Director/Writer/Producer: Sebastian Soler
Country: United States
Project Type: Animation, Student, Short
Overview: A lone action figure attempts to defend itself from ten enemies atop a cluttered office desk.
Director Statement: "I wanted to make a film that spoke volumes with no words. This allows the audience to perceive their own personal concept of what they have just experienced. My goal was to entertain the viewer with something they have never seen before, with items they see every day. I believe that this universal connection is an important aspect of film making as a whole. I saw the potential of a compelling story by fiddling with random office items on my desk three years ago, which inspired me to teach myself the skills required to bring my idea to life. Animating sequences overnight and editing in my dorm for days at a time motivated me to continue this production until its completion, no matter how long it took. Working on this project completely alone was an insightful experience that I hope will open opportunities for me to work with a team in the near future. I hope the audience has as much fun watching this short film as I had creating it."
Director/Writer: Alessandro Magnabosco
Director of Photography: Luke de Borde
Producer: Rahel Peker
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short, Student
Overview: When a lonely astronomer spots a shooting star and meets a strange woman who seems out of this world, will he finally make a friend or will loneliness be the only feeling he ever knows?
Director Statement: II am a London-based Italian filmmaker with interest and skills in screen writing, directing and editing. During the intensive two-year BA at MetFilm School, I wrote, directed and edited my own short films (Achilles' Prayer and The Star Who Fell To Earth), as well as developed my craft on several other student-led productions. No matter how, I’m here to tell stories.
Director Tom Parkin
Producers: Tom Parkin, Rory Elmore
Country: United States
Project Type: Documentary,Short
Overview: Leonard Warren Borisoff, known professionally as Len Barry, was an American recording star, vocalist, songwriter, lyricist, record producer, author, and poet. In this documentary short, Len takes us through his musical journey as the lead singer of The Dovells and as a solo artist in the 1960s.
Writer: Mark Higgins
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short Screenplay
Overview: In his quest to become an Alpha male a young man buys an alien as a pet, a decision that quickly backfires in a humours and tragic fashion.
Director Statement: "I enjoy the challenge of writing in different formats and engaging with my readers and fellow writers."
Director: Robin Toyne
Producers: Mat Lingard, Robin Toyne
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Documentary, Feature
Overview: Centered on the young people and families of Drama Express, a UK award winning theatre group for young people with additional needs , “It’s OK to be Different” charts the evolution of an exuberant performance premiered at Cornwall's iconic Minack Theatre. Challenging perceptions of disability from lockdown to curtain up, the film is both an argument for acceptance and exploration of identity, giving an audience the inside track on the challenges, realities and joys of living with additional needs. Rooted in their experiences of living through Covid, the young people of Drama Express are determined to share their stories. The film is a testament to the drive and vitality of an extraordinary and inspirational group.
Director Statement: Everyone has a story to tell - and it's often people who perceive themselves as ordinary who have the most extraordinary stories of all. That's particularly true of the inspirational young people and volunteers of Drama Express and their families. In making documentaries, I endeavour to transport the viewer to the inside looking out, rather than as a bystander looking in. It's thanks to the openness and trust of the young people and their families at the centre of this film, and of all at Drama Express of course, that the viewer is treated to the privileged inside track of the challenges and joys of living with additional needs.
Director/Writer/Producer: Fatih Yiğit
Country: Belgium
Project Type: Short
Overview: Sixteen-year-old Xezal lives in a small village in the Sinjar region of Iraq. An attack is organized on her village by the radical terrorist organization ISIS and many people are killed in the village. She witnessed another massacre during his exile journey with his family. Seven months after the massacre, another Kurdish woman, who was also captured, will help Xezal to escape from captivity. Xezal was raped by an ISIS emir and became pregnant. He is found by two young people when he is about to die of hunger and thirst on the mountain. Afterwards, not a single word comes out of Xezal's mouth, he is going through a severe trauma. Xezal is living the past over and over again with the sound of some objects in daily life. She remembers the cruelty she saw and the bad moments he experienced and disappears in the shadow of the past.
Director Statement: We proudly present our work to you by making art under difficult conditions in our geography, which has been captured by war and destruction. As Mesopotamian youth, we paid a heavy price for art. Despite the pressures and all the obstacles, we managed to complete our Project.
Writer: Steve Meredith
Country: United States
Project Type: Short Screenplay, Thriller
Overview: A widow wakes up with a full breakfast on her bed, with no idea how it got there.
Writer Biography: Steve Meredith has been writing screenplays for over 17 years. His work has been produced by filmmakers in both the United States, and abroad. He lives outside of Pittsburgh, PA
Director: Cheyenne Jade Barel
Writers: Jonah Moore, Sam Leader
Producer: Charlotte Allex-Lyoudi
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: When his uncle dies the night of his 40th birthday people-pleaser and secular Jew Aaron gets steamrolled into holding the Shiva at his birthday party. He has to invite his conservative Jewish family into his unorthodox life, a recipe for disaster.
