Chasing The Party by Jessie Komitor at HollyShorts Film Festival

Los Angeles, CA (August 29, 2025). Winner Tribeca Special Jury award, Chasing The Party is by Jessie Komitor. The short film will screen at the 21st HollyShort FIlm Festival.

Synopsis: 17 year old suburbanites, Melissa and Stephanie, fantasize about becoming “IT” girls in the Lower East Side party scene circa 2007. But their dreams come crashing down on them when the photographer they idolize is the one to lift the veil. We grow up. It is inevitable. We trade childlike wonder for actual experience. Elaborate daydreams for cold hard reality. For better or for worse, these trades are the main transfer into adulthood. Chasing the Party is a simple and deep story about two young women encountering the world and losing each other within the transfer.

“With a compelling combination of character and world, this nostalgic look at young hope on a wild night is has surprises of fantasy and nightmare. We’ll be thinking of this fresh, provocative film for a long time and cannot wait to see what this director does next.” – Tribeca Festival

About Jessie Komitor
Chasing The Party is based on my personal experience of being a young suburban kid who liked the underground party scene of the Lower East Side in the early 2000s. And what it was like to leave the sweet naïvete of my youth behind to become a part of it.

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Shooting this film while pregnant and finishing it in the throes of postpartum will forever be one of my greatest achievements. There were days on set when I was quietly sneaking electrolytes into my double-fisted water bottles to ease the morning sickness mid camera rehearsal. And then—at 3 a.m., nauseous and depleted—a young girl on set looked up at me with eyes wide and said, “Wow. I’ve never seen so many women leading a set. This is incredible. I want to do this.”

It wasn’t by design, but over half of our department heads were women. Leading. In power. And for a film about the nuance of impressionable young girls, that reality made the work feel even more vital. We weren’t just telling a story—we were living out its most critical subtext.

This film is about the female experience—when the veil of youth is lifted and the truth of experience takes its place. It infuriates me that no matter how much times may change, the majority of us will always be prey. So for the girls that don’t even get to look him in the eye. Because they were scared, manipulated, in shock and they couldn’t. This film is for you.

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About HollyShort Film Festival
An Oscar®-Qualifying short film festival based in Los Angeles. Since its establishment in 2005, HollyShorts has grown into a premier platform for independent filmmakers worldwide. As an Academy Awards-qualifying festival in four categories, HollyShorts presents a diverse selection of innovative short films across various genres.

About BitPix
Bitpix is a streaming service for shorts films. It is accessible on over 1000 devices including iOS devices, and Android devices. Plus MACs, PCs, streaming media boxes such as Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast. Bitpix was created by filmmakers for filmmakers. It was born and bread out of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival. Bitpix is your home to watch the best short films from around the world—every day. Bitpix News is your home for the latest news, reviews, and updates about these shorts featured on the platform.

HSFF provides 88th Street Productions access to over 40,000 short films and filmmakers in all genres. The Company has long standing relationships with these filmmakers, talent and entertainment industry executives. 88th Street is able to activate these relationships to source to access projects in all genres. Alta Global Media provides access to established filmmakers, executives and talent agencies.

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