With the American Black Film Festival (July 6-9) just around the corner, here’s the trailer for a short film that should grab your interest. The film is called Salvation Road and it’s apart of The HBO Short Film Competition taking place at the festival.

Directed by Karamuu Kush, the synopsis for the film states…”Business becomes unusual for an unsuspecting hitman who senses that he’s been witnessed murdering his traitorous mentor by a 9 year old boy.”

It stars Russell Hornsby, Roger Guenveur Smith, Liza de Weerd, Michael Harney and Dmitri Schuyler-Linch.

Kush, a stage and film actor, has also made his mark as a director with four additional film shorts. Salvation Road is his AFI thesis film. If you viewed the award-winning short 5 Deep Breaths HERE earlier, a film which catapulted director Seith Mann’s career, you’ll see Kush appearing in the film as Kwesi.

For the HBO Short Film Competition, five finalists’ films are screened before the festival audience and vie for a grand prize of $20,000. Additional finalist for this year’s competition include:

Fig directed by Ryan Coogler
For Flow directed Jason Camp
Page 36 directed by Nelsan Ellis
The Turtle & The Nightingale directed by Gershon Hinkson

Talent discovered through this competition include filmmakers Sylvain White (The Losers, Stomp the Yard), Frank E. Flowers (Haven) and Saladin Patterson (Psych, The Bernie Mac Show and The Fighting Temptations).

The Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge winner, Nikyatu Jusu, was a 2010 runner-up for Say Grace Before Drowning.