Monaco and Los Angeles May 31, 2022 —-Epic Pictures and its horror brand Dread is teaming up with 88th Street Productions, the newly formed feature film production label of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF) and sister company to Alta Global Media. The deal entails a First-Look film and series development program.
The partnership will call for 88th Street to work with Epic Pictures and Dread to develop select content with top-tier filmmakers from the Festival’s official selections in the horror, thriller, and genre categories. With the agreement, Dread will also sponsor this year’s Horror program at HollyShorts and headline a keynote conversation during the festival.
88th Street is currently in development on a feature film with Stefan Dezil. 88th Street is also fast-tracking an untitled original horror series with David Dastmalchian (Suicide Squad, Dune) and Legacy FX.
88th Street Productions accessing its many international partnerships in finance, production, and distribution. HollyShorts provides 88th Street Productions access to over 40,000 short films and filmmakers in all genres. 88th Street is ramping up its television series and film slate. With strategic partners, the company has previously privately funded and produced 8 short films with its 9th currently in pre-production and eyeing a summer shoot date.
Epic, Dread, and 88th Street previewed the deal during a special HollyShorts filmmakers’ reception in Cannes last week. The announcement is being made today during the Monaco Streaming Film Festival.
Kalani Dreimanis, Director, International Sales at Epic Pictures stated: “It has been an honor working with the HollyShorts team on the panels and jury at the festival, and I have always admired the quality of innovative filmmaking I get to see. I am excited to continue this partnership and begin developing projects with 88th Street and the wonderful talent from the festival.”
Steven Adams, co-founder of 88th Street Productions stated: “This collaboration with the incredible team of Epic Pictures and Dread is the perfect evolution of an already successful partnership. We are all dedicated to elevating new voices and exploring fresh iterations of classic genres.”
“For 18 years we’ve fostered an extraordinary international community of award-winning artists and we are pleased to offer them this exciting new opportunity with Epic Pictures and Dread,” said HollyShorts Film Festival and 88th Street Productions co-founders Theo Dumont and Daniel Sol.
The partnership will kick off at this year’s 18th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival in August which takes place August 11-20 at the TCL Chinese Theater and Japan House Hollywood.
The most recent edition of HollyShorts had 6 short films nominated for Academy Awards this year with two winners-Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye and Ben Proudfoot’s Queen of Basketball.
Epic Pictures is currently attending the Marché du Film and Cannes Film Festival representing their slate of elevated genre productions including the horror-thriller DOUBLE BLIND starring horror icon Pollyanna McIntosh and Millie Brady, which just wrapped production in Ireland. DOUBLE BLIND is written by Darach McGarrigle and marks the feature directorial debut for Ian Hunt-Duffy who, along with producer Simon Doyle, run the Dublin-based production company Failsafe.
Also on Epic’s slate is the Canadian and Métis horror-thriller DARK NATURE from first-time feature director Berkley Brady and produced by Michael Peterson. The film will be featured as part of the 2022 Fantastic 7 lineup, organized in partnership between the Marché du Film and Sitges Film Festival, as the title endorsed by the Toronto International Film Festival. Buyers can find Epic at Le Grand Hôtel during the market and festival.
88th St. Productions was represented in the deal by attorneys Clifford Lo and Dan Sheldon of Alta Global Media.
About Epic Picture Group
Since the foundation of the company in 2007, CEO Patrick Ewald has grown Epic Pictures into an independent content studio with the mission of delivering the best-in-class genre entertainment “for fans, by fans.” Epic Pictures produces, finances, and distributes approximately twenty-thirty independent genre films a year. In 2013, the company established Epic Pictures Releasing which is its US-focused distribution division.
In 2017, Epic Pictures acquired the world’s most popular horror website, Dread Central, and launched its unique horror label, Dread, followed by its AVOD channel, DreadTV, and podcast platform, the Dread Central Podcast Network. In 2019, Epic Pictures started the horror gaming site, DreadXP, with a focus on editorial, reviews, podcasts, and original streaming content. In 2020, DreadXP began a video game publishing division with the launch of The Dread X Collection, an anthology of horror games in collaboration with some of the most innovative developers in the independent gaming space.
About HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF) #HSFF2022
The annual Academy Awards® Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival will celebrate its 18th year August 11-20, 2022. HollyShorts (HSFF) brings together top creators, industry leaders, and companies and has launched many filmmakers into the next stages of their careers.
HollyShorts, a regular on the MovieMaker Magazine Top 50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee list, also engages its community and spotlights short films year-round through monthly screenings, panels, and networking events. HollyShorts Film Festival will take place in person at the TCL Chinese Theaters in Hollywood, and stream via Bitpix TV, with the annual Awards Gala set to take place on August 20, 202
Did this press release inform you? Would you like to comment on this article? If you do, we would respond. Do let us know your thoughts if you have any suggestions. So hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.
Follow Epic Picture Group on Social Media
Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
MORE STORIES FOR YOU
In Conversation with Michael Oblowitz Director of Confidential Informant
Confidential Informant stars Mel Gibson, Dominic Purcell, and Kate Bosworth
