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Vashon Film Institute, the non-profit organization dedicated to fostering independent filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest, has announced the film slate for its fourth annual Vashon Island Film Festival. The festival is set for Aug. 7-10, where nine features and 15 shorts will screen at the Vashon Theatre. The festival will open with a screening of the Opening Night film “The Balconettes,” which will screen out of competition.

This year’s lineup will include six narrative and three documentary features, including Laurent Slama’s “A Second Life,” Ari Gold’s “Brother Verses Brother,” Ernesto Martinez Bucio’s “The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box)”, Georgi M. Unkovski’s “DJ Ahmet,” Henry Bernadet’s “Gamma Rays,” Phil Moniz and Kevin Claydon’s “Racewalkers,” Ben Hethcoat and Keita Ideno’s “Coroner To The Stars,” Brittany Shyne’s “Seeds,” and Benjamin Flaherty’s “Shuffle.”

The narrative shorts will include Alex Thompson...

The Palm Springs International ShortFest, one of the largest short film festivals and the first stop on the campaign trail for Oscar-qualifying shorts, announced its winners today, including director John Kelly's "Retirement Plan," which was named "best of the festival" and received a $5,000 cash prize.

Awards were also given for best animated short, best documentary short, and best live-action short, as well as student shorts.

Over 300 films were part of the official selection at the festival, which ran from June 24-30. The winners of the five Oscar-qualifying awards are eligible to submit their shorts for Academy Award consideration.

The complete list of winners includes:

Best of the Festival Award

Winner: "Retirement Plan," directed by John Kelly

Special Mention for Best Director: "Passarinho," directed by Natalia García Agraz

Special Mention for Best Acting: "Beyond Silence," directed by Marnie Blok

Best Animated Short

Winner: "Budō" (Sweden), directed by Amanda Aagard and...

The 2025 Palm Springs International Shortfest has revealed this year’s festival juried winners. Honors and cash prizes worth $30,000, including five Academy Award qualifying awards, were presented during the Awards Brunch. The winning films were selected from 311 total submissions.

Award categories include Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short, Best Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes, Best Live-Action Short 15 Minutes and Under. The 2025 Palm Springs International ShortFest took place June 24-30, 2025.

See the full list of winners below.

Best of the Festival Award

“Retirement Plan,” directed by John Kelly

Best Animated Short

“Budō” (Sweden), directed by Amanda Aagard and Alexander Toma

Best Documentary Short

“Shanti Rides Shotgun” (USA), directed by Charles Frank

Best Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes

“Susana” (Mexico/USA), directed by Amandine Thomas and Gerardo Coello Escalante

Best Live-Action Short 15 Minutes and Under

“Medusa” (USA), directed by Sarah Meyohas

Best Student Animated Short

“Dragfox” (United Kingdom), directed by Lisa Ott

Best Student International...

There are few television shows as warm and comforting as "Columbo," the long-running mystery series starring Peter Falk as the eponymous detective. Each episode begins with a murder, and the fun isn't trying to figure out whodunnit but instead watching Columbo put together the pieces and catch the bad guy. Whether you're watching one of the original 1970s television episodes or one of the movie-of-the-week "episodes" that came out all the way through 2003, you can sit secure in the knowledge that Columbo will probably take the rich and powerful down a peg or two and be almost impossibly lovable while doing it. Despite the fact that Peter Falk wasn't originally the series' creator's choice to play Columbo, he is what makes the show so incredible watchable as he seems to aimlessly wander through crime scenes in his rumpled trench coat and ruin criminals' days with his trademark "just one more thing.

This very traditional chamber murder mystery starring David Farrar and Geraldine Fitzgerald has been beautifully restored by Studiocanal and bears the original U.K. title The Late Edwina Black. When the sickly wife Edwina dies in bed the bitter housekeeper accuses the husband and another very attractive servant; all the Scotland Yard Inspector need do is stir the pot, and paranoid suspicions take over. Is Edwina’s spirit still present in the house? The housekeeper thinks she communicates through a wind chime by the window . . .

Obsessed

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1951 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / Street Date February 28, 2023 / The Late Edwina Black / Available from / 29.99

Starring: David Farrar, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Roland Culver, Jean Cadell, Mary Merrall, Harcourt Williams, Charles Heslop, Ronald Adam.

Cinematography: Stephen Dade

Art Direction: George Provis

Costume Designer: Elizabeth Haffenden

Film Editor: Douglas Myers

Original Music: Allan Gray

Screenplay by Charles Frank, David Evans from the play by William Dinner, William Morum...

During a three-hour discussion on a recent episode of “The Empire Film Podcast,” Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino revealed the existence of their makeshift quarantine movie club over the last 9 months. As Wright explained, “It’s nice. We’ve kept in touch in a sort of way that cinephiles do. It’s been one of the very few blessings of this [pandemic], the chance to disappear down a rabbit hole with the hours indoors that we have.” Tarantino added, “Edgar is more social than I am. It’s a big deal that I’ve been talking to him these past 9 months.”

