What’s On?

Get ready for a cinematic journey like no other! Our festival line up is packed with ground breaking films, thought-provoking documentaries, and captivating shorts. Discover what’s on and plan your perfect festival experience.

Friday July 25th

1:00PM – 2:30PM

A Drop In The Ocean

A Drop in the Ocean brings together intimate, emotionally rich stories exploring identity, trauma, and transformation—proof that even the smallest moments can make waves that change everything.

Merman

Direcred By: Madeleine Wynn

Duration: 15:00

Narrative Shorts

Haunted by what she has seen while carrying out humanitarian work with refugees in the Mediterranean and traumatised by her experiences, Mari returns to her parents coastal home in rural England.

Code/Switch

Direcred By: Alexander Moffat

Duration: 13:24

Narrative Shorts

Ashir Pradhan is late to the interview of a lifetime. Racing against the clock, he loses his suit along the way. An unfortunate mishap, forcing him to arrive in ‘trackies’. But Ashir is no stranger to adapting. In fact he specialises in it. A chameleon by nature, he’s spent a lifetime code-switching in order to fit in and today is no exception.

The Lump

Direcred By: Jack Dixon

Duration: 1:54

Neurodiverse/Disabled Voices

Preoccupied with getting ready for an evening out, there’s something Jamie hasn’t noticed.

Metaciclica

Direcred By: Lydia Zimmermann

Duration: 17:56

Women’s Voices

Metacyclical is a neologism for six actresses who are beyond the rules. Despite their experience, no one offers them leading roles.

Badger

Direcred By: Martha Crow

Duration: 4:45

Women’s Voices

One afternoon whilst on a mission to save an injured Badger, Ella meets Josh. During their meeting, everything hangs in the balance as Ella learns how it feels to become the prey.

Dolls

Direcred By: Robyn Egan

Duration: 14:27

Women’s Voices

A coming-of-age comedy, set in the early 00s, Dolls tells the story of Cherry and her unsolicited collection of judgemental porcelain dolls as she explores her transition into sexual maturity and faces the anguish of leaving her childhood behind.

The Oracle

Direcred By: Anna Boronea, Stefano Moscone

Duration: 2:30

Narrative Shorts

The Oracle centres around the topic of generative AI and its implications on humanity’s future, explored from the point of view of AI itself, personified in a fantastic way as an all-knowing oracle.

Where The Old Man Lives

Direcred By: Sonya O'Donoghue

Duration: 19:34

In rural Ireland, an old man living in fear and isolation risks everything to protect himself from dangerous intruders.

Friday July 25th

4:15PM – 5:45PM

Between The Cracks

Life doesn’t always follow a straight path. These bold, imaginative shorts explore identity, illness, resilience and inner turmoil—spotlighting the moments, people and truths that fall between the cracks.

Blackpool

Direcred By: Stephen Gallacher

Duration: 13:22

Narrative Shorts

After 30 years of too many downs and not enough ups on life’s rollercoaster, Billy embarks on a final lost weekend in the funfair of a town that is Blackpool.

Don’t Stay Home

Direcred By: Hugo Cantrell

Duration: 11:52

Narrative Shorts

When an dangerous outbreak of black mould runs out of control his London flat, international student Theo finds himself battling infection and panic attacks alone in a hostile foreign city.

Endolife

Direcred By: Lisanne Van Ingen

Duration: 12:38

Women’s Voices

A hybrid documentary that combines the experiences of over 120 people with endometriosis into a single, scripted narrative. Instead of focusing on the medical aspects of the disease, the film illustrates how it affects daily life.

Senior Consultant

Direcred By: Simon Haines

Duration: 13:54

Working Class Voices

A group of optimistic British Millennials compete for a bullsh*t job title. What could possibly go wrong?

The Silent Choice

Direcred By: Ranw Aso-Rashid

Duration: 12:43

Narrative Shorts

Recently out of prison, John risks everything for a forbidden meeting with his ex and daughter, unveiling secrets, as their fragile connection teeters on the edge.

In Half

Direcred By: Jorge Morais Valle

Duration: 24:00

Animated Shorts

Through a child’s imagination it tells the journey of a man who after falling prey to his fears, he must cross a strange world, a universe full of magic, where he will be confronted with his own fears and conflicts from the past and where he must find solutions for the future to discover his self-identity.

