
• 8-10pm - Afterparty at Adults Only, 7065 1/2 Sunset Boulevard
• Entry with Purchased Ticket or Badge only.  

REFUND POLICY

• There are no refunds on tickets to screenings or panels.
• Tickets purchased may be exchanged for tickets to another screening/panel of equal or lesser value to Hollywood Comedy Shorts Film Festival.
• No exceptions will be made.

SIFF Catalyst First Draft live script table read series, now in its fourth year, features unproduced scripts that were finalists in the 2016 Catalyst Screenplay Competition. The screenplays will be performed live with professional actors in front of an audience, and followed by feedback from industry insiders and audience members, alike.

Upcoming Script: Saving Shenandoah, written by Alessandra Bautze

Seventeen-year-old Laurie has grown up in New Hampshire’s foster care system. She has never known a loving home, until she comes into the care of foster parent Beatrice and her young daughter Shenandoah. When Beatrice dies suddenly and it becomes clear that Shenandoah will go into the foster care system herself, Laurie takes drastic measures and goes on the run with Shenandoah to prevent the young girl from meeting the same fate as Laurie, who has become hardened from years in a broken system. But as Laurie struggles to get Shenandoah to safety—coming face to face with the demons of her past along the way—she begins to realize that saving the young girl, whom she has come to see as a sister, may come at a higher cost than she ever expected.

Alessandra Bautze holds an M.F.A in Screenwriting from The University of Texas at Austin, as well as a B.A. in The Writing Seminars and Film & Media Studies from The Johns Hopkins University. While in graduate school, Alessandra taught screenwriting to undergraduates and served as a fiction reader for Bat City Review. Alessandra’s writing often tackles diverse issues of social import and has garnered numerous awards. Her screenplay EIGHT DAYS IN ’88, a drama about identity, empowerment, and belonging set against the backdrop of the Deaf President Now movement at Gallaudet University, the world's only liberal arts university for the deaf and hard of hearing, placed in the top 15% of all entries in the 2016 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Her television pilots have explored topics ranging from the juvenile justice system to the FBI’s complicity in Civil Rights Era hate crimes. She is thrilled that her screenplay SAVING SHENANDOAH, which also placed in the Top 3 in the New Hampshire Film Festival screenplay competition, was selected for the SIFF Catalyst First Draft series. When she’s not writing fiction or screenplays, Alessandra can be found watching movies at the local arthouse cinema, browsing the shelves of the local independent bookstore, speaking French, or conversing in American Sign Language. She’s an avid fan of strong female protagonists. http://alessandrabautze.com

ABOUT SIFF FIRST DRAFT 

First Draft is part of SIFF Education's Catalyst program. Catalyst is designed to support filmmakers, both artistically and professionally, as they progress from one stage of their careers to the next. Catalyst First Draft offers audience members a glimpse into a developmental stage of the creative process, in which a screenplay is prepped for eventual production via a live table read performed by professional Seattle actors. Audience members, guided by industry professionals, then have the opportunity to offer immediate and constructive feedback. Join us each month for Catalyst First Draft and take part in making an award-winning script even better!  

Screening the best in International contemporary short cinema at venues across the Scottish capital in Autumn the Edinburgh Short Film Festival Submissions Now Open for 2017!

The best films will be included in our programmes for other festivals across the UK & Internationally.

This year, we're excited to be programming films for our 2017 partners:

• Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (Asia's largest short film event)
• Sardinia Film Festival
• Australia's Scots Day Out,
• Hidden Door in Edinburgh
• and some other partnerships we'll announce shortly!  

We're also planning to expand our awards structure with prizes for best director & best animation as well as a competition for young Scottish-based screenwriters - more details about that soon in the meantime, we're open for entries. 

PLEASE NOTE: Exhibition copies of the film can be sent directly to the ESFF via an online link that you will be sent immediately upon completion of your registration. 

Maximun length for entries is 20 minutes. Watch this space for more details soon!