Jennifer Jolliff, who grew up in Modesto and graduated early from Hughson High School, has received a nomination from the 35th Annual Young Artist Awards. 

Jolliff’s nomination is for Best Performance in a Short Film, Leading Young Actress for her role in the film “On Becoming a Man.” Jolliff played the love interest of a young boy who struggles to find his voice and deal with his family. The film, directed by Kevin Resnick, was selected for showing by the Cannes Film Festival in France and has already won Best Comedy Short at the IFS Film Festival in Los Angeles and an Award of Merit at the LA Cinema Festival of Hollywood.  It also won Best Short Film at the Athens Jewish Film Festival.

Jolliff, daughter of Steve and Linda Jolliff of Modesto, got her start locally by performing in the musical, “White Christmas,” at the Sierra Repertory Theatre. She did several musicals with Gallo Center for the Arts, Turlock Youth Performing Arts, Denair Gaslight Theater, Playhouse Merced and Center Stage Kids.

In the last two years Jolliff has been in three other short films, “Olivia,” “Weight's Not the Problem” and “Tryouts,” and was a guest star on the TV series, “Switched at Birth.” She is currently filming a web series, “Living With My Brother,” and is in pre-production in a TV movie, “Call Back.” 

For the past 34 years the non-profit organization Young Artists has honored the best stars up to the age of 21 in the entertainment world. This includes work done in feature films, short films, TV shows, voice-overs and live theatre.  It was founded by the late Maureen Dragone, a long-time member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Her mother was one of the founders of the Golden Globes.

For more information on this year's nominations, go to the organization's web site youngartistawards.org.