Freddie Fox’s time-spanning short film The Painting & the Statue has been selected for the 2025 HollyShorts Film Festival.
Starring Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education) and Asim Chaudhry (Barbie), the short follows two works of art — a painting and a statue — across 250 years: trapped in the same space, aware of each other’s existence, yet forever unable to meet.
“As the world changes around them, from the spoils of the 19th-century empire, through decadent Bright Young Thing parties, midnight Nazi bombings, and into the sterile halls of a modern-day museum reckoning with its colonial past, the silent observers remain unmoving, unseen, yet ever-watchful,” a plot synopsis reads. “Until, one day, by pure chance, their eyes meet, and for a fleeting, magical moment, the centuries melt away.”
The movie is produced by Kαrimα Sammout Kanellopoulou through her BAFTA-nominated company, Galazia Productions, and executive produced by Oscar-winner Chris Overton (The Silent Child)
and Slick Films, alongside Fox’s own Brandy Bay Productions.
The Painting & the Statue (2025), directed by Freddie Fox.
Publicity
Nathan Stewart Jarrett (Femme), Fenella Woolgar (Bright Young Things), and rising stars Will Merrick, Andy Monaghan, and Hannah Onslow also star as the six castmembers play 22 characters between them.
“This story is about isolation, connection, and the passage of time,” Fox said. “It’s a timeless love
story, but told from a perspective we don’t usually get to see, or even imagine. I’m deeply proud of
the incredible team that brought it to life, and thrilled to premiere it at HollyShorts.”
Fox is best known to audiences for his roles in Slow Horses, The Great and HBO’s House of the Dragon. The actor made his directorial debut with the short film Hero, which won the Directorial Discovery Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. He is also working on a feature documentary about British theater, in co-production with The Kenneth Branagh Company and so far starring the likes of Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Gary Oldman and Eddie Redmayne.
The Painting & the Statue‘s wider creative team includes including Ryan Eddleston (director of photography) Annie Symons (costume designer) Jules Chapman (makeup designer) Violet Elliot (production designer) and Arthur Pita (choreographer).
The HollyShorts Film Festival takes place Aug. 7–17, 2025 in Los Angeles. The full list of jurors for the fest, unveiled by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, can be found here.