INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

Our 49th WorldFest-Houston Short Film Competition is a remarkable
and amazing year. More than 1,500 category entries in the 2016 awards
review, from a total of 74 nations including the Feature Film division.
WorldFest is unique in the entire festival world, as we offer ten major
categories for competition and Remi Awards, not just two (Shorts & Features)
like all the other major film festivals in the world. In addition, we
have more than 200 sub-categories, so an animated short does not have to
compete with a big budget CGI production. Another very special aspect
of our competition, different from every other film festival in the world,
is that our juries assign a score to each entry, and just like in college, there
are A’s, B’s, C’s and sadly, D’s. So at Houston, if there are several entries
that have been assigned a high A level grade, they all will receive an award.
We have found it totally unacceptable to select just one film to win a Gold
Remi Award. However, only about 10% to15% of the total entries actually
are honored with a Remi Award!
WorldFest-Houston literally gave first honors to Steven Spielberg,
George Lucas, Ang Lee, the Coen Brothers, John Lee Hancock, David
Lynch, Randal Kleiser, Oliver Stone and hundreds more with their first
awards! See our website under Winners/Photo Gallery to check out our
remarkable history. https://worldfest.org/gallery/
The Remi Winners of this year, our 49th WorldFest-Houston will be
the Spielberg’s and Ang Lee’s of tomorrow!
J Hunter Todd, Chairman and Founding Director,
the 49th WorldFest-Houston
Welcome to the Short Film section of the 49th Annual World-
Fest-Houston! It has been a pleasure to be a part of such a wonderful film
festival. The sheer number of entries from all around the world is truly
amazing and getting to see the best of the best up and coming film makers
is very exciting.
The juries have picked the one hundred and six best shorts to be
shown this week during the festival which was not an easy task. They
spent many late nights scoring short films trying to make sure that we
would have a great program. From there it is off to the races as we try
to make everything fit into the time we have and accommodate our film
makers’ requests. Hunter always says “One film festival, one million details”
and these words could not be more true.
It is exciting to see to see film makers and movie goers alike coalesce,
and now we get to watch as new relationships are formed between all the
interesting WorldFest attendees. It is humbling to think that our Remi
winners today could be the Spielberg’s and Hancock’s of tomorrow. I have
loved being a part of this film festival for the last few months. I was surprised
by the vast history of the festival and the experience that it offered
me, and I am grateful to all who compete and attend to help make World-
Fest what it is.
Tate Eskelund, 49th WorldFest-Houston Short Film
Program Coordinator
SHORTS
A Shadow of Dara Showing: 4/17 at 3pm UK
Director: Kirill Proskura
Writer: Kirill Proskura,
Andy Mihov
Producer: Ewa Habdas, Kirill
Proskura, Aleksandra Petrova
Cast: Johnny Spurling, Jo Price,
Peter Imms
A leader of a rebellion risks everything to
find the powerful commander of an alien
world who’s been captured by enemies
and put into a fabricated reality for the
extraction of valuable information.
Sci-fi
14m15s
A Way Out Showing: 4/17 at 1pm USA
Director: Jason Tostevin
Writer: Randall Greenland
Producer: Jason Tostevin
Editor: Brant Jones
Cinematography: Mike
McNeese
Cast: Robert Castanzo,
Adam Hampton
When aging gangster Vick risks it all
to quit the life, he discovers his young
protege has been keeping a secret of his
own — one that plunges them both into
a deadly cat and mouse game over the
course of one car ride.
Suspense/Thriller
13m48s
118
th
49 WorldFest Houston