Aurora Picture Show announces film festival selections

The Aurora Picture Show announces the 15th Annual Extremely Shorts Film Festival selections.

Andy Smith from Indie Grits Film Festival and Nickelodeon Theater in Columbia, S.C., has chosen 29 films from more than 150 submissions. Each represents diverse themes and voices, but each one will only last approximately three minutes.

The selections will be screened at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. June 29 as well as a VIP screening at 8 p.m. June 30. The event will be located at 2442 Bartlett St. After each screening, the audience will vote on its top three favorite shorts, from which the winners will be discovered.

"I loved the diversity of the submissions. While three minutes might seem like a constraint to some people, I think its clear these filmmakers leveraged that little bit of time to their advantage, making incredibly creative and thought-provoking pieces," Smith said.

The selected films and their directors are as follows: “Media Flight” (Tapia), “REM” (Cruz), “8bit Ghost Hop” (Lonano), “Weightless” (Hathaway-Zepeda), “Nightbook” (Hathaway-Zepeda), “Texas Traffic” (Melgar), “How Great Thou Art” (Parker), “Excessive Use of Force” (Smith and Beck), “Spartacus” (Lim), “I Am Your Grandma” (Mayer), “Merman” (Foley), “Everything BUT” (White), “Reinaldo Arenas” (Leyva), “Mule” (Tran and Godden), “Meiosis” (Tran and Godden), “Paint Showers” (Jiron), “Harvest Moon” (Martinez), “Déjà vu De Jour” (Olenick), “All of My Friends Are Worried about the Future” (Galindo), “Judas Burning” (Ike and Lucas), “Remember” (Jomadiac), “Don't Hug Me I'm Scared” (Sloan and Pelling), “An American Arabesque” (Diorio), “Reddish Brown and Blueish Green” (Gurry), “The Gumba Sutra” (Hughes), “Koi Fish” (Aviles), “Echo From My Room” (Kennedy), “Traveling Fatherhood” (Godden) and “Cultured” (Godden).

Cash prizes will be given to first, second, and third places. Admission price is $15 for nonmembers and $5 for members. During the VIP Saturday screening, admission is $15 for members and $25 for nonmembers. There will be drinks and food provided.

For more information, visit www.aurorapictureshow.org or call 713-868-2101.