Directors Notes // The Home of Independent Filmmaking

Anna Hopkins Cooks Up Connection After Closing Time in Restaurant Set Two-Hander ‘Dish Pit’

Eschewing restaurant chaos for stillness, Anna Hopkins’ short film finds drama in small gestures, shared meals and intimate conversations after closing.

Live Action

Natural Selection Comes to Homeroom as Kyle Sims Pits Teacher Against Student in His Wordless Thriller ‘Galapagos’

A snake that wouldn't strike, a craigslist rabbit and a wordless script — Kyle Sims takes us inside his unnerving tale of shifting classroom power dynamics.

Documentary, Premiere

Jacque Rabie Sets Aside Judgement to Find the Man Inside Japan’s Museum of Sex Dolls in ‘Hyodo’s Paradise’

Jacque Rabie discusses trust, intimacy and confronting his own relationship with sexuality while making a doc about the man behind Japan's museum of sex dolls.

Film Festival

10 Unforgettable Short Films DN Spotted at Sarajevo Film Festival 2026

A bold, strange and unforgettable selection lights up this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, bringing fresh voices and unexpected stories to the screen.

Live Action

Two Sisters Fracture Under a Collapsing World in Leandros Braounos & Daniel Howells’ Afrikaans Short ‘Winter Slaap’

Guilt, grief and inherited expectation press down on two sisters in Leandros Braounos & Daniel Howells' wintry portrait of family disintegration.

Film Festival

Filmmakers of the Future: 10 Essential Shorts from the Locarno Film Festival

From war and political unrest to grief, tech and climate crisis, these 10 Locarno shorts showcase the radical, inventive voices shaping cinema's future.

Live Action

Li Anne Liew’s Gentle Ghost Drifts Through Strangers’ Secret Selves in ‘glide (all the people i’ll never be)’

In Li Anne Liew's tender ghost story reverie, a young woman wanders Los Angeles unseen as she mourns the life she's leaving and the ones she'll never live.

Live Action

Defiant Black Trans Sisterhood Crashes Upscale Gentrification in Nana Duffuor’s Heist Short ‘Rainbow Girls’

As tech money prices them out of their own city, Nana Duffuor's trio of friends turn brazen luxury theft into an act of belonging, defiance and love.

Live Action

Nathan Xia Interrogates Hollywood Representation and Personal Ego in Satirical Short ‘Flavor of the Month’

What do you do when your values are at odds with your own ambitions? Nathan Xia turns that question into a squirming, darkly comic piece of self-scrutiny.