INNAUGURAL GOLDEN STAR SHORTS FEST BIG SUCCESS
Festival celebrates the history and future of the short film format

The first annual Golden Star Shorts Fest (GSSF) proudly honored the filmmakers of the past, present and future at its inaugural film festival with over 3,000 attendees. With a mixture of competitive programs, retrospectives and galas, the Festival celebrated all aspects of the short film category. “With the advent of new technology, short films are more important than ever,” says GSSF Founder Serge Polakoff. “Identifying, celebrating and branding excellent short movies is the cornerstone upon which we founded Golden Star.” GSSF screened nearly 70 high-quality short films at the world-famous Egyptian Theater this year.

On Thursday, February 23 GSSF kicked off with a special tribute to Charlie Chaplin. The gesture was appropriate, as Chaplin was one of the first great filmmakers, helping to establish the motion picture as a new form of entertainment, and doing so in the short film format. His groundbreaking work was accompanied on the piano. Filmmakers were welcomed to the Festival at a private reception at L’Scorpion in Hollywood. The Opening Night Gala was held at the exclusive Spider Club.

Friday, February 24 was the International Spotlight on Belgium. Each year, GSSF will screen remarkable shorts from a different country. This year, GSSF featured films from Belgium. Many of them are international award winners and most of them made their US premiere at GSSF. Stay tuned to learn which country will be featured in 2007. The after party was held at the newest Hollywood hot spot, Citizen Smith.
GSSF was proud to partner with Continental Airlines in bringing filmmakers from around the world to this Inaugural Festival. With their extensive international routes, this partnership was a natural fit.
With over 200 submissions, the Festival introduced a unique competition format, with filmmakers submitting projects on a quarterly basis. They competed in the following categories (Drama, Comedy, Animation, Experimental, Documentary, and Music Video). The finalists were then invited to participate in the annual festival in Hollywood. Over 70 filmmakers have already entered the quarterly online competition for the next awards cycle.

The talented award winners of the Festival were:

Category Title Filmmaker
Music Video Award “Don’t Fuck with Love” Rachel McIntosh and Jim Starace
Experimental Award “Pillow Girl” Ronnie Cramer
Documentary Award “Caught in Paint” Rita Blitt
Animation Award “Awaken” Josh Mahan and Joey Ingram
Comedy Award “Jellybaby” Ronan and Rob Burke
Drama Award “Twitch” Leah Meyerhoff
Best of Fest “Twitch” Leah Meyerhoff
New Frontier Award “OÏO” Simon Goulet
Audience Choice
Non Fiction Award “OÏO” Simon Goulet
Fiction Award “Fancy” Lori Grossman