{"id":2122281,"date":"2025-10-29T09:58:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T09:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2122281"},"modified":"2025-10-29T09:58:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T09:58:32","slug":"815horts-film-festival-returns-with-feature-debut-and-contests-in-rockford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/815horts-film-festival-returns-with-feature-debut-and-contests-in-rockford\/","title":{"rendered":"815HORTS Film Festival returns with feature debut and contests in Rockford"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The 815HORTS Film Festival is returning to Rockford for its fourth year.<\/p>\n

The festival, produced by Plus Seven Company, will take place Nov. 14-15 at City Stage Studios, according to a community announcement.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event will feature five short film screening blocks, the Illinois Film Office\u2019s Shortcuts Student Film Contest, educational sessions and the festival\u2019s first feature-length film screening.<\/p>\n

Festival continues to grow<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to see how this festival keeps growing each year, including a new youth film contest, a feature film on women\u2019s baseball, and now taking center stage at City Stage,\u201d Sarah Leys, director of community and economic development at the City of Rockford, said in the announcement. \u201cIt brings new voices, new stories and new energy to our community and is a great example of how creativity can connect people and celebrate what makes Rockford unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival will kick off Nov. 14 with a 5HORT Industry Mixer, followed by the 2025 Sundance Shorts Tour at 6 p.m. The tour will showcase seven short films from the Sundance Film Festival. The Illinois Film Office Shortcuts Student Film Contest will follow, featuring five short films created by students aged 22 and under.<\/p>\n

Educational sessions planned<\/h2>\n

The second day of the festival will begin with a 5HORT Morning Mixer, followed by a Zoom Q&A with Madison Egan, shorts programmer at the Tribeca Festival, at 11 a.m. The session, moderated by Hawley, will allow attendees to engage with one of the world\u2019s leading film festival programmers, according to the announcement.<\/p>\n

The \u201cCity Stage BTS Lunch + Learn\u201d will offer an inside look into City Stage Studios, with lunch donated by District Bar & Grill. After the Lunch + Learn, 815HORTS alum James Forni\u2019s latest documentary, \u201cSilicon Prairie Dreams,\u201d will make its Illinois festival premiere. A panel session titled \u201cLawful Break-In,\u201d featuring Forni and entertainment attorney Elaine Wyder, will explore indie filmmaking best practices from a legal perspective.<\/p>\n

Feature-length film to be screened<\/h2>\n

Nov. 15\u2019s program will shift back to film screenings with animated, documentary and live-action short film blocks. The final film of the festival will be \u201cSee Her Be Her,\u201d the first feature-length film to be featured at 815HORTS. Directed and produced by Jean Fruth, the documentary traces the story of women\u2019s baseball around the world, following the lives of seven star players. The film is executive produced by sports icon Billie Jean King.<\/p>\n

After the film, Hawley will moderate a discussion with cast members Denae Benites, a member of the USA Women\u2019s National Baseball Team, and Leslie Heaphy, a women\u2019s baseball historian and board chair of the International Women\u2019s Baseball Center in Rockford.<\/p>\n

The 5HORT Awards will close out the festival, honoring the top short films screened during the program. Both evenings will include music, snacks and beverages for sale.<\/p>\n

One-day festival tickets for Friday or Saturday cost $20, while two-day festival passes cost $30. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Ticketed guests will be allowed re-entry. For the festival schedule, screening announcements, tickets and other updates, follow www.815HORTS.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was created by reporter Abreanna Blose, <\/em>ablose@gannett.com<\/em><\/a>, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at <\/em>cm.usatoday.com\/ethical-conduct<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: 815HORTS Film Festival returns to Rockford Nov. 14\u201315<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 815HORTS Film Festival is returning to Rockford for its fourth year. The festival, produced by Plus Seven Company, will take place Nov. 14-15 at City Stage Studios, according to a community announcement. This year\u2019s event will feature five short film screening blocks, the Illinois Film Office\u2019s Shortcuts Student Film Contest, educational sessions and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2122282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[402973,402970,335720,362496,402972,317163,354646,335051,402974,304789,402971],"class_list":["post-2122281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-city-stage","tag-city-stage-studios","tag-community-announcement","tag-feature-length-film","tag-film-contest","tag-film-festival","tag-film-screenings","tag-rockford","tag-student-film","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-womens-baseball"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/815HORTS-Film-Festival-returns-with-feature-debut-and-contests-in.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2122281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2122283,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122281\/revisions\/2122283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2122282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2122281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2122281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2122281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}