Directors Notes // The Home of Independent Filmmaking

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.

Live Action

A Late-Night Senior Prank Curdles Into a Tense Class Standoff in Sam & David Cutler-Kreutz’s ‘Trapped’

Sam & David Cutler-Kreutz pit a high school janitor against privileged graduating students in their high-stakes drama that proves money can't buy class.

Live Action, Premiere

James Button Delivers a One-Man Ensemble DIY Duck Themed Apocalypse in Horror Comedy ‘The Quackening’

James Button delivers a duck-themed apocalypse nobody knew they needed: a no-budget, one-man Welsh comedy horror that gleefully makes filmmaking fun again.

Live Action, Premiere

Tim Nathan Skewers Late-Stage Capitalist Britain in Absurdist Comedy ‘Thoughts & Prayers’

Combining precise cinematography with dry humour, Tim Nathan reveals how he grounded absurdity in truth in his comic take on contemporary Britain.

Live Action, Premiere

Dangerous Obsession Hides Beneath the Intimacy of a Shave in Luigi Sibona’s Psychosexual Thriller ‘In Your Hands’

Shaving scenes choreographed to flirt with murder anchor Luigi Sibona's psychosexual thriller about desire projected onto an indifferent stranger.