Friday July 25th

7:45PM – 9:30PM

From Mansfield, With Love

From Mansfield, With Love bursts with stories of imagination, identity and heart—from football fields to fantasy, imaginary friends to final dances. Your Friday night begins here—with warmth, energy, and unforgettable cinema.

She Will Play On

Direcred By: Grace Morgan

Duration: 13:51

Women’s Voices

Sienna nurtures her younger sister’s dreams of playing in a professional girl’s football team, whilst facing the realities of a crumbling home life.

An Old Friend

Direcred By: Nuk Suwanchote

Duration: 13:45

International Shorts

An imaginary friend (Jason Faunt) finds out his sole purpose is to bring happiness to his child, only to discover his child is a 90 year old man (Tom Skerritt) on his death bed.

Girlband! – Not Like The Rest

Direcred By: Rachael Halaburda

Duration: 3:17

Music Videos

Energetic music video for Nottingham band ‘Girlband’ featuring Bella Ramsey (The Last Of Us, Game Of Thrones). Shot on location in Nottingham.

Spare Part

Direcred By: Ada Player, Bron Waugh

Duration: 4:59

Women’s Voices

A playful comedy about a shy loner who is desperate for attention from her football crazy boyfriend.

Knocked Out By Canon

Direcred By: Michael S.U. Hudson

Duration: 2:00

Music Videos

A young boy trains hard from his bedroom to become a champion boxer in virtual reality.

Transylvanie

Direcred By: Rodrigue Huart

Duration: 15:00

International Shorts

Ewa is a 10-year-old girl living in a high building in a quiet town. She’s an odd, lonely child and for good reason: she’s convinced of being a vampire. Fascinated by Hugo, 15, she dreams of turning him into a vampire too, so that she can overcome her loneliness.

A Bird Hit My Window And Now I’m A Lesbian

Direcred By: Carmela Marie Murphy, AJ Dubler

Duration: 7:56

Animated Shorts

After a mysterious girl shows up at Gray’s doorstep holding the corpse of a bird that had just cracked her window, an impromptu bird funeral changes the way Gray views herself and her lesbian identity.

The Last Dance

Direcred By: Hayden Mclean

Duration: 16:39

Working Class Voices

When Fox’s “LA Bar” is hit with a compulsory purchase order, a cornerstone of Caribbean life in 90’s East London is threatened. As the city begins to forget, the community remembers. In defiance and longing, a last dance ignites—one that will be remembered for the ages.

Saturday July 26th

11:30AM – 1:00PM

Drive It Like You Stole It

From reformed criminals to grieving superheroes, teenage rebels to unlikely war romances—this high-octane strand is packed with stories that punch hard, run fast, and never look back.

Best, Michael

Direcred By: Sol Taibi

Duration: 13:01

Working Class Voices

Michael Best is a man trying to better. Fresh out of prison he wants to try and live a better life and prove his loved ones wrong that he is a good man. With plenty of bridges to build, he sets off in hope to right his wrongs.

Captured For Life

Direcred By: Fiona Hughes

Duration: 12:46

LGBTQIA+ Voices

Told through the eyes of Denise playing as a child in the Scottish Highlands, we’ll discover how her parents saved more than just each other when they fell in love in a POW camp during World War Two.

Soft

Direcred By: Scott Driver

Duration: 9:45

Narrative Shorts

Two men meet in a café after a botched jewellery store heist.

Her Unseen

Direcred By: Lux Karpov Kinrade, Roxanne Rapp

Duration: 15:00

Women’s Voices

After the death of her mother, a young woman must balance the expectations of her home life with her new role as a superhero, while being endlessly compared to her male counterpart.

Arcade

Direcred By: Ruari Chambers

Duration: 13:27

Narrative Shorts

A hedonistic drifter attempts to celebrate the birthday of his estranged, straight-laced younger brother the only way he knows how.

Knackered

Direcred By: Django Pinter

Duration: 7:51

Narrative Shorts

A Welsh language dark comedy about two girls trying to hide a dead body on a sheep farm.

Furious

Direcred By: Thomas Vernay

Duration: 20:00

International Shorts

Lola, 17, joins an educational detention centre reserved for teenage girls in the heart of her native countryside. Despite the tensions, she admires the bond that the other girls have. But around the centre lurks a terrible threat.

Saturday July 26th

11:30AM – 1:00PM

Rising Stars (Directors Lounge)

Coming Soon…

Saturday July 26th

2:45PM – 4:15PM

Quiet Revolutions

These are stories of subtle courage and everyday upheaval—where love, loss, identity, and defiance intersect in ways that whisper change into the world, one deeply human moment at a time.

