HOLLYSHORTS 2026 REVIEW! Recess at this typical middle school is about one thing: winners take all the dessert. It’s the athletic All-Stars versus the not-so-athletic Rejects, and the game of choice is football. Like all of the lunch hours before, the All-Stars make quick work of the Rejects with a 49-0 blowout.
The next day, a new kid in town, Patrick, is recruited by the Rejects. He’s big and a bit goofy, but he almost helps the Rejects to their first win. That is until the following day, when the All-Stars make Patrick their new friend. The Rejects can’t catch a single break…except when a rainstorm floods out the field and lunch hour is in the gym…for a different sport.
Students sit at their desks in a middle school classroom scene from Lunch Box.
“It’s the athletic All-Stars versus the not-so-athletic Rejects, and the game of choice is football.”
Lunch Box is a fun little film that touches on the theme of class…social class. In middle school, class is decided not by the haves and have-nots, but by the can-dos and can’ts. Students climb and crawl up the social ladder based on whether they can block an opponent or run fast enough for a touchdown.
While class is deadly serious from a global perspective, in middle school, filmmakers Sean Billings and Romeo Okwara turn it into a fun piece of satire that, in the end, tears down class altogether. Billings, Okwara, and the cast infuse a great deal of fun into a lighthearted short film.
Lunch Box screened at the 2026 HollyShorts Film Festival.
"…class is decided…by the can-dos and can'ts."
