WarnerMedia OneFifty has acquired ‘Please Hold’, the live action short film Oscar nominee. The film will stream exclusively on HBO Max, starting March 17. KD Dávila directed and also wrote the film along with Levin Menekse.
The film is a sci-fi dark comedy that follows Mateo Torres (Erick Lopez). The young man is erroneously arrested by a police drone. Furthermore, Torres is trapped in an automated privatized jail. He seeks a human being to set things right.
Filmmaker KD Dávila
KD Dávila wrote the film along with Levin Menekse. Dávila also wrote the feature film EMERGENCY which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. That film won Dávila a Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the festival’s highest award for screenwriting.
“The idea for the film came to us after I read this article about a Latino man who got arrested and jailed by mistake because he had a common Spanish name. He was unable to convince anyone that they had the wrong guy. Even his public defender didn’t believe him. It’s not unusual for people of color to fall through cracks in the justice system, and we wanted to look at this all-too-common story through a sci-fi and dark comedy lens. ‘Please Hold’ explores what it means for people of color when the remaining human element in our justice system slowly gives way to automation and privatization.”
Filmmaker KD Dávila
Entertainment 360’s Marc Mounier produced along with Diego Najera, and writer Levin Menekse, in association with the Australian VFX firm Last Pixel.
