Short Drama Festival Breaks into Hollywood Core
Golden Unicorn Awards Lights Up the Walk of Fame
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. November 5, 2025
The 2025 International Short Drama Festival hosted a spectacular“Golden Unicorn Awards”Ceremony at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, celebrating the rising power of short dramas in the global entertainment landscape.
From 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., the red carpet buzzed with the presence of leading short drama producers, directors, and actors currently active across the United States, alongside international experts and scholars from around the world. The event drew such industry-wide attention that multiple short drama productions across Los Angeles temporarily halted filming, allowing cast and crew to join the celebration - a rare phenomenon that underscored short drama’s arrival into the heart of Hollywood.
Industry observers hailed the ceremony as a defining milestone, marking the moment when this fast-growing storytelling format officially entered Hollywood’s mainstream conversation and began earning recognition from the global film and television community.
Organized by the International Short Drama Association (ISDA), this year’s festival marks the second edition of the event. The inaugural 2024 festival made headlines for introducing short dramas as an official category within the American Film & TV Market (AFM), where ISDA hosted the first-ever Short Drama Forum. The success of that initiative was widely viewed as a breakthrough in the global commercialization and creative legitimacy of short dramas.
Building on that momentum, the 2025 festival expands its reach with academic and industry forums hosted at the University of Southern California (USC), the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, and the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The festival will conclude on November 15 with a high-level Short Drama Summit Forum at the AFM main venue, the Fairmont Century Plaza.
The 2025 International Short Drama Festival is proudly supported by EastWest Bank, Kweichow Moutai, and other distinguished sponsors, whose partnership underscores the growing international influence and cultural value of short dramas in today’s media landscape.