Challenging times loom on the horizon. As we navigate through one crisis after another, we find ourselves at a pivotal juncture where we can question the status quo and effect change in our surroundings. This assortment of short films, intimately tied to these shores, showcases some of the most brilliant talents and their resolute determination to drive progress. These are not just films; this is a movement.
Linda
Nominated for Best UK Short
Director: Joe Lycett | UK | 2023 | 8 Minutes
Linda keeps herself busy with a part time job in a post office, enthusiastically telling the staff and customers about her extraordinary life. But her tall tales soon raise suspicions. A daft comic short written and directed by Joe Lycett starring the exceptional Janice Connolly.
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Cast: Janice Connolly, Ali Ariaie, Charles Dale
Writer: Joe Lycett | Producer: Fleur Bell-Hendriks | Director of Photography: Simon Plunket | Editor: Ashley Allen | Music: Telin, Guillaume Jamber, Mike Lesirge, Craig Hardy, Carolyn Jordan, Jody Jenkins, Alexander Duggan
Pattern
Director: Tom Wakeling | UK | 2022 | 2 Minutes
From the award-winning director Tom Wakeling, who’s known for his playful, offbeat and visual humour, lost in a wave of repetition, Pattern explores one man’s descent into himself. The film was shot on 16mm with an in-camera lighting effect – no CGI was used in the production.
Cast: Joshua Harriette
Writer: Tom Wakeling | Producer: Tom Wakeling | Director of Photography: Nick Morris | Editor: Tom Wakeling | Music: Evan Gildersleeve
Muna
Nominated for Best UK Short
Director: Warda Mohamed | UK | 2023 | 19 Minutes
British-Somali teen Muna is desperate to go on the school trip, but her parents aren’t so sure. Tragedy strikes when her grandfather dies back in Somalia, and Muna must navigate a confusing mourning period for someone she never really knew while still hoping to persuade her mother to change her mind.
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Cast: Kosar Ali, Raha Farah Isse, Elmi Rashid Elmi, Ahmed Nur
Writer: Warda Mohamed | Producer: Angela Moneke, Simon Hatton | Director of Photography: Olan Collardy | Editor: Mdhamiri Á Nkemi | Music: Cassie Kinoshi
i and i
Director: Samona Olanipekun | UK | 2023 | 16 Minutes
A portrayal of contemporary male identity, which peels back the layers of self. A young man spends a day preparing for his 30th birthday while confronted by his alter ego.
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Cast: Jonathan Ajayi, Samuel Adewunmi
Writer: Dan Braham | Producer: Helen Dulay, Nat Baring | Director of Photography: Korsshan Schlauer | Editor: Amber Saunders | Music: Rod Coombes
Incompatible
Director: Maxine Peake | UK | 2022 | 15 Minutes
A childless woman is told that her longed-for unborn baby is incompatible with life. Alone, with her conscience and unable to openly discuss her situation because of society’s stigma surrounding termination and the self-silencing of women concerning reproduction, she painfully decides the best way forward.
Cast: Hayley Jayne Standing, Shobna Gulati, Carla Henry, Rake Sharma
Writer: Hayley Jayne Standing | Producer: Shakyra Dowling, Jessica Levick | Director of Photography: Laura Bellingham | Editor: Col Goudie | Music: Keeley Forsyth, Ross Downes
Roadman Au Pair
Director: Louis Chan | UK | 2023 | 4 Minutes
An awkward comedy and a humorous spin on gentrification, local ‘roadman’ Ren swallows his pride and interviews for a babysitting job with the new arrivals to the neighbourhood – white-bread parents Adrian and Jill. The interview is going terribly until Ren notices Adrian struggles to assert himself.
Cast: Ren Boateng, Andrew Nolan, Rosie Holt
Writer: Louis Chan & Bruin Chan | Producer: Jonathan Caicedo Galindo, Laurelle Jones | Director of Photography: Samira Oberberg | Editor: Louis Chan
Killing Boris Johnson
Nominated for Best UK Short
Director: Musa Alderson-Clarke | UK | 2022 | 24 Minutes
Content Warning – Suicide, Violence
The inner turmoil of a grieving son collided with the failing political tenure of the conservatives. Kaz, struggling to come to terms with his grief, decides that Boris Johnson is responsible for his pain and goes on a mission to assassinate him, sending him down a path he’s never been before.
Cast: Shadrach Agozino, Jesse Akele, Peaky Saku, Cathy Owen
Writer: Musa Alderson-Clarke | Producer: Solomon Golding | Director of Photography: Jack Hamilton | Editor: Yu-Pu Pon | Music: Jean-Marc Eck
I Can See The Sun but I Can’t Feel It Yet
Director: Joseph Wilson | UK | 2023 | 20 Minutes
A nightmare in reverie: five young queer people are admitted into a clinic to undergo conversion therapy. Enduring several harrowing methods to change their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, the sterile space of abject trauma struggles to suppress the abundance and beauty of queer love.
Cast: Tiffany Smikle, Teddy Jackson, Omar Philips, Elliot Douglas, Caviar Jiang
Writer: Evan Francis Jones, Joseph Wilson | Producer: Stephen Carrathus | Director of Photography: Ronnie McQuillan | Editor: Joseph Wilson | Music: Hannah Holland
in too deep
Director: Chris Overton | UK | 2023 | 16 Minutes
Mourning the death of his young daughter, a grieving father goes to extreme measures, using A.I technology to relive their fondest memories. A story with an ominous warning to society about this fast developing, nefarious technology starring Stephen Wight and Oscar winner Rachel Shenton.
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Cast: Rachel Shenton, Stephen Wight
Writer: James Spillman | Producer: Rebecca Harris-Turner, Rachel Shenton, Chris Overton, James Spillman | Director of Photography: Ali Farahani | Editor: Ali Farahani | Music: Sebastian Plano