Aren’t We Havin’ A Good Time

Direcred By: Derry Shillitto

Duration: 19:09

Peter a popular singer/stand-up entertainer of the seventies and eighties, resides in a care home in Nottingham as a result of Alzheimer’s dementia. Kezz his naturally-gifted event host of a grandson, assumed he was all but lost to the condition, until… during a routine visit, he’s suddenly shocked and astonished to learn that due to the remarkable effects of music on the minds of those living with dementia – Peter still has the ability to perform his past songs.

The Removed

Direcred By: Rebecca Rose

Duration: 8:38

Women’s Voices

Examines the lifelong effects of forced adoption and one woman’s search for a lost past.

Theo’s Friend

Direcred By: Joshua Black

Duration: 10:48

LGBTQIA+ Voices

Ready for the repercussions, a defiant Theo wears makeup to his college team’s football training. Mayhem ensues, testing his resolve and courage to embrace his true self.

A Hunter Grabs Their Rifle

Direcred By: Thanos Korakakis

Duration: 3:00

Animated Shorts

A hunter tracks a deer through a snow storm.

With All Due Humanity

Direcred By: Kacper Checinski

Duration: 24:59

International Shorts

In an employment office undergoing restructuring, Hélène, the deputy director, receives an alarming e-mail from a desperate unemployed woman.

The Mermaid Wife By The Apex Singers

Direcred By: Lydia Wonham

Duration: 4:18

Music Videos

Beneath the serene hills of the Shetland Islands, mermaids dwell in underwater palaces made of coral and pearl. One moonlit night, as they danced on the shore, a Shetlander stumbled upon them and stole a mermaid’s seal skin, trapping her in the human world.

Do You Have Kids?

Direcred By: Tom Gentle

Duration: 5:57

Narrative Shorts

Confronted by an old acquaintance, Lee is taken aback by the question, “Do you have kids?” It’s a friendly question tossed casually into conversation, but for Lee it has a complex and difficult answer.

Four Door Dante

Direcred By: Daniel Rands

Duration: 13:37

Working Class Voices

Caught between a rock and a hard man, long-time loser Dante finds himself embroiled in a gruelling endurance contest in order to pay back a debt. As time runs out, he must decide whether to keep running or face his problems head on.

Saturday July 26th

2:45PM – 4:15PM

Petit But Powerful (Directors Lounge)

Celebrate bold French storytelling in this intimate strand. From neurodiverse ambition to working-class grit, fractured fatherhood, eerie obsessions, and sun-starved solitude—each film ignites resilience, humanity, and unexpected hope.

The Invulnerable

Direcred By: Lucas Bacle

Duration: 24:45

Disabled/Neurodiverse Voices

While caring for his sick father, Marcus, 17, has only a few days left to submit the short film needed to apply for his dream film school.

The Man Of Sh*t

Direcred By: Sorel França

Duration: 21:44

Working Class Voices

Struggling between college and a job in a luxury hotel, Fernanda wonders if she will ever achieve something meaningful in her life. The arrival of The Man of Sh*t will give her an unexpected opportunity.

My Little Girl

Direcred By: Chloé Jouannet

Duration: 15:00

Women’s Voices

Alex (45), recently divorced, accompanies his daughter, Jade (15), to a twirling competition. Before long, the single father is faced with a situation he never thought he’d have to deal with before…

Him

Direcred By: Matthias Couquet

Duration: 10:26

International Shorts

François is meeting his friend Pierre in a café. The latter claims to be followed by a stranger, who watches him from a distance, motionless, without Pierre ever managing to approach him. Pierre is sure of it: he’s getting closer, relentlessly, and he has bad intentions.

Solarians

Direcred By: Clarence Larrivoire

Duration: 20:00

International Shorts

Vadim is an underground car park attendant, desperately in need of sun and company. He goes to the tanning salon where the blue light of the UV tints the blues with a sunny poetry.

Saturday July 26th

6:00PM – 7:30PM

A Few Strong Women

From athletic triumphs and queer awakenings to cosmic crises and raw relational truths—each film in this female focused strand champions resilience, vulnerability and audacious strength with power in every frame.

