Poster for The Little Drummer Boy, AFIN 2022

Short Film AFIN 152

The Little Drummer Boy

AFIN 2022 Winner

  • 2022
  • 10m
  • USA
  • English
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Stills

1 frame

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Credits

Synopsis

All is not what it seems when a father and son have a violent confrontation on Christmas Eve.

From the Judges

From the Judges

Beautifully shot, with a Christmas warmth that lingered long after the closing frames. It struck the panel how much feeling this short holds within its brief run, the structure and pacing shaped so the story arrives with real emotional intelligence. Strong production values and a heartfelt, generous piece of storytelling made it one they wanted others to see.

Curated, anonymised highlights drawn from the judges' notes.

Director's Biography

John Gray is a New York based writer-director-producer. He created the long running hit CBS series GHOST WHISPERER, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, as well as writing and directing many award winning and critically acclaimed movies for television, such as MARTIN AND LEWIS, starring Sean Hayes and Jeremy Northam, the Emmy nominated A PLACE FOR ANNIE with Sissy Spacek, the Emmy nominated mini-series HAVEN with Natasha Richardson and Anne Bancroft, HELTER SKELTER with Bruno Kirby, and many others. He has directed dozens of episodes of series across the broadcast and cable spectrum, and was also the producing director of the CBS series RECKLESS. He has written and directed several studio and independent feature films, including the award winning WHITE IRISH DRINKERS, starring Stephen Lang and Karen Allen, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. His acclaimed short films have played and are playing in film festivals all over the world, including the Cannes Short Film Festival. His short film FRENCH KISS has notched 6.3 million views to date on YouTube.

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The Little Drummer Boy was Winner of Best Actor at the AFIN International Film Festival 2022, a Top 100 Best Reviewed and IMDb-qualifying festival.

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AFIN 2026

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Screening 1 at Dendy Cinemas Portside, Brisbane

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