Director Statement: This project is very dear to me as it is a way to express my love for my culture despite not actively practicing my religion. I hope this film is a way for Jewish families around everywhere to connect and laugh at characters we've all grown up with in our environments. I also want to reintroduce the humorous side of our culture to the world, not just our traumatic past.
Writer: Sam Rose
Country: United Kingdom
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Overview: Recently cheated on, hapless solicitor Toby Steckman finds unlikely hope of happiness in his boss’s failing marriage and sex life.
Director/Writer/Producer: Nic Gregory
Country: United States
Project Type: Animation, Short
Overview: The journey of a lightning bolt from sky to ground highlights the saying “life flashes before your eyes”.
Director Statement: "Suddenly" was a film born from one simple phrase, "life flashes before your eyes". The film is a simple metaphor for this statement. You not only get to go on the journey with the main character, but you get moments to breathe and exist inside 2D art, which is as magical to me as life itself.
Director/Writer/Producer: Graham Pike
Musicians: Bob Sydor, Duncan Lamont Jnr, Gabriel Keen, Stefano Gallaraga, Jack Painting, Phil McWalter, Martin Bell
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short, Music Video
Overview: Inspired by a real experience with a dodgy dentist. He approached holding the syringe, his "hands were shaking'.
Director Statement: It is a passion. I write, record, engineer, shoot, edit, build my own sets. I am not trying to climb aboard a commercial bandwagon, I prefer to cut my own groove. Be original, otherwise I feel life would be like living in a supermarket immitating the other best selling brands. There is no profit, everyone taking part does it for free and we have a blast as we continue to produce more videos.
Director/Writer/Producer: Tara Kitson
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: A group of friends are excited to open their new JONI, a playful android with no social skills. When the party hits her, she starts to act even stranger...
Director Biography: A trained actor and singer, Tara is excited to venture into film directing with her first short, JONI. After years of watching films, critiquing them, loving them, she finally has had the opportunity to make her own, and is grateful and excited to share her work with you.
Director/Producer: Shreya Jha
Writer: Rowena Brenneman
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Dystopia, Romance, Short
Overview: Darcy and Manu are a young couple who live in Zone 6. They are ruled over by an authoritarian government whose solution to overpopulation is to exterminate the "undesirables", through a system known as the Dispatch Panel. Darcy's product quota at work has decreased because he comes home early to help Manu with her health condition. He is unsuccessful in his desperate attempts to get Manu medicine and she is worried that Darcy might get in trouble for helping her. Her worries are validated when Darcy is dragged off to trial at the Dispatch Panel. His sister volunteers as a character witness to save Darcy from execution, but she tells the panel of his wife’s condition to save him. The panel then decides that Manu will be executed instead of Darcy. His heart is broken. Upon his journey home he sees that the medicine Manu needs has been delivered by the Clerk. Darcy is overjoyed that his wife will be saved. But when he enters the house, he sees that Manu has succumbed to her illness.
Director Biography: Shreya Jha is an Indian filmmaker, born on 1st September 2001, in Delhi. She pursued her Bachelors in Filmmaking at the Nottingham Trent University, England (2019-2022). At the age of 16 she started working as a freelance photographer for small tourism brands and hotels. She then finished a 6 month course on camera operation and decided to join the filmmaking realm. She has played the role of a cinematographer in music videos for the record label Ninja Tunes (London) and also played various crew roles on student short films. She previously made short documentaries and travel videos on YouTube. Dispatch Panel is her debut short film as a director/filmmaker which is currently in the festival circuit.
Writer: Christopher Evans
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Television Script
Overview: Dark comedy TV series (30 mins episode) detailing the relationship between two hired burglars – ‘Bandy’ & ‘Oolong’ – as they get to know each other and their very different pasts over the course of their brief, illegal rendezvous - high end theft for a mysterious man named Mr. Lazarus.
Director/Writer: Nikolas Harris
Producer: Kameron Spence
Key Cast "Lord Ashenhurst": Tom Hardman
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Student, Short
Overview: A short thriller set in the late 18th century.
Director/Writer: Edwin Bomke
Producer: Anna Brodskaja
Country: Germany
Project Type: Short
Overview: Two young men, who have fallen on a wrong path in life, suddenly find themselves in a magic forest. There they meet two fairies – owners of a wondrous inn. They teach the boys a good lesson for their bad deeds and send the young men into another world.
Director/Writer: Taylor Caddick
Director of Photography: Charlie Relph
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Student, Short
Overview: When an English politician is awoken by a phone call, he finds himself in the centre of the government’s eighteenth scandal this year. It’s only March. A one-take tragedy.
Director Statement: One-takes have always fascinated me, and that's not always because you can get to the craft tent earlier. In fact, this project was very much a labour of love- created by a bunch of passionate people. After a bunch of rehearsals and hard prep work, we made something I’m so proud of.
