Director/Writer: Ellise Gwynn
Producers: Victoria Turton, Shadow Studios
Key Cast "Julia": Myfanwy Vaughan
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Short, Student, Drama
Overview: November 1942. German occupation begins in Vichy France. Three Anglo French siblings’ differences are tested with an unexpected arrival in their family home.
Director Statement: I was always fascinated by WWII films. Perhaps because it wasn’t as long ago as we often think. My Grandmother would tell me stories of her life during the war. I found war films were a way to truly see into this history and a chance to try to understand those that lived it. What it was like on the front lines or life as a soldier. But I became fascinated thinking about family dynamics in these times. When you have lost so much and fear almost every moment - do you fight with all you've got, or hide away so you can protect all you have left? I began writing ‘All We Have’ and started to explore these impossible choices.
Director/Writer: Joy Shi
Producer: Joy Shi
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Short, Student, Adventure, Fantasy
Overview: Alva is a wistful child struggling to keep her home together. After a mysterious encounter, she embarks on a mystical journey to find solace for her mother.
Director/Writer/Producer: Fleur Cartwright
Country: United Kingdom
Type: Natural History, Documentary, Wildlife Cinematography, Nature, Conservation
Overview: The role of volunteers in conservation often goes unnoticed, but this short documentary brings their vital work into focus. Inside the vivarium at Manchester Museum, volunteers work alongside scientists and curators to protect and care for rare and endangered amphibians, forming a deep connection with these often-overlooked, wonderfully quirky animals.
Director Statement: I first became interested in amphibian conservation while in Panama, where I learned about Manchester Museum’s collaboration with the Panama Wildlife Conservation Charity. I wanted to tell a story that centred both amphibians and people, showing how their work connects to the wider challenges of global conservation.
Director/Writer: Lucas Fassel
Producer: Sacha Mijatovic
Country: France
Genre: Animation, Short
Overview: In a ravaged world where nothing grows, a young landscaper strives to bring life back to the earth by creating a new plant, born from lightning and hope. From his laboratory to his garden, he defies death and lets nature bloom again from a dream turned into light.
Director/Writer: Jake Lee
Producer: Lilianne Coeverden
Country: United Kingdom
Type: Animation, Short
Overview: We all dream of love, but Kirstin’s dream of being with Dan, the most popular boy in school takes her to outer space and to a fairy tale castle. Her dream came true... or did it?
Director/Writer/Producer: Mustafa Abbas
Country: United Arab Emirates
Type: Crime, Drama, Short
Overview: A young man from a criminal family uncovers long buried secrets that force him to confront the realities of the world he grew up in, and the father who vanished without a trace.
Directors/Writers/Producers: Kyle Brown
Key Cast "Frank": David O'Brien
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Drama, Short
Overview: A father is forced to reflect on his past and relive his mistakes.
Director Statement: I wanted to tell a father and son story that felt honest with this film. The dad isn’t a bad guy. He just can’t find the words until it’s too late. I think a lot of people know what it’s like to care about someone but let your own personal worries and stress get in the way. The son’s love of art is the other side of it. That choice between doing what you love and having to make money is something I’ve felt myself. I wanted the film to stay in that messy space where there isn’t a right answer. This was the biggest project I’ve made. I self-funded and produced it. It pushed me harder than anything I’ve done before and taught me a lot. I just hope people watch it and see a bit of their own family in it.
Director: Sam Cole
Producers: Michelle Porter, Rosa Gonzalez Goring
Country: Italy
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Overview: On a desolate night, an aging calligrapher shelters a mysterious young woman who has lost her way. As the night deepens, her questions uncover the layers of a single letter to which he has devoted his life, countless shavings, and an unfinished mastery. Yet there is a growing sense that her presence holds a purpose beyond mere refuge.
Director Statement: "TO DIE BEFORE DYİNG" A poetic short film that delves into the depths of the human spirit. An aging calligrapher (HATTAT), long bound by his primal self, encounters a mysterious stranger who arrives at his home one night. Their meeting sets in motion a journey of transformation, confronting mortality, and discovering inner freedom.
Director: Robert J Simpson
Writers: Robert J Simpson, P-Rob
Producer: P-Rob
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Horror, Satire
Overview: A one-location absurdist-horror short with some fast fashion satire baked-in about how deep the rabbit hole goes when you buy things on a whim, and the strange things that could happen.
Director Statement: “The Last Sock You’ll Ever Need” originally started life as a different beast (it was a one-shot idea set in a laundrette), but like most things in the current cost-of-living crisis, we had to pivot. Now, a short that started as a joke has evolved into a satire about fast fashion, possession, and the quietly creeping dread of modern life - with some slime mould and bindweed to really sell the weird. Stylistically, it leans heavily into the wave of Japanese horror from the late 1990s and early 2000s - the kind of films where infection, rot, and mood do the heavy lifting. It’s equally soaked in Northern British sarcasm as well, because that’s where we’re from and that’s how we process everything - even possession. Why this story? Why now? Because we wanted to do something weird, sharp, and fun that wasn't tied down by old habits and stereotypes. Even if it is grim up North, we've got more than just social drama and realism under our belts. If nothing else, we made a suspenseful "horror" short that somehow works, and we hope that you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed getting lost in its strange little world.