A Strong Woman

Direcred By: Theo Gee, Will Atherton

Duration: 23:42

Women’s Voices

A documentary celebrating the strength of three record-breaking female athletes. Beyond their incredible lifts, it explores their resilience, dedication, and ability to shatter societal perceptions of female power in sport and life.

Polaroid

Direcred By: Irene Corts Curto

Duration: 14:12

Women’s Voices

Four friends reunite during a summer weekend after Julia’s return from a trip. While playing a
game, Julia kisses Marta. Could it be that Julia has reconsidered her sexuality? Will Marta dare to find out if there’s something more than friendship between them?

+++ - Katie Crie

Direcred By: Marlène Génissel

Duration: 4:10

Music Videos

It’s the height of summer, you can’t hear the birds something has changed, Katie Crie, She found my lifeless body in the alley. A real mystery to the neighbourhood.

Skelter

Direcred By: Ma Morgan

Duration: 11:00

Student Shorts

A coming of age drama that takes place over a day at a fairground. The film follows Nip as she spends her last day working at the show, leaving a wealth of memories, friends, and rides behind her.

Hindsight

Direcred By: Sophie Jane Corner, Alex Moxon

Duration: 15:00

Working Class Voices

A story of an intense relationship from both perspectives. We see Finn and Billie through spoken word monologues, movement and a more naturalistic dialogue communicate their feelings towards their relationship, one so full of love but grasping at straws to keep.

Indefinitely

Direcred By: Aloha Lee

Duration: 6:00

Animated Shorts

The night of a legendary comet coincides with a disastrous tsunami. An astronomer has been waiting for this comet all her life. Meanwhile, the lighthouse keeper rushes everyone off the island before the big wave swallows the town–and his lover.

Karateka

Direcred By: Florence Fauquet

Duration: 16:40

Women’s Voices

Gabrielle and Alix are about to compete in the finals of the regional karate championship. But when Gabrielle discovers that she is having her period when she wasn’t expecting it, things get complicated and the fight becomes unequal.

Saturday July 26th

6:00PM – 7:30PM

Kaleidoscopic Minds (Directors Lounge)

Step into a kaleidoscope of perspectives, where identity, imagination, and introspection collide. Kaleidoscopic Minds brings together a vibrant collection of short films that explore the intricate layers of self, society, and the surreal.

Empty Your Pockets

Direcred By: Tara Aghdashloo

Duration: 19:56

Working Class Voices

Hassan is a young airport customs officer who must secure an advance on his salary to afford his mother’s medication. As the dark side of his job becomes more clear, Hassan must decide what matters to him the most, and what cost he is willing to pay.

Sophie’s Note

Direcred By: Antonio G. Wagner

Duration: 4:25

Student Shorts

A university student must do whatever she can to convince her professor to deem her eligible for a makeup exam after she oversleeps and misses it; even if it means having to use tricks and lies.

Lamia

Direcred By: Daniel Thomson

Duration: 13:40

Student Shorts

During the Spanish Civil War, a desperate deserter on the run enters an ominous forest. Inside, he encounters a wandering soldier and a mysterious maiden who lead him into the inner depths of insanity, love & death.

Follow The Stickers

Direcred By: Matthew Watts

Duration: 16:52

Documentary Shorts

Ever noticed a lamppost covered in stickers? Ever wondered why all those stickers are there and where they all come from? Well, wonder no more!

Lunch Hour

Direcred By: Keith Allott

Duration: 1:00

Narrative Shorts

A hangry teacher forgets his lunch and employs desperate measures to satisfy his appetite.

Filter

Direcred By: James Oates

Duration: 9:42

Women’s Voices

A woman sits alone in a perfect bar. Her desire to fit in turns into infatuation with another. Night after night, she reinvents herself but is always a step behind. Overwhelmed by the surreal world she finds herself in, she has no choice but to face her obsession.

See And Don’t See

Direcred By: Olive Jones

Duration: 5:39

Women’s Voices

The voices of single mothers are often neglected and left unheard, this film showcases their unique and multi-faceted experiences. Narrated through spoken word over dreamlike imagery and an ethereal score featuring sounds of the body and placenta.

Do You Want To

Direcred By: Andy Berriman

Duration: 6:30

LGBTQIA+ Voices

Under the sheets, Connor and Jake’s domestic bliss is put to the test. It’s bedtime, and someone’s in the mood – but do they actually know each other back to front, inside and out?… Porn, Plato, and power tools feature as they seek the answer in this silly, heartwarming romcom short.

