On the heels of announcing that Zachary Quinto and his Before the Door Pictures banner (Margin Call) will be opening the 8th annual HollyShorts Film Festival with the premiere of the PERIODS. comedy film series, the festival’s organizers announced Monday that Joe Carnahan (The Grey, The A-Team, Smoking Aces) will be the recipient of the 2012 HollyShorts Visionary Award Presented by Deluxe during the HollyShorts opening night celebration taking place on Thursday August 9 at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Along with accepting the award, Carnahan will introduce the world premiere of Zachary Guerra’s new short film The Devil’s Dosh, which he executive produced. Past HollyShorts Visionary award recipients have included Paul Haggis, Eli Roth and Neil LaBute.

HollyShorts is also announcing that Jason Bergh and Sal Masakela’s short documentary Alekesam which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival will also have its West Coast premiere at HollyShorts alongside Nathaniel Krause’s Double or Nothing written by Neil LaBute which stars Adam Brody, Louisa Krause and Keith David which will have its LA premiere on opening night. Advance tickets for the entire festival go live today and can be purchased by visiting Eventbrite.

The festival is also unveiling today its official in-competition lineup, over 300 short films have been accepted to screen at this year’s festival. The preliminary schedule and accepted shorts can be viewed by visiting HollyShorts.

Additional accepted titles and full schedule will be announced in the coming days this week. Pooled from over 1,000 submissions, this year’s HollyShorts Film Festival will feature a slew of home grown content shot and produced in Los Angeles as well as a number of short films produced and shot internationally with projects representing Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Macedonia, Italy, Spain, Denmark, South Africa, Poland, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Estonia, South Korea, New Zealand, Israel, the UK and Egypt. Filmmakers from these regions will be making the trip to Hollywood to meet with agents, managers, studios, networks and other fellow content creators to advance their careers.

* The Devil’s Dosh is a short film written and directed by Zachary Guerra. Joe Carnahan is Executive Producer and Brian O’Hare is Producer.

* Alekesam is a short documentary film from UXE Films Directed by Jason Bergh starring Selema “Sal” Masekela, Hugh Masekela, Stewart Levine, Sunny Levine, Zach Cowie and Jessie Lapierre. The film was produced by Michael Rapaport, Cole Angenendt and Jason Bergh.

* Double or Nothing is a short film Directed by Nathaniel Krause, Written by Neil LaBute and Produced by Andrew Carlberg and Josiah Bultema and stars Adam Brody, Louisa Krause and Keith David.

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