Director/Writer/Producer Omar Hashem
Country: Saudi Arabia
Project Type: Drama, Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure, Children's film, Short
Overview: With his mom out shopping and his dad fast asleep, Kinan’s ordinary day at home turns into an unforgettable adventure full of imagination and surprise.
Director/Writer: Ayoub AIT BIHI
Producer: Sara Hajji
Country: Morocco
Genre: Documentary, Short
Overview: YENNA – Bread Crust tells the true story of an illiterate Moroccan woman who, after her husband’s illness and her father’s death, learns pastry-making to support her family. Filmed by her own son, this intimate documentary follows her quiet struggle, dignity, and resilience. It’s a tribute to the invisible women of Morocco and beyond — those who endure, fight, and carry life with tenderness and strength.
Director Statement: YENNA – Bread Crust is the most personal film I have ever made. It is the story of my mother — an illiterate woman who never went to school, never sought recognition, and yet carried our entire family with silent strength. I chose to film her not out of sentimentality, but because I believe there is immense cinematic power in the dignity of ordinary lives. Her fight to survive — learning pastry-making to support us after my father’s illness, pushing forward even after the sudden death of her own father — reflects the daily struggle of countless Moroccan women who resist without applause or visibility. This film is both a gesture of gratitude and a political act. Gratitude, because I owe her everything. Political, because it gives a voice to women who are usually never seen on screen, even though they are the backbone of entire communities. Through a minimalist and tender approach, I wanted to let her presence speak for itself — without embellishment or overdramatization. I wanted to film the strength in her silence, the poetry in her gestures, the truth in her resilience. YENNA means “mother” in Tamazight. And this film, while deeply rooted in a personal story, is a universal homage to all the mothers who carry the world — quietly, invisibly, and with incredible grace.
Director/Writer: Michel DUPREZ
Producers: Perrine Vanderhaeghen, Michel DUPREZ
Country: Belgium
Genre: Drama, Psychological, Fantasy, Short
Overview: After a long relationship, Christine leaves Tom for their best friend, Jerry. The new couple flourishes while Tom, unable to accept the breakup, withdraws from the world. Driven by pain and fixated on a small fairground duck, he spirals. Told in impressionistic fragments, the film tracks his descent and suggests a path toward awareness through Christine, who embodies the Love beyond the self.
Director: Julia Gordon
Producers: Julia Desderio, Kacie Herrington
Country: United States
Genre: Animation, Short, Student, Comedy, Action, Family
Overview: Ever wonder where that missing sock went? Hank, a curious sock, wants to escape the confines of his laundry basket and explore the wonders of the outside world. However, his journey to the front door might not go as smoothly as he had hoped...
Writers: Jeff Frey, Stephan Schonberg, Marilu Garbi
Country: United States
Project Type: Television Script, Situation Comedy
Overview: Soon after Jimmy loses his job and finalizes his divorce, he learns he has inherited a rundown bar in Southwest Florida from a father who abandoned him at birth. As the obstacles of selling a bar pile up, he slowly gets to know the father that was never there through the bars dysfunctional staff. And, slowly finds out the life he really never thought of was the one he needed the most.
Writer: Bongo Jack Hooper
Project Type: Feature Screenplay
Overview: *Misdirection* is a surreal psychological thriller in the Hitchcockian tradition—where aquaphobia, psychosis, and mythic fraud converge in a story of emotional survival and ritual reckoning. Eli Priest, a brilliant polyglot haunted by aquaphobia and episodic psychosis, believes Dr. Elinore Chambers, the psychiatrist who’s been treating his phobia, has betrayed him. His eccentric aunt Sally, manipulated by her investment adviser Marcel de Verrene, is losing her fortune and her identity. Marcel, a self-invented Frenchman with a smoothly comforting accent and a trapdoor soul, orchestrates a mythic fraud that ensnares Eli, Sally, and Jess Torelli, Eli’s fractured but fiercely perceptive lover. As Eli descends into paranoia, Jess begins to pierce Marcel’s mirage. She catches him injured, swearing in a Midwestern twang instead of his usual French lilt. When she confronts him, he terrorizes her with a boxcutter into emotional silence. Marcel strikes again. Fearful that Eli is about to order a forensic audit that will expose his fraud and finish him, Marcel pays an aide to torture and kill Eli, using water as a cold-blooded accomplice. Eli is now clinically dead. But before he drowns, he remembers the origin of his aquaphobia. Dr. Chambers arrives moments later and revives him. The hunt begins. Marcel’s financial fraud is exposed by Gray Elliot, a forensic gunslinger. Marcel snaps. He kidnaps Jess and lures Eli to the plunge pool at Horseshoe Falls. Eli fights through his phobia and rescues Jess. In a way, they rescue each other. Marcel retrieves his gun, only to have it misfire. He spins another bullet into the chamber, but before he can fire, a jagged shard of wood—launched by the falls themselves—pierces his spine. Horseshoe Falls has spoken. Marcel dies face down in the water. Eli carries Jess from the pool, unconscious but alive. They’re getting married, not as victims, not as broken people, but as survivors.