I’m Interesting I Swear

Direcred By: Shir Ariya

Duration: 11:14

Women’s Voices

A self-involved writer struggles to pitch herself to the world as she gets upstaged by the far more interesting stories unfolding around her.

Saturday July 26th

8:00PM – 9:30PM

Unhinged & Unearthly

Dive into deliciously twisted tales of sinister secrets and absurd encounters. From vampiric mummies to guilt-haunted gravediggers, vengeful wolves to slapstick nudists—this strand revels in the gleefully macabre. Humanity, stripped bare.

Exhibit B

Direcred By: David Gregory

Duration: 13:09

Narrative Shorts

For their fourth anniversary, popular vloggers Rob and Carla set out on a romantic trip to a remote wilderness. Although cracks begin to show in their relationship they aim to capture every moment for their devoted followers. But what begins as a carefree escape soon spirals into something far more sinister.

No Trespassing In Transylvania

Direcred By: Directed By Michael Dorfman, Maxwell Dorfman, Emmett Dorfman

Duration: 5:09

International Shorts

A group of mummies stumble onto a vampire’s property.

Blood Ties

Direcred By: Hakim Atoui

Duration: 18:51

International Shorts

A brother and a sister unable to confess a secret. A mother who blames them for their ingratitude and absence. A dysfunctional medical-assistance robot. Lunch is served, bon appétit!

The Corpse

Direcred By: Jishnu Nandanan

Duration: 4:32

Student Shorts

A mortician preparing a body experiences the shock of her life.

Grave

Direcred By: Oz Durose

Duration: 2:54

Animated Shorts

A gravedigger, haunted by guilt, is chased down by the secret he would rather keep hidden.

Little Finger

Direcred By: Gianluca Granocchia

Duration: 15:00

International Shorts

Valerio can no longer feel emotions. His only passion is blowing up anthills with homemade bombs. To survive he works as an entertainer at children’s parties by dressing as a wolf. When a new animator wearing a costume identical to his steals his job, Valerio plans revenge that will prove to be a new beginning.

Return To Skye

Direcred By: Scott Johnson

Duration: 4:58

Music Videos

A Scottish clansman survives the Battle of Culloden (1745) and returns home to bid farewell to his wife, and wee child, before fleeing for his life. He and his wife agree that his ancestral home, the Isle of Skye, will provide him refuge from the pursuing British.

Lazar

Direcred By: Rafe Bird, Michael Bird

Duration: 18:14

Narrative Shorts

In the early 17th century, a self obsessed bard flees for his life from a posse of lawmen led by a self righteous Constable into Sherwood forest, only things are not quite as they seem when interrupted by… a wood nymph?

World Naked Bike Tour

Direcred By: William Bradford

Duration: 9:37

Animated Shorts

A nude cycling event is hounded by a right-wing picketer attempting to sabotage it…. cartoon Slapstick Ensues! Inspired by the international event “World Naked Bike Ride”

Sunday July 27th

11:00AM – 12:30PM

Real Lives, Surreal Twists

Celebrate the messy beauty of human connection. From hidden identities and vanishing daughters to dog-boyfriends and resilient theatre troupes, this strand finds humour, heart, and hope in life’s strangest corners.

The Ballad Of Squeaky Clean Mo

Direcred By: Daniel Williams

Duration: 15:00

Student Shorts

Rivkah, a Jewish cafe owner, tells the story of ‘Squeaky Clean Mo’, a down on his luck dishwasher who has been hiding his Jewish identity for years. When he starts working at her cafe, a romance begins to bubble…

The Plant Knows

Direcred By: Jonathan Hawes

Duration: 14:52

Narrative Shorts

When her teenage daughter vanishes, a grieving mother teams up with an eccentric botanist to decode cryptic messages from a cheeky talking plant.

Rot

Direcred By: Euan Pollock Foulis, Saorsie Selway

Duration: 4:15

Disabled/Neurodiverse Voices

A young man, abandoned by society, slowly decays in his council flat.

You Can't Imagine

Direcred By: Marcelino Méduse

Duration: 18:42

LGBTQIA+ Voices

Dayann and Samir has been living their long-distance love story for several years. Every summer, they meet back for a few weeks in Réunion, their native island, where Dayann decided to stayed and work while Samir studies in Paris. Dayann is convinced that this time Samir is coming home for good…

Just Kids

Direcred By: Alessandro Riconda

Duration: 7:37

Narrative Shorts

Nine-year-old Alisha clashes with her opponent Ben on the rugby pitch – yet another boy who’s not ready to lose to a girl. But she soon discovers the other children are not where her problems are coming from.