A bulk of the film club was curated by none other than Martin Scorsese, who sent Wright a recommendation list of nearly 50 British films that Scorsese considers personal favorites. In the five months Wright spent in lockdown before resuming production on “Last Night in Soho” — and before he received the...

It’s well known around these parts of my irrational fear of arachnids – in real life, that is. On film, however, they are (unfairly or not) one of my favorite villains. And yes, I say villains, because dammit they bite and kill people; sure, it’s their “nature”, but mine is breathing and not being paralyzed and/or spun in webbing like so much human Saran Wrap. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977), a fun TV movie with more creepy crawlers than you can shake a stick at. (A 10 foot stick if you’re smart.)

Originally airing as part of The CBS Wednesday Night Movies, Cargo had it rough folks; ABC hauled out Charlie’s Angels/Starsky & Hutch, and NBC offered up *checks notes* The Oregon Trail/Big Hawaii. Truth be told, I probably would have been tuning...

Exclusive: Jake McDorman (What We Do in the Shadows) and Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones) are set to star opposite Patrick J. Adams in National Geographic’s scripted series The Right Stuff, based on Tom Wolfe’s best-selling nonfiction book. They will play three of the seven astronauts who comprised the famed Mercury Seven. Cast as the remaining four are Aaron Staton (Narcos: Mexico), Michael Trotter (Underground), Micah Stock (Escape at Dannemora) and James Lafferty (Castle Rock).

The Right Stuff, from Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Warner Horizon Scripted Television, takes a look at what would become America’s first “reality show,” as ambitious astronauts and their families become instant celebrities in a competition that either will kill them or make them immortal in the quest to be a part of Project Mercury.

Adams plays Maj. John Glenn, a revered test pilot and committed family man with unwavering principles; McDorman portrays Alan Shepard,...

1967: Barnabas Collins first appeared on Dark Shadows.

1978: Ryan's Hope's Pat was furious with Delia.

1985: Guiding Light's Beth and Lujack made love.

2009: One Life to Live's Talia was murdered."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1942: The final episode of Frank and Anne Hummert's Orphans of Divorce aired on the Blue Network.

1967: On Dark Shadows, Jason confronted Willie (John Karlen) about his suspicious interest in the Collins family history. Victoria told Elizabeth that she was uncomfortable having Willie at Collinwood. Elizabeth agreed, and...

1967: Barnabas Collins first appeared on Dark Shadows.

1978: Ryan's Hope's Pat was furious with Delia.

1985: Guiding Light's Beth and Lujack made love.

2009: One Life to Live's Talia was murdered."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1942: The final episode of Frank and Anne Hummert's Orphans of Divorce aired on the Blue Network.

1967: On Dark Shadows, Jason confronted Willie (John Karlen) about his suspicious interest in the Collins family history.

In addition to being a war hero and senator, John Glenn — who passed away late last week at the age of 95 — was an astronaut between 1958 and 1964. That tenure is part of the drama in 1983’s “The Right Stuff,” perhaps the best drama ever made about Nasa (sorry, “Apollo 13”). To honor Glenn, AMC Theatres is re-releasing the film between now and this Thursday, December 15.

Read More: Having ‘The Right Stuff’: Ed Harris and Jeff Goldblum Reflect On the Most Realistic Space Drama

Ed Harris plays Glenn in Philip Kaufman’s film, which is based on Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book of the same name; also aboard the ensemble cast are Charles Frank, Scott Glenn, Lance Henriksen, Scott Paulin, Dennis Quaid, Sam Shepard and Fred Ward. “The Right Stuff” won four Academy awards (Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Original Score) and was nominated for four more,...

Lance Henriksen: A Survivor’s Tale

A seminal event happened to actor Lance Henriksen in his late teens that serves as the perfect metaphor for his life: Henriksen was working at a rural New Mexico gas station, and was taken in by the couple who owned it. They had a teenage daughter a couple years his junior. One day, figuring Lance and his daughter were getting a bit too chummy; the man drove Henriksen out to the middle of the desert. “All winter long, the frost has been pushing up these beautiful amethyst stones,” the man explained. “I’ll drop you off and you can collect them, then come back and sell them for a lot of money.” Henriksen stayed half the night, and then started to succumb to the desert’s freezing temperatures. “I dug a hole and buried myself up to my chest, with a fire in front of me.

In “The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo,” the Winchesters had their first major run-in with Dick Roman since Dick shot Bobby. It was a great episode, filled with a cornucopia of geek-gasms and hints at the Supernatural Season 7 finale.

From the moment Felicia Day appeared as Charlie, geeks the world over (including myself) squealed with delight at her well-decorated desk. Charlie sat in front of her dual monitors, looking much like Day’s character in her web series, The Guild. The desk was filled with all-manner of bobbleheads including one Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series.

There were a few great references and jokes that I have to mention:

When Dick gave Charlie Frank’s hard drive to hack, Charlie went back to her desk and told her workmate, Harry, “The eye of Sauron is on me.” The Lord of the Rings reference was great, but it...