At the end of the month, people all around the country will have the opportunity to view a movie written and directed by a local artist Frank Sanza. “The Short Game,” which was also filmed in Sherman, will hit theaters across the nation on Aug. 29.

Locally, individuals will be able to purchase tickets to see the 100-minute movie from Schulman’s Movie Bowl Grille.

“This is about a high school student who is vying for a golf scholarship,” Frank Sanza said. “He is working hard to get it, but certain things happen in his family where he has to take care of his little brother who is autistic. His brother gets in his way, and bugs him all of the time. There is tension there between the two brothers until the older brother finally realizes the younger brother has savant like gifts where he is able to read the green, where the ball rolls and read the wind. He becomes a helper to the older brother and they really become unstoppable. It really is like a reconciliation story between two brothers.”

The movie stars Mackenzie Astin, Katherine Cunningham of Yellowstone, Brandon Potter of The Chosen and Glenn Morshower.

“It is about golf,” said Pam Sanza, wife of Frank Sanza and director of the Sherman Community Players. “But that is really just a part of it.”

“Golf is just the vehicle to tell the story about this family overcoming difficulty and dealing with an autistic son,” Frank Sanza said.

Autism is another theme in the movie.

“What is cool about that is our son is autistic,” Pam Sanza said. “There is a connection there.”

“Also a fun fact that you may not know is that the young boy in the movie is actually autistic,” Pam Sanza also said. “He is an autistic actor. He is a professional actor who is autistic. He added some things to the movie that we kept in. That was great.”

“I added some idiosyncrasies from my son to the film,” Frank Sanza said. “That was fun for us.”

They agreed that telling a relatable story with good morals was the goal.

“Bring Kleenex,” Frank Sanza said.

“The Short Game” was not a quick creation.

“The idea came to me about 10 years ago,” Frank Sanza said. “I began writing it then, but I ended up putting it on the shelf for a while. When I picked it back up, I had a couple of friends that I Zoom called with. One was from LA and the other was from Chicago. We wrote more of it, and I thought I was finished with it. But then I contacted a friend in LA who is a producer. He read it and liked it. He wanted to produce it.

“It is pretty exciting for me. From there, we had some rewrites that had to be done to it. Then we finally had the finished script about 2020-21. Then my producer began working to get cast and crew here from LA. We shot it in summer of 2023. Then it got edited and that is where we are at today.”

The Aug. 29 opening is not the first time the film has been seen. Frank Sanza and producers have taken the film to 17 festivals in and out of the United States. In the movie’s festival run, it won six Best Picture awards.

“This is my directorial debut with this film, and it has gone national,” Frank Sanza said.

“One of my favorite things was being able to work with professional actors,” he said. “The whole cast was incredible, and it was really fun to be able to give them an idea, and they did it well just like I asked. They also brought a lot of creativity to their characters. They got the script ahead of time of course and they got to dig into the characters. We had some phone calls where we talked back and forth about their characters. They were able to bring things to it that I did not think of. We decided to use some of that. It was really great to be able to collaborate with professional actors.”

“The Short Game” was not just written by a local person, it was filmed here, and the city will also make its debut on the big screen.

“We depict a story that takes place here in Sherman so you will hear and see Sherman in the movie,” Frank Sanza said. “You will notice different places like the high school and a church here in town. MGs and one of the nurseries here is in the movie. We also did all the golf shots at Legacy Ridge in Bonham.”

The movie is being distributed by Abramorama, a company that specializes in theatrical distribution, marketing and rights for films.

“A lot of films get made but never make it to distribution or to the theaters,” Pam Sanza said. “It is a really small percentage that actually get into theaters.”

Frank Sanza wanted to thank Sherman leaders for their role in making this happen.

“They really came through for this film,” he said. “We got all of our locations for free which was really a big deal. They were just so helpful. From the mayor to the chief of police to the fire chief, they were so accommodating. We just could not have done it without them.”

The pair agrees they have been fortunate through this process and their advice for other artists is to keep going.

“Take things one step at a time and really concentrating on the step that you are in,” Frank Sanza said. “Do not worry about the future. Just keep going forward and keep your eye on today and what you have to do today. And do not give up or let go of your dreams. Just keep trudging along.”

For more information on the movie, visit https://www.shortgamemovie.com/.