Nikko & K.Ji. – Hear This

Direcred By: Pruga P

Duration: 3:11

Music Videos

The official music video for ‘Hear This,’ a song by Nikko & K.Ji.

Dog Person

Direcred By: Harry Carr

Duration: 8:51

Lucy is upset when her new boyfriend, Simon, proposes that they have an open relationship. At home, Buddy, her dog, comforts her. She wishes he was human; he would make the perfect boyfriend. The next day, she wakes up and her wish has come true.

Hot Mess

Direcred By: Tortor Smith

Duration: 3:09

Neurodiverse/Disabled Voices

Offers an insight into the intrusion of emotional abuse and ADHD in a compact and creative way. It highlights the damage and anxiety caused by a well-meaning, but ultimately toxic, parent who uses the power of voice to belittle, flatten and manipulate.

Shaken Not Stirred

Direcred By: Dave MacFarlane

Duration: 15:00

Documentary Shorts

A 14 strong amateur theatre company ‘The Parky Players’ take their production to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2024 with the main aim to raise awareness of the condition whilst supporting 5 members of the cast who are living with Parkinson’s.

Sunday July 27th

11:00AM – 12:30PM

Midnight Visitors (Directors Lounge)

From ghostly visitations to accidental truth-telling, this strand explores the wonder tucked inside life’s quiet corners—where humour, healing, and magic unfold when you least expect them.

Mail Order Queens

Direcred By: Luke Purdye

Duration: 25:00

Documentary Shorts

Beekeeping is beautiful, but it’s broken. The extraordinary tale of why and what might be done to fix it began a century ago with a Benedictine monk, a tragic bee epidemic and a lifetime’s obsession that changed our relationship with the honey bee, forever.

Ana Of Calle Cuatro

Direcred By: Kailin Wang

Duration: 13:00

Women's Voice

On the eve of her quinceañera, a plucky Cuban-American teen is visited by the ghosts of three female ancestors in a magical quest to understand the power of womanhood.

The Case Of The Dirty Dishes

Direcred By: Joe Rider

Duration: 4:46

Student Shorts

A Film Noir Spoof of a Detective investigating why his kitchen is so damn messy.

Party Games

Direcred By: Alfie Beard

Duration: 15:00

Working Class Voices

An out-of-touch politician gets a dose of reality when he visits an underfunded care home. Will he learn from the experience and campaign for change, or slip back into his old ways?

Blabbermouth

Direcred By: Jamie Luke Milligan

Duration: 7:46

Narrative Shorts

When an eleven year old budding impressionist performs for his family hoping to raise money for a new bike, his routine threatens to expose their deepest secrets unless they pay up.

Naomi

Direcred By: Declan Smith

Duration: 4:21

Narrative Shorts

When an enchanting stranger arrives at his door, a lonely young man is swept into an unforgettable night of magic.

Isle Of Mia

Direcred By: Miguel Pinto, Francisco Morais

Duration: 19:56

During Summer break, Mia is facing some uncertainty regarding her future, whilst struggling to overcome trauma with her mom from past events.

Sunday July 27th

2:15PM – 3:45PM

Love Will Tear Us Apart

Love’s chaos takes centre stage: estranged dads, dystopian bonds, and whispered goodbyes collide. But in a child’s innocence, a farm girl’s crush, and a joyful wedding, tenderness defiantly survives.

Baby Steps

Direcred By: Neilly Boyle

Duration: 13:15

Working Class Voices

As a new father, Jamie nervously awaits a job interview when his estranged father James unexpectedly turns up for the same job. As the men wait uncomfortably, both are confronted by their inadequacies as parents.

Queen Size

Direcred By: Avril Besson

Duration: 19:52

LGBTQIA+ Voices

This morning, Marina has an appointment with Charlie to sell her a mattress. This evening, she will cancel her plane for Reunion. But they don’t know that yet.

Memory

Direcred By: Riyadh Haque

Duration: 3:23

Women's Voices

An experimental documentary reimagining the childhood recollections of a Jersey inhabitant, Margaret, through the intimate lens of the director’s British South Asian background by channelling his own family’s generational diasporic experience and sisterhood.