Director: Ray Brady
Producers: The International School of Screen Acting, UKFILM.CO
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: On the cusp of a new century in a small frontier wild western town, various rival factions agree to meet for a sit down to carve up the ownership of the town. When the local Pastor intervenes a brutal fight ensues in which the rivals fight a battle royal to the death, only one faction will survive the encounter. An end-of-year school project with the second-year students of ISSA the International School of Screen Acting at Three Mills Studio, Bow, London, UK, this short was primarily created to show off their screen combat skills, with the bonus premise that it should look like an excerpt from a longer movie, but not a film as a whole. Short and entertaining also was a stipulation.
Director/Writer/Producer: Ali El-Khodary
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: 3 meteor miners awaken to find themselves captives on a ship with an unknown drug running through their veins, while a mysterious figure periodically enters the room only leaving when he's taken what he wants from them.
Writer: Ruhi Sayyed
Country: United Arab Emirates
Project Type: Short Script
Overview: A Small town girl, Olivia, accidentally discovers life of Beth who helped her Aunt in the most callous way!
Director/Writer/Producer: Erin Fussell
Country: United States
Project Type: Short
Overview: On the surface, Safe Passage (for Sheila) is a look at living alone during the pandemic in a 2 1/2 minute story about a spider. In a deeper sense, it challenges the femme fatale stereotype. Based on a true story.
Director Biography: Erin Fussell is an artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles working across disciplines that include moving images, installation, performance, and sound. With an emphasis on process and time-based art, she mines the possibility of mediums and their relationships to each other, space, and ideas to spark wonder in everyday living.
Director/Writer/Producer: Alexandre Mahutte
Country: Canada
Project Type: Student, Short
Overview: An anthropomorphic pencil who wants to create art is forced against its will to write a student’s class notes. Will it be able to convince the student to use it to create art before the Pencil becomes a stub?
Director: Christopher Villiers
Producer: Georgia Slowe, Catherine Yeats
Writers: Georgia Slowe, Alistair Barrie
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Short
Overview: A short film, which is the pilot for a quirky new comedy series revolving around the disastrous love life of Alison, a food writer, who lives with her friend, George, an animator. While he draws, she cooks, closely observed by Sadie, their greedy and opinionated rescue dog. A number of George's animations come to life, adding a slightly surreal edge. They are seen only by Sadie and, together, like a Greek chorus, they comment on the human activity they witness.
Director/Writer: Dakyum Breanna Lee
Producers: Dakyum Breanna, Cheolheung Joo Lee
Country: Republic of Korea
Project Type: Short
Overview: The main character is an artist who is being interviewed about the mysterious creature that she witnessed when she was a little kid. While drawing a composite of the creature, inside her mind, each of the four primary emotions (joy, anger, sorrow, and excitement) portrayed as scientists operate various experiments to test what the mysterious creature is. In the end, the artist realizes something about what the creature and her emotions have in common.
Writer Biography: Through this movie, I want people to remember the lesson of Abraxas; in every moment in life, whether it is happy, exciting, or even heart-aching, all those pieces of emotions and adventure we meet are eventually beautiful brush strokes to compose a beautiful painting called life.
Director/Writer: Joel Delsaut
Producers: Joel Delsaut, Aldo Piscina
Country: Belgium
Project Type: Short
Overview: In their sixties, a couple is looking for the best solution to guarantee their daughter and granddaughter a possible future...
Director/Writer/Producer: Victor Mallo
Country: Spain
Project Type: Short
Overview: A woman tries to escape from a mental asylum. A doctor and an orderly chase her with the help of some dogs.
Director Biography: Born in Barcelona. Graduate in Fine Arts (UB), Higher Degree in Audiovisual Communication (UAB). As Director and Screenwriter he has several award-winning short films such as Lost and Found (2014), Old Dog (2016), Shock Therapy (2017), The Perfect Relationship (2018) or Haunting Day (2020). He's also collaborated as second unit director and assistant director in several shortfilms like Confidents (2014) or Begancé (2015) among many others.
Writer: Lucie Stotter
Country: Czech Republic
Overview: Malva, a defiant artist in Art Nouveau Vienna struggles to become a true artist through the turbulent times about to sweep Europe.
Writer: Steve Garry
Country: Canada
Genres: Dark Comedy
Overview: Campaign co-chairs who are falling in and out of love try to win the election for their own anything-but-cliché candidate while fighting off opponents who include a sensational sports star and an obscure neophyte.
Director/Writer/Producer: Daniel Archibald
Country: United Kingdom
Genres: Drama, Comedy, Dance
Overview: A bored young woman reminisces on her youth with the help of an old Playstation and a dance mat.
Director/Writer/Producer: Tony Hickson
Country: United Kingdom
Project Type: Documentary, Experimental, Short
Overview: A short experimental documentary looking at Gender. We interviewed Philip Salon friend of Boy George and former club promoter and one of the leading lights in the New Romantic scene, as well as a transgender woman, post gender artist and a man who collects Barbies.
Director Statement: I like to work with super 8mm and 16mm film I think it adds to the dreamlike nature of my storytelling and narrative. In the past I have worked with found footage films, and shot 16mm in antique cameras and developed it myself.