The sixth HollyShorts Film Festival kicks off today at the DGA theater in Hollywood with an opening night celebration that will feature the world premiere of David Arquette’s 3D film The Butler’s in Love; Dick Van Dyke’s 3D film The Caretaker 3D; Zachary Quinto’s comedy Hostage A Love Story; Sundance winner Derek Water’s comedy with Funny or Die Drunken History: Lincoln, Douglas, which stars Will Ferrell, Don Cheadle, and Zooey Deschanel; Kat Coiro’s Idiots, which stars Kate Bosworth and Zoe Saldana; Jeff Vespa’s Children of the Spider, starring Mena Suvari; Alex Prager’s  Despair, starring Bryce Dallas Howard, and Alex Ferrari’s Red Princess Blues, which stars Richard Tyson and Rachel Grant.  The evening will be hosted by Ben Lyons.

During HollyShorts opening night, David Arquette will unveil Inmoo, an online independent film theatre, and James Caan will unveil his company Openfilm’s six finalists from its 1st Get It Made film competition.

Throughout the festival, from August 6 to 12, over 190 shortform projects will play in competition at Laemmle Sunset 5 movie theater.  HollyShorts sponsor Company 3, which will present The Best Short Film and Best Director prizes at the closing night ceremony on Aug. 12, will award $20,000 of post production services to the winners.

The  HollyShorts Film Festival, which was co-founded by Daniel Sol and Theo Dumont, has distinguished itself this year by kicking off opening night with a 3D program. The festival will feature projects from 16 countries including the US, Canada, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Spain, Czech Republic, Singapore, New Zealand, France, Hungary, Mexico, UK, Lebanon, and Belgium.

Other events include the Aug. 6 special screening of Napoleon Dynamite, preceded by Pecula, the original short film that sparked the idea for the feature. On Aug. 7 at noon, HollyShorts will host a panel, “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – Short Film Distribution 2010,” moderated by Roberta Munroe, author of How Not To Make A Short Film: Secrets From A Sundance Programmer. Panelists will include Todd Luoto, short film programmer, Sundance Film Festival; Orly Ravid, The Film Collaborative, and special guest short filmmakers who have succeeded and/or failed miserably on the festival circuit.

On Aug. 8 at noon, HollyShorts will host a  panel on film financing for indie filmmakers. On Aug. 9, the festival will feature a music video competition, with over 20 music videos screening, including Kid Cudi and Cee Lo projects. On Aug. 11, HollyShorts will feature comedy short films from Rooftopcomedy.com as well as Openfilm.com’s Top Six Flix films which are a part of a competition that will award $50,000 in cash and $200,000 in financing to develop a short into a feature film with Openfilm Studios. That evening, HollyShorts alumni and the directing duo the Ronalds Brothers will unspool their latest feature film Netherbeast Incorporated, starring Darrell Hammond, Judd Nelson and Dave Foley. On Aug. 11, HollyShorts will host a reception at Boudoir STK. The Festival’s closing night awards ceremony sponsored by Company 3 will feature live performances and award presentations.

For more information on the film schedule for the festival, click here.