Switzerland and Los Angeles-based Edelweiss Film Productions (https://www.edelweissfilmproductions.com/) is pleased to announce that its new horror/comedy ASKING FOR A FRIEND is being greeted with excitement on the film festival circuit. The 25-minute film was written and directed by Kelsey Bollig and produced by Edelweiss Film Productions. Victoria Lacoste (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacoste), head of Edelweiss Film Productions and executive producer of ASKING FOR A FRIEND, also plays the major role of “Q” in the film. Others in the cast include Jacqueline Bell as Blake, Clifton J. Adams as Kevin, Eugenia Kuzmina as Jessica, and Quinn Knox as the police officer. Bollig plays the “Dead Body.”
ASKING FOR A FRIEND springs from the premise: “What would you do if your best friend killed someone?” Blake and Q are childhood best friends, roommates, and well – soulmates. After a long day of trying to maintain her “#Girl Boss” status at work, Blake’s one-track mind is set on the nachos that Q has promised to make for dinner. However, in addition to making nachos, Q has also unexpectedly managed to kill someone in their apartment.
Through a series of graphic and hilarious situations, the girls tap into their inner serial killers and decide to handle the body themselves. Their naiveté and inexperience lead to a weekend full of accidental drugs, Saran Wrap, and a body that, for whatever reason, will not stop bleeding.
So hypothetically speaking – how do you get rid of a body? Asking for a friend.
ASKING FOR A FRIEND was selected to be shown at the LA Indie Fest, the LA Live Film Festival, the Boobs and Blood International Film Festival, LA Crime and Horror Festival, the HollyShorts Monthly Screenings at the Chinese Theatre, Dickens Horror Film Festival in Colorado, the AX Wound International Film Festival, the Blood in the Snow Horror Film Festival in Toronto, and the NOLA Horror Film Festival in New Orleans, where the film was nominated for Best Short, Best Makeup FX, Best Female Filmmaker and Best Director. So far, Bollig has been awarded Best Director at the New Orleans Horror Film Festival and Best Horror Script at the Boobs and Blood International Film Festival as well. The film’s FX Team HAMER FX has taken home Best FX Makeup at the Boobs and Blood International Film Festival. The film is expected to bring home more awards as the festival circuit continues.
Edelweiss Film Productions is also actively seeking a partner or partners for distribution of ASKING FOR A FRIEND.
Bollig wrote the script for ASKING FOR A FRIEND “as a parody on my own attitude toward blood and terror. We’ve all heard the saying, ‘good friends bail you out of jail, best friends are in jail next to you.’ But how would anyone deal if they had to actually put that kind of loyalty to practice?” she notes. Bollig knew the script would be perfect for Lacoste’s production company Edelweiss Film Productions – so she gave her old college friend a call.
“Kelsey called me and said, ‘I wrote this script about a female serial killer, and I think the role is perfect for you,'” Lacoste recalled. “After reading it, I knew immediately that ASKING FOR A FRIEND was the perfect debut film for my production company, Edelweiss Film Productions.”
“I wanted the story to be more cinematic than just two girls getting rid of a dead body,” Bollig noted. “I wanted the film to play out like one giant chase scene, colorful, exciting, and, of course, filled with massive amounts of blood.”
Kelsey Bollig’s past explains her success in Hollywood to date. The dark prodigy spent the majority of her childhood watching horror films and writing scripts, landing Bollig her first best screenplay award at the tender age of 14, for her short feature, ‘Big Kids Play Manslaughter’ at the Hollywood Shriekfest Horror Film Festival. She graduated from CU Boulder with a BFA in Film and was a finalist in the Horizon Award Competition for her short film “Humans” before moving to LA to write and direct ASKING FOR A FRIEND, which pre-screened to a sold-out crowd in Downtown Los Angeles.
At 25, Bollig is a fresh yet commanding face in the world of horror, a genre mostly dominated by men. Bollig’s work can be described as enthusiastically yet complexly and intelligently dark. Or as one journalist who attended the pre-screening of ASKING FOR A FRIEND offhandedly observed, ‘twisted AF.’
So, why is this Lacoste heiress covered in blood? Despite her eponymous last name, heiress Victoria Lacoste, rebelled against her famous family heritage to pursue a career in acting. At the young age of 11, she toured across France and Switzerland in a series of professional musicals before becoming the first foreigner in history to be admitted to the BFA Theater program at the University of Colorado Boulder, receiving two prestigious Irene Nominations for her performances.
ASKING FOR A FRIEND is the debut production of Edelweiss Film Productions. It’s head of department includes,
- Executive Producer: Victoria Lacoste
- Director/Writer: Kelsey Bollig
- Creative Producer: Tienlyn Jacoson
- Production Designer: Jade Spiers
- Editor: Tyler Pharo
- Score: Nikko DeTranquilli
- Sound Mixer: Jessie Marek
- Director of Photography: Luke Hanlein
- Recording Mixer: Anarchy Post, Alex Weiss
- Colorist: Arianna Shining Star Pane
- Line producer/2nd Assistant Director: Cemile Seren Turam.
About Edelweiss Film Productions
Edelweiss Film Productions is the 1-year old brainchild of Lacoste, who is also an actress. She is the granddaughter of Rene “The Crocodile” Lacoste, renowned French world tennis champion and founder of the Lacoste clothing brand. The name pays homage to Lacoste’s upbringing in Switzerland. “(Edelweiss) is one of the very few flowers that thrives at high altitudes and that can actually grow in the snow,” Lacoste explains. “I connect to the flower in that way and wanted to a title that signified that type of strength and uniqueness.”
The creation of Edelweiss Film Productions was inspired by “the urge to be a part of stories that I could relate to and feel excited by,” Lacoste explains. “When Kelsey came to me with ASKING FOR A FRIEND, it sparked me into going ahead into the world of production, which was uncharted territory for me at that point. Throughout the process, I fell in love with the collaborative nature of filmmaking, as well as the combination of different perspectives that contribute to the creation of a work of art.”
Edelweiss Film Productions’ next project, La Méthode, will be shot in Paris this coming November and stars Victoria Lacoste, Jacqueline Bell, and Gossip Girl’s Roby Schinasi.
Social Media for AFAF:
INSTA: @Asking For A Friend
Kelsey Insta: @dreamsdefylogic
KelseyBollig.com
Victoria Insta: @victorialacoste
Edelweiss Film Productions Insta: @Edelweissfilmproductions
AFAF IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9702644/?ref_=nm_knf_i1
