Indy Shorts International Film Festival announces 150-film lineup, virtual option for 2022

Heartland Film's Indy Shorts International Film Festival announced a lineup of 150 short films from 25 countries for its upcoming annual event, which will return to in-person screenings but maintain a virtual option.

The festival will begin virtually July 19 before moving to indoor screenings at Living Room Theaters, outdoor showings at the Indianapolis Art Center and a mix of both at Newfields, which will also host the Oscar-qualifying film festival's awards ceremony on July 23.

Indy Shorts will feature 14 world premieres, 11 U.S. premieres, 53 Midwest premieres and 50 Indiana premieres. Highlights include the Midwest premiere of "Skin & Bone," a horror film starring and produced by Amanda Seyfried, and a world premiere of "Thank you, Ms. Maravel from Rosie's Theater Kids," an MTV documentary on a performing arts school established by comedian Rosie O'Donnell.

More: Indie films, shorts to be showcased at 1st in-person Indy Film Fest since 2019

Tony-nominated actor Colman Domingo ("Fear the Walking Dead, "Euphoria") will also be honored in person with Heartland's Pioneering Spirit Award.

Domingo also features in two films playing at the festival: "New Moon," an animated coming-of-age tale written, directed, produced and starring Domingo alongside husband Raul Domingo, and "North Star," a live-action narrative tale of a rancher and his ailing husband also featuring Kevin Bacon.

Heartland Artistic Director Greg Sorvig said the Indy Shorts will be "back to as normal as we can be in this new normal," with the full return to in-person screenings. However, the COVID-19 pandemic that necessitated an entirely virtual festival in 2020 has offered some technology benefits that will be maintained this year for added accessibility.

He added that short films offer a community the opportunity to take in lots of different kinds of content without the time consumption of a traditional festival.

"People put much more scrutiny and judgment on a feature, probably because you're spending 90, 100 minutes at least with it," Sorvig said. "We package these short films in programs of 70 minutes to two hours at the most, and you get a lot of variety in that."

More: Newfields' Summer Nights Film Series returns in 2022 with 'Cruella,' 'Encanto' and more

"Short filmmakers can also take a lot more risk because of the budgets, the limited number of people involved and things like that," he continued.

Each film will be no longer than 40 minutes. Indy Shorts is also an Oscar-qualifying event, meaning films recognized by the festival's judges fulfill an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences requirement for Academy Award consideration.

Indy Shorts has previously shown 29 films that ended up being nominated for Oscar and eight eventual winners.

Sorvig said many of the screened films' architects will be present throughout the festival for post-screening question-and-answer sessions as well as after-hours events.

The films are grouped into 25 themed programs, including three programs made up of 20 shorts created by Hoosiers or filmed in Indiana.

One screening of local interest will be "Stranger at the Gate," a more in-depth version of a documentary first shown by Indy Shorts in 2018 that tells the story of a U.S. Marine who planned to bomb a Muncie mosque only to completely reverse course upon meeting its members.

More: Op-ed: I wanted to kill Muslims, too. But then I saw the light.

Another July 22 program will feature short films that were either nominated or won an Academy Award in the last two years.

Among those films will be "If Anything Happens, I Love You," a 2020 animated film and Oscar winner depicting a couple's grief after the death of their daughter in a school shooting.

Sorvig grew emotional as he explained the circumstances behind the film's inclusion in the program.

"On the day of the Uvalde (Texas) shooting, I emailed the director asking if we could screen the film," Sorvig. "I sent the email, then the shooting happened, then he emailed me back. It was unbelievable that another tragedy happened just in the time between emails."

The short film festival, an offshoot of Heartland's signature fall film festival, is in its fifth year.

Tickets can be purchased at indyshorts.org and are $13 for an individual in-person or virtual screening, with Heartland Film members receiving a 20% discount. In-person and virtual passes good for one ticket to all 150 films are each $79. A five-pack of tickets redeemable in-person or virtually is $59.

Virtual screenings will each have a limited window in which they can be accessed. Hybrid festival passes — one in-person and one virtual ticket to every film — are $95.

A full festival lineup and showtimes are also available at indyshorts.org.

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Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter at IndyStar. Contact him at 317-552-9044 and rappleton@indystar.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RoryDoesPhonics.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy Shorts International Film Festival lineup, information to know