How To Say Goodbye

Direcred By: Thibaut Buccellato

Duration: 8:00

LGBTQIA+ Voices

After their break-up, Mia has to return to her ex-girlfriend’s apartment. This is going to be their very last moment together, before they say goodbye.

Desksdark

Direcred By: Kane Wilson

Duration: 16:27

Narrative Shorts

In a dystopian realm where consciousness is encased within neural implants, Logan, a solitary Decksdark, finds himself intertwined with an ethereal entity.

47 Inches

Direcred By: Pascale Mompez

Duration: 19:00

International Shorts

One night, Zélie, a 7 year old girl, sees her father coming home with her young aunt Clara. Clara is sad, does not leave the room and wears bandages on her wrists. Faced with the mystery of this closed door, Zélie understands that in order to get her aunt out of her melancholy, all she has to do is help her dispel the clouds in her head.

Connor & Ben

Direcred By: Benjamin Kirk-Dodds

Duration: 1:21

Animated Shorts

Follow Connor and Ben across the years, from meeting for coffee to tying the knot. A short animation as a gift for my partner on our wedding day.

Wild Oats

Direcred By: Rosa Duncan

Duration: 7:42

LGBTQIA+ Voices

Rhona, a shy teenager stuck on her family’s farm, has a secret: she’s head-over-heels infatuated with celebrity crush Céline. Between endless chores, an overbearing father who can’t stay out of her room, and the chaotic interruptions of barnyard animals, Rhona can barely find a moment of privacy to explore her budding desires.

Sunday July 27th

2:15PM – 3:45PM

Globetrotters (Directors Lounge)

Go around the world in six shorts! From a Danish wedding meltdown and Albanian marital schemes to Tehrani black-market dilemmas, flirty museum antics, and a French caterpillar coma—this whirlwind tour serves heartbreak, humor, and humanity. Passport optional.

Heartbreak

Direcred By: August Aabo

Duration: 25:50

LGBTQIA+ Voices

Albert and Sixten are getting married. Today. The only problem is that if they were completely honest with each other, they shouldn’t even be a couple anymore. Frictions arise on the morning of the wedding, and suddenly, it’s obvious that something is utterly wrong.

47:10:00

Direcred By: Serna Amini

Duration: 14:32

International Shorts

After a devastating accident, Hossein learns his wife needs a heart transplant within forty-eight hours to survive. Desperate, he turns to the black market, where he is forced to make an unthinkable decision: sell his son to an infertile family to afford the surgery.

A Short Trip

Direcred By: Erenik Beqiri

Duration: 17:16

International Shorts

Klodi and Mira, a young Albanian couple, decide to marry Mira to a Frenchman for 5 years in exchange for money, in order to obtain French nationality. They will then have to choose the right husband for her, and learn to detach themselves from each other.

Reconsolidation

Direcred By: Abbie Lucas

Duration: 15:00

International Shorts

After a tragic accident takes the life of his best friend, a grief-stricken introvert copes with the loss using memory-alteration therapy, but he soon learns that some memories don’t want to be forgotten.

Collage

Direcred By: Marius Conrotto

Duration: 9:51

LGBTQIA+ Voices

A girl who works in a museum tries to convince another co-worker that two visitors are flirting. And how does she know? Scientific studies say that there are six signs that show one person’s attraction to another.

My Teenage Blackout

Direcred By: Anaïs Colpin

Duration: 10:00

Animated Shorts

At a party, Tristan swallowed a caterpillar while downing a tequila shot. Ever since then, he’s been in a coma, thoughts running through his head – about that girl at the party, the
nurse smoking in his room, his overbearing mother, and the fact that he’ll never get to change his Facebook profile picture ever again.

Sunday July 27th

5:30PM – 7:00PM

Rebels Without A Pause

Navigate life’s chaos through dark comedy, stoner misadventures, and biting societal critiques. From unskippable dystopian ads to animated existential quests, this strand tears into taboos with defiant humour and unflinching heart.

OK/NOTOK

Direcred By: Pardeep Sahota

Duration: 12:49

Working Class Voices

A genre bending love story set in the very near future with a darkly comic edge. Loretta, a working-class British Asian woman, attempts to navigate a turbulent world, a new stranger in her life and unskippable adverts.

A Few More Minutes, Please

Direcred By: Dylan Scott

Duration: 10:00

Narrative Shorts

A quiet nineteen-year-old struggles to order at a restaurant while grappling with the building pressure to choose a purpose in life when he can’t even choose what to order.

