Supernatural WW1 short film Attrition, written and directed by Screen Academy Scotland MFA Advanced Film Practice graduate Kelly Holmes (2016) began its festival run earlier this year and so far has been selected to 7 film festivals. Attrition premiered at the Idyllwild International Film Festival in California where it won the Director’s Choice Award before going on to the Oscar qualifying Krakow Film Festival which Kelly and lead actor Lewis MacKinnon attended for a Q&A. The film has recently been accepted at the Oscar and BAFTA A list qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival and also to FilmQuest, where it has been nominated for 6 awards including 2 Cthulhu trophy categories. It has also been selected to One Country One Film in France, Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece and Bolton Film Festival in the UK.
Attrition was completed in April 2018 on location in Ipswich, and the cast includes Edward Hogg, Jack Roth, Lewis MacKinnon and Jack Parry Jones. Commissioned for broadcast by France 3 Television and Creative England’s Emerging Talent Fund Attrition was 2nd place winner in Enter the Pitch’s competition at Pinewood Studios. A co-production between French producer Charles Paviot/Arts Premiers and UK producer Anne Beresford it was broadcast in France in November 2018 as part of the channel’s WW1 centenary programming.
Synopsis: Attrition is a drama set in the British trenches of WW1. Along with the rest of his platoon, young Private Edwin Childs fears imminent German gas attacks. As the dreaded attack begins, how much will Edwin give of himself in the ultimate act of compassion towards his fellow men?
Kelly has just been funded by the BFI for Early Feature Development as a writer/director and also recently finished her 2nd year teaching the BFI Film Academy Scotland Residential in Edinburgh, teaching directing and production from script to screen for 16-19 year olds intent on entering the industry.
Attrition trailer https://vimeo.com/300498127
https://www.kellyholmesdirector.com/