Writer: Genevieve Knights
Country: New Zealand
Project Type: Feature Screenplay
Overview: After her father’s death, a shallow and emotionally distant teen is swept into a mysterious fantasy realm where beauty deceives. To find her way home, she must learn to look beyond appearances, forge genuine connections and rediscover love.
Writer Statement : I asked myself what the most troubling issues are for young people today. I am aware that bullying is still a big issue and always has been but in choosing a concept for Faye to overcome, I went in a different direction. Mobile phones, the internet and social media can create social issues for young people. I am glad that I grew up without all of that. I never heard of the internet until I was 25 years old. We were the last lucky ones to ride our bikes around the neighbourhood and socialise after school. Things are so different now. Screen time needs to be monitored and in their spare times kids are absorbed in social media. And at what cost? It isn’t all bad. You can still talk to your friends online and see what others are doing more easily. But these days, socialising online seems to take priority over time with those in their presence. Consequently, I wrote the Faye Realm. My goal was to highlight the digital disconnection so common today. Kids could take more interest in family history or the challenges of older generations. Instead, the priority of time is focused on social media goals, online friend groups or scrolling to combat boredom.
Writer: Thomas Hauser
Project Type: Feature Screenplay, Sci-Fi Thriller, Dark Comedy
Overview: Luna, a sharp-tongued admin with a fighter’s spirit, finds her routine existence unraveling when an innocent coffee date with the clumsy but well-meaning gym owner, Ted, sparks more than awkward banter, it triggers a series of strange, cosmic occurrences. After Luna mysteriously vanishes from Earth during what should’ve been a night out, she awakens on a hostile alien planet beneath twin moons, fending off monstrous creatures and cryptic threats with nothing but grit and a can of mace. Meanwhile, Ted, baffled and desperate, scours for clues, unaware that Luna’s fate is now entwined with that of Ren, a fierce, enigmatic alien woman whose hidden agenda may determine the survival of more than one world.
Writer: David A. Miller
Country: United States
Project Type: Feature Screenplay
Overview: Olivia Bennet, an ambitious journalist in New York, is banished to Italy’s Amalfi Coast after her magazine exiles her to a “fluff” assignment: tour twenty-one lemon groves in twenty-one days. Arriving with cynicism and heels unfit for cobblestones, she meets her driver, Luca Romano — rugged, rooted, and proudly Amalfitano. Their journey is filled with clashes, banter, and undeniable sparks as they navigate groves steeped in tradition. From flour fights in kitchens to a rickety ladder rescue, barefoot dancing at a wedding to sheltering in a farmhouse storm, Olivia gradually sees that lemons — and the limoncello crafted from them — symbolize patience, heritage, and love. Luca softens, too, gifting her a carved lemon heart and confessing his family’s truths under the stars. Their “almost kisses” become inevitable, culminating in a tender storm-lit embrace. But their fragile bond shatters when Olivia’s magazine runs her story under the sensational headline: “Romance on the Road: 21 Days, 21 Lemons.” Luca feels betrayed, reduced to a cliché. Hurt, he pushes her away. Alone, Olivia realizes each lemon was their story: every grove, every tradition, every laugh. Nonna Rosa gently reminds her: “The sweetest limoncello takes time. So does love. Do not leave before it’s ready.” At the grand Festival of Limoncello, Luca presents his family’s batch, cold and distant. Olivia interrupts, reading her true article aloud: “I came for twenty-one lemons in twenty-one days. But what I found was patience, tradition, and love — love that, like limoncello, begins sour but becomes sweet if you give it time.” The crowd erupts, chanting “bacio!” Luca steps forward: “Do you mean it?” She answers: “Every word.” They kiss, finally aligned, as lantern-lit lemons glow around them. In the epilogue, Olivia stays in Positano, finishing her article at Nonna’s table, Luca bringing her coffee with a smile. Their love, like limoncello, has ripened — proof that sweetness only comes with time.
Writer Statement : I asked myself what the most troubling issues are for young people today. I am aware that bullying is still a big issue and always has been but in choosing a concept for Faye to overcome, I went in a different direction. Mobile phones, the internet and social media can create social issues for young people. I am glad that I grew up without all of that. I never heard of the internet until I was 25 years old. We were the last lucky ones to ride our bikes around the neighbourhood and socialise after school. Things are so different now. Screen time needs to be monitored and in their spare times kids are absorbed in social media. And at what cost? It isn’t all bad. You can still talk to your friends online and see what others are doing more easily. But these days, socialising online seems to take priority over time with those in their presence. Consequently, I wrote the Faye Realm. My goal was to highlight the digital disconnection so common today. Kids could take more interest in family history or the challenges of older generations. Instead, the priority of time is focused on social media goals, online friend groups or scrolling to combat boredom.