815horts film festival expands in 3rd year with more features and industry connections

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The annual 815horts film festival is expanding over two days this year to feature 25 short films, five featured guest speakers and the integration of two global film brands: the Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour and Tribeca Festival.

The short film festival also has a new location in City Stage Studios, a sound stage and production space at 821 First Ave. that organizers say embodies the film industry here. The festival runs Friday and Saturday.

“We’re excited about the growth that we’ve experienced here in year three,” said Nick Povalitis, founder of Plus Seven Co., which produces the event.  “The purpose of 815horts is to produce a high-quality film festival, but then leverage it for good and uplift the community.”

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Three films have ties to local filmmakers: “Anhedonia,” “The Operator,” and “Nogglers (Mavericks of Time).” There are also Illinois-based and out-of-state filmmakers as well as a screening of the Sundance Short Film Tour.  Madison Egan, Tribeca’s shorts programmer, will be part of a panel discussion at 1 p.m. Saturday that will be moderated by Peter Hawley, director of the Illinois Film Office.

That’s one of several guest speakers and panel talks designed to help aspiring filmmakers or fans engage with industry experts. There will also be a panel with Academy Award nominee Edgar Barnes and award-winning indie filmmaker Colleen Griffen at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Local actor and viral video creator Davarion Jarvelle will be interviewed at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

“If you’re an aspiring filmmaker, you’re looking to get into filmmaking this is a great place to come,” said Josiah Sjöström, co-owner of City Stage Studios.

Sjöström said the event serves not just as entertainment, but as a platform for filmmakers to connect with each other for potential collaboration. You can do that during after party networking event following the awards presentation Saturday night.

“It’s all about networking. It’s about who you know. Coming to events like this is the place that you can connect with those people,” he said. “It’s a very collaborative industry, you need to find your people to work with and this is where people like that show up.”

Povalitis hopes to build momentum for the festival to continue to grow in future years. Eventually, he wants the festival to span three or more days and include music and art components. He also hopes to build it into an Oscar-qualifying festival.

“Our aspirations are far beyond what we’re seeing even this year,” Povalitis said. “We want to be on the level of — I don’t want to say Tribeca or Sundance — but we want to feature that high-quality film right here in Rockford.”

He sees the potential because of film success stories that have come out of Rockford, such as Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bing Liu, who was featured at last year’s event.

“We’ve the got the resources here, we’ve got the talent locally,” Povalitis said. “We’ve got a good enough story here in Rockford to build this program and we’re going to do everything that we can to get to that level.”

Before you go | 815horts Short Film Festival

When: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13; 10:30 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14

Where: City Stage Studios, 821 First Ave., Rockford

Tickets: $15 for Friday; $20 for Saturday; $25 two-day pass

Info: 815horts.com

Program/complete lineup: Go HERE

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas