Author

About the Author /

Dianora researches how movement weaves through space and life stories, converging in visual and cinematic forms. When not writing for Directors Notes, she’s exploring the crossroads of ecology and culture, petting donkeys, and wandering through hills.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Live Action, Premiere

Randa Ali Traverses a Delicate Exploration of Memory and a Daughter’s Mourning of Her Estranged Father in ‘Mango’

Randa Ali’s 'Mango' depicts the delicate bonds between memory, loss, and the spaces that hold them, as a woman returns to her family house for the last time.

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Live Action

An Intimate, Evocative Dive Into Fertility, Fear, and Women’s Agency Through Magical Realism in Rita Heer’s ‘Abja and Her

Rita Heer breaks down the practical effects process behind using floating resin and edible jelly to physically manifest a woman's egg freezing trepidation.

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Music Video

Sharif Abd el Mawla Explores Dystopic Loneliness & Primal Mating Dances in Surreal Music Video ‘In Search of Yang’

Sharif Abd el Mawla steers us through the "clunky, imperfect, but genuine" movement language used to transform actor Sam Spruell into an otherworldly antihero.

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Live Action, Premiere

Carissa Gallo Navigates Inner Turmoil and External Expectations as a Woman in Shutting Off Drama ‘Someday It Is’

Carissa Gallo explores the quiet tension of inner conflict vs outward perfection as a woman's deep malaise prompts her to flee her life for a desert motel.

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Live Action, Premiere

Annika Chavez Turns a Shared Bathtub Into an Uncertain Stage of Fluid Friendship in Her Wry Short ‘Three Minutes’

Annika Chavez breaks down how experimentation within an organic shoot helped her capture the unspoken weight of a life-changing moment shared in a bathroom.

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Live Action

Lily Rutterford & Lucy Minderides Present a Puppet-Powered Musical Journey Into the Chaos of ‘Dating in Your 20s’

Lily Rutterford & Lucy Minderides recount how they built a bathroom world populated by towel puppets to explore a woman's chaotic mid-date inner monologue.

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Live Action, Premiere

Jessica Barr Blurs Performance And Personal Trauma In Her Intimate, Visually Claustrophobic Acting Short ‘Private Moments’

Jessica Barr discusses using the meta-narrative of an acting class to explore the pressure on female filmmakers to mine personal trauma for their art.

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Live Action

Jack Turits Builds a Surreal, Darkly Humorous Exploration of Societal Absurdity in ‘Pun Intended’

Born from a list of puns, Jack Turits charts how he wove a trio of archetypal stories into a cohesive whole for his absurd wordplay-led situational short.

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