Sherman Oaks, CA (The Hollywood Times) October 23, 2026 — In five minutes of simple, hand-drawn animation, The Escort carries a little boy through an entire lifetime and earns every tear it asks for. The Oscar-qualified short competes in the Animated Shorts Competition at the 22nd LA Femme International Film Festival, screening Saturday, October 24, at 2 p.m. at Regal Cinemas at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The program is sponsored by TMS Entertainment, one of Japan’s largest animation companies. Written and directed by Rick Williamson and produced by Williamson and Regina McKee Redwing through Black Triumph Productions, the film shows what animation can do with almost nothing.
It opens on a chalkboard. Soft, pleasant chalk marks spell out the title, and the period at the end stretches into a long line that draws us into the story. Two outlines appear, a child and an adult, and the adult pulls the boy along while he looks around, unsure where he is headed. Color seeps into the background as streets and a park take shape. The boy gains a face, a shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes. His guide never does. The figure stays a blank, anonymous form, like an artist’s wooden mannequin, and that restraint is the film’s best design decision. The look is deliberately child-like 2-D, and the filmmakers are clear that no AI was used.
The two move through scenes that become the boy’s life to come. At a playground, he spots a playset and wants to stay, but his guide tugs him on. In a classroom, a little girl sleeps at her desk, and the boy tiptoes up with his hands behind his back and presents her with a bouquet of daisies. She lights up. From there the timeline moves quickly: teenagers on football bleachers asking to go steady, a proposal, a maternity ward, and two pairs of little boots by the door, one pink and one blue. A Christmas morning brings a puppy for two preteens, then the couple grows old on a porch in retirement, with the same daisies drooping on the table between them. The girl is dark-skinned and the boy light-skinned, and their two children echo that, one darker and one lighter. It is woven in without comment, which makes it land all the more naturally.
Then comes a funeral. We see mourners and a casket, but no details, and we understand there is an ending. A moment of overwhelming emotion sends the boy breaking away from his guide, and from there we will let the viewer enjoy the rest of the story and the feelings it evokes. This is a film about the cycle of life and love, and it is best experienced directly, not in this review.
The project description calls the film a young boy’s journey of the heart, one that explores the weight of knowing all that life will be and the peace in accepting it. That is exactly what it delivers. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol comes to mind, with its glimpses of a life’s end offered to someone who can still change how he walks toward it, and the film’s origins carry the same holiday spirit. “‘The Escort’ is a short, animated film that I wrote for my wife many years ago on Christmas Eve when I didn’t have the funds to buy her a gift. Now, it’s our gift to you,” says Williamson. The original score by Valery Goldes on piano and keyboards and Drew Tretick on violin and viola accompanies the journey.
Williamson, a Theatre Arts graduate, has worked in Hollywood for years as an actor, writer, director, producer, stuntman, and puppeteer, with acting award nominations for both stage and screen. His directing credits include the action-horror film The Seventh Man and the black-and-white drama The Gift, which earned him a Best Screenplay award, and his first comedy, A Short Film, won multiple awards at festivals in Los Angeles and New York City. His current project, Combat Nuns All or Nothing, is on Fawesome TV and looking for a production deal. Redwing, his wife and producing partner, has acting credits on both the small and big screen and has produced multiple award-winning shorts for Black Triumph Productions.
The Escort is somehow both quiet and exciting. Runs just over in five minutes, but it stays with you after.
The 22nd Annual LA Femme International Film Festival, a showcase for women directors, producers, and writers “By Women for Everyone”. The Escort screening: Saturday, October 24, at 2 p.m., Animated Shorts Competition, Regal Cinemas at the Sherman Oaks Galleria