She's Asking For It

Direcred By: Natalia Zajączkowska

Duration: 9:55

Women's Voices

A woman’s harrowing experience reveals the unsettling normalisation of sexual violence, exposing how cinema – and society – disguise abuse as romance, while directly calling out the audience’s complicity in perpetuating rape culture.

Big Deal

Direcred By: Isabella Thompson

Duration: 10:18

Women's Voices

A coming of age stoner comedy that follows two best friends, Casey and Sarah, on their quest to smoke weed before parting ways for university. In the spirit of making things up as they go along, the pair traverse the treacherous, middle class streets of North West London to rendezvous with a peculiar dealer.

Preggo

Direcred By: Michelle Maria Gilson

Duration: 14:39

Women's Voices

Miel’s conception was a trippy one, and now the pregnancy is just as bad. The moment she decides to terminate her pregnancy, Miel obtains the surreal power to see the inner child of the people she loves.

It Gets Better

Direcred By: Asa Pegler

Duration: 8:38

LGBTQIA+ Voices

A short film highlighting the struggles young trans people go through in and around the U.K, whilst peppering in the impacts of grooming/sexual abuse, bullying, drug abuse and hypersexuality.

Venom & Faith By Justice

Direcred By: Summer Flowers

Duration: 4:44

Music Videos

A country rock music video about what else other love and loss.

Where Is The World Headed?

Direcred By: Mickaël Dupré

Duration: 20:00

Animated Shorts

In outer space, the captain of a crew, accompanied by his faithful robot, decides to abandon his duties to follow a creature called “Intuition”. The creature takes him to a strange, mysterious desert planet where he hopes to find the meaning of existence.

 

Sunday July 27th

5:30PM – 7:00PM

Uncharted Roads (Directors Lounge)

From rebellious driving tests to breaking social barriers in 1980s Ontario, this strand explores personal revolutions—quiet, loud, and surreal—through characters who dare to rewrite their stories and reshape the rules.

Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre

Direcred By: Annabella Forbes

Duration: 6:46

Women's Voices

Helen signed up for a normal driving test, with a normal test instructor, in a normal car. No one said anything about miming engine noises, being dumped on golf a course, or wandering herds of invisible cattle.

The Shade Of Chlorine

Direcred By: Clément Dezelus

Duration: 22:18

LGBTQIA+ Voices

Bilal lives off odd jobs he gets from the BOY application, but his head is filled with dreams of music. Hired to clean a luxurious villa, he falls under the spell of the mysterious Ulysses, the owners’ son. This encounter will widen his horizons.

Grlhood

Direcred By: Lauren McPoland

Duration: 4:52

Student Shorts

Taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to experimental filmmaking, GRLHOOD explores a typical day in the life of a young woman trying to take a trip to the corner shop.

Bal Maiden

Direcred By: Aella Jordan-Edge

Duration: 17:00

Women's Voices

In an 18th century Cornish tin mining community, two isolated young women risk their lives to break free from abuse after a local miner pushes them to breaking point.

Single Woman Seeking Child

Direcred By: Blain Watters

Duration: 14:50

International Shorts

Sandy wants a family, the only problem is that she’s very much single and it’s very much 1982. Jumping through hoops and breaking through barriers Sandy becomes the first single woman in Kingston, Ontario to have Artificial Insemination.

Sage

Direcred By: Max Blustin

Duration: 5:00

Narrative Shorts

The right words can oppose even the most destructive hate.

Lost Pitch – Speaking Silences

Direcred By: J H

Duration: 4:14

Music Videos

Follows the day of a stunning, enigmatic woman, her life unfolding like a hypnotic dance between desire, secrecy, and deception. Every glance, every movement, every shadow hints at something hidden beneath the surface.

The Father, The Son and The Rav Kalmenson

Direcred By: Dayan D. Oualid

Duration: 15:00

International Shorts

Yoel, 30, is what was called in the 90s a “Lubavitch”, an Orthodox Jew. Every Saturday morning, he goes, accompanied by his 6-year-old son, to honour Shabbat in the synagogue in his neighborhood, a primary school set up for the occasion.

Romchyk

Direcred By: Alexis Bicât

Duration: 11:36

Student Shorts

Following a deadly missile attack, Romchyk’s life is shattered forever. Despite severe burns and wearing a medical mask, he pursues his dream of ballroom dancing, embodying resilience, hope, and the enduring human spirit amidst tragedy.

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