Directors Notes // The Home of Independent Filmmaking

Sisterhood Turns Up Where a Husband Never Will in Kitty Percy’s Bittersweet Roadside Comedy Drama ‘For Better’

Kitty Percy's short roots for solidarity over romance as a lonely woman on a roadside in a wedding dress realises she's been waiting for the wrong thing.

Art & Fashion

Freddie Leyden Channels the Unspoken Grief of Rural Irish Men Into Ghostly Surreal Dance Film ‘FARMERS!?’

Freddie Leyden asks where grief goes when a man has no outlet for it, answering with dance, folklore and the uncanny beauty of rural Irish life.

Animation

Exploring Survival Mechanisms and Resilience in Laurence Thérien’s Annecy-Winning Short Film ‘Ball Face’

Fresh from winning the Cristal for a Graduation Film at the 2026 Annecy Festival, Laurence Thérien joins us to discuss RCA short film 'Ball Face'.

Art & Fashion, Music Video, Premiere

Tony Farfalla Turns the Lingering Ghost of a Past Love Into a Tender Duet in ‘The Space Between Us’

A shared cigarette becomes an intricate mechanism of connection and restraint in Tony Farfalla's intimate dance short exploring the innumerable forms of love.

Live Action

Grief Wears the Face of a Stranger Who Arrives With the Storm in Kalani Gacon’s Himalayan Drama ‘Family Man’

Kalani Gacon conjures a missing father from the rain in his near-wordless Himalayan myth where image, weather and a single song carry the unsayable.

Live Action, Premiere

The Guest of Honour Won’t See Out Her Own Birthday in Kalainithan Kalaichelvan’s Darkly Comic Tamil Short ‘Karupy’

Across shifting chapters, Kalainithan Kalaichelvan pieces together a grandmother whose family realise how little of her inner life they ever truly knew.

Live Action

Marissa Goldman Mines the Voyeurism and Loneliness of Online Life for Off-Kilter Comedy Short ‘Max Distance’

Marissa Goldman crafts a mirror-laced world where digital loneliness turns into a surreal, tender, and darkly funny study of human obsession.

Animation, Film Festival

10 Astonishing Animations from Annecy’s 50th Edition

DN takes a closer look at the 2026 short film programme at Annecy, selecting 10 wondrous titles for you to keep an eye out for.

Live Action

Grief Becomes an Addictive Vice in the Back Rooms of Julian Doan’s Surreal ‘Long’s Long Lost & Mini Mart’

Julian Doan turns a Little Saigon mini mart into a purgatory where the grieving buy one last conversation with the dead beside the booze and lotto.