From PSIFF to Emmy noms

Autism: The Musical -- Tricia Regan's 2008 Palm Springs International Film Fest winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature -- was nominated for not one, not two, but FIVE Emmy Awards in Outstanding Nonfiction Special, Cinematography, Picture Editing, Sound Editing and Directing categories.

The film WON two: Outstanding Nonfiction Special & Nonfiction Editing at the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys.

Learn more about the film & support The Miracle Project.

The life & times of a ShortFest director

Steve Dildarian -- director of the Hard C Hi Five to Lo-Fi Award at the 2006 ShortFest for his film, "Angry Unpaid Hooker" -- has broke onto the small screen with "The Life and Times of Tim" (based on "AUH").

The series hits HBO on September 28 at 11pm.
Support a ShortFest alum & tune in!

The Duchess

Beauty and scandal surround Princess Diana's ancestor Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire in the 18th century.

Did you attend our Sept. 18 Special Member Screening of The Duchess?
What did you think of the film?

Get your film on!

Wednesday, September 10, PSIFS will offer not one, but TWO fantastic film screenings!

Start the evening at 5pm with the 1956 Douglas Sirk classic, Written on the Wind, as part of our Drama Queens series. Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone...so much soap but not enough to get these tortured souls clean.

Then make a mad dash over to our Member Screening of the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading at 7pm. Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton get wacky with a misplaced CIA memoir.

Be sure to come back here and give the scoop to the poor lost souls who were unable to attend!

Day 6: The short & long of it

The awards have been announced, the drinks have been served and the photographers attacked.

ShortFest 2008 comes to an end with the Best of the Fest extravaganza on Wednesday. Start working on those entries so that we may relive the chaos in 2009!

Day 5: Come dancing

ShortFest has been full of great films with great stories. There are the three Italians (and their hats) who came all the way to Palm Springs to volunteer (...and to push their marketplace film). There is Israeli filmmaker Khen Shalem ("On the Road to Tel Aviv") who, based on his work on this short, will be creating a film concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a United Nations conference in February. There is the Australian short that was a colaboration of Aussie filmmakers who met at last year's ShortFest ("Cane Cutter," whose actor-director Dustin Clare has been acting as roving party pirate). But as the fest comes to a close and the filmmakers have gotten to know one another, it's really about the dancing.

Day 4: Filmmakers on a mission

Sunday found ShortFest going strong with a packed day of film. One of the evening programs was "Boy Meets Girl," where it became apparent that the attending filmmakers had created a very supportive group based on the howling applause for each film (not that the rest of the audience wasn't lovin' the films, but you know how rowdy filmmakers get). Directors Casey Stangl ("CU@ED'S"), Chuck Rose ("Side Effects"), Jasmine Kosovic ("Kate Wakes") and a rep from "No Parking" entertained the audience with a Q&A following the show (pictured above).

Rose revealed that his short raised money for a relief fund for those involved in the writer's strike. All services were donated (with hefty help from the "CSI:NY" crew) and the actors worked for free, and Rose reflected on the great community that this project created. The film and others will be available next month on StrikeTV.

Stangl and Kosovic had also been part of a unique experience as graduates from the AFI's Directing Workshop for Women. Out of the 8 women selected to participate in the program, 5 were accepted to ShortFest. Quite impressive for few having any film experience outside of a 3-week crash course (granted, many work in theatre or production). Below are three of the talented women: Devi Snively ("Death in Charge"), Chris Sanagustin ("Fleece") & Casey Stangl ("CU@ED'S").

The filmmakers let loose at a party at Azul, and it was quickly discovered that Prince speaks the international language of filmmakers when the entertainers belted "Purple Rain" and everyone joined in.

Cute directors Brian Crano ("Official Selection") and John Irwin ("Banditos") rocked the plaid vibe. Irwin just launched SmallDreamsTV, a site that develops original short films.