For the past 12 months, the short film Salty has been enjoying a monster film festival swell.
Domestically, after premiering in Morro Bay, California on September 21st, 2025, Salty has bounced all around the country. One of the highlights was being part of this summer's inaugural Balboa Del Mar Film Festival in Newport Beach, California, where the film won a "Judges Favorite" award in the Comedy category.
Internationally, it's been an ongoing cavalcade of fabulous events, including the Mexico Surf Film Festival in March, Hamburg's Surf Film Festival in April and the International Surf Film Festival in Anglet, France this past week, August 19th-22nd. In October, Salty will play at the Suomifornia International Skate and Surf Film Festival in Helsinki.
For Josh Martin, who wrote and co-directed Salty with Alex Raban, the big Kahuna has always been the idea of stretching the 15-minute short into a feature-length film. A few weeks ago, he announced the formation of Sherp Vanowski Productions Inc.
'From the beginning, my goal was to promote the feature-length screenplay and as we head into the second half of our festival run, we’re going to build on that momentum,' he wrote on Facebook. 'Our budget is close to being finalized and we’ve begun accumulating investors for the feature.'
There will also be a Kickstarter campaign, launching in the fall. Given all the film festival success, it makes sense that Martin would put together one of his own to help launch that phase of affairs.
On November 2nd, he will host the just-announced one-day Stay Salty Surf and Skate Short Film Festival at the Bay Theatre in Morro Bay to raise money for both the feature film and the Morro Bay High School Surf Team. The same team that was part of the short film premiere a year ago.
Everything for Martin with this project has been organic. For example, it was while camping in the summer of 2025 that he became acquainted with the music of Santa Cruz surf rock band Trestles. As a result, the band's "Tell Me What You Know" wound up in the short film.
In the comedic short, Paul Zies plays Dave, a guidance counselor and surfer who clashes with a remote worker trying to park it in front of his beachside home. Things quickly escalate as Dave launches a social media account to support his cause and enlists the help of several young locals.
Meanwhile, the vertiginous domestic ride continues onward for Salty. It will be part of the Rock the Shorts Film Festival in Los Angeles September 2nd-3rd at the Landmark Theatres Sunset and will play September 4th at the Huntington Beach Cultural Film Festival down the coast.
[Salty official wbesite]
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