‘Holo’ Review – Freedom Through Pain [Tribeca 2026]

The short film, notoriously undervalued, is important, difficult, and necessary. Many of your favorite directors got their start making short films, and it is, in some ways, the purest version of filmmaking. Sure, a lot of filmmakers can make a satisfying narrative, compelling characters, and an action sequence over a two-hour runtime. But imagine the challenge of attempting to craft all of that in 12 minutes. That is exactly the challenge that Alexander DeSouza, director of Holo, agrees to, and he even chooses to craft a world, at least somewhat, unlike our own.

Holo opens in a futuristic, but still lived-in, landscape, focusing on a sleek, sharp office building, quickly introducing Claire (Morgan Kohan), who has some sort of appointment. As the film cuts to Grey (Zelda Williams), things start to become clearer. Using the visual cue of her futuristic suit and voice tricks to emulate a man on a screen, we are shown that Grey is embodying a hologram of a man, one who has a relationship to Claire, which becomes the focus of the rest of the runtime. 

Williams has a particularly difficult role to play, given that, for most of the rest of the film, she is behind a hologram, only able to emote through facial expressions and minimal dialogue. She manages this all very well, after setting up the action by complaining about the difficulty of this particular job, all while staring from behind a screen. On the other hand, her hologram, an ex-abusive partner of Claire’s, Jared, is portrayed by Shane West, to mixed effect. He is mostly effective here, but there are a few line deliveries that feel forced or unnatural. Of course, one could chalk this up to the fact that this is all, indeed, false. But the science fiction hologram of it all will only cover so much.

Luckily, Kohan’s representation of trauma, sadness, and rage is so impactful that Jared becomes more of an object to act upon than a real human with whom to have a conversation. He is, in many ways, a symbol that most of us can relate to having in our lives. We have all been judged, lorded over, and talked down to by one person or another from our past. Claire’s actions, paired with a lot of excellent behind-the-scenes work from the crew, make Holo a fully engaging watch, and one that I hope will lead to more work for everyone involved.

The restrained direction from DeSouza is a bit of a marvel to behold. It would be tempting to make a lot of quick cuts or try to fully fill in backstory, but he implicitly trusts both the audience and the screenplay. That script, penned by Alex Hernandez-Maxwell, is Holo’s secret weapon. It provides just enough detail to carry us through the quick runtime. At once, Claire feels like a real person with actual relationships, but there are also enough gaps for us to fill in our own experiences. The same can be said of Grey, who is given material to exhibit an overworked employee, something that is sadly true of all of us in the real world and those in DeSouza and Maxwell’s fictional high technology world. 

Holo is a short that could easily be expanded into a feature film, or even an anthology-style television show. And yet, there is a certain brilliance that might be removed if it were extended. DeSouza and Maxwell allow us to insert ourselves into this style of storytelling, and the short film is all the better for it. Much like Holo’s lead character, there is a freedom in reliving even our worst moments, as long as there is a real purpose behind it.

Holo held its World Premiere as a part of the Shorts: The Dark Web section of the 2026 Tribeca Festival.

Director: Alexander DeSouza

Screenwriter: Alex Hernandez-Maxwell

Rated: NR

Runtime: 12m