Author

About the Author /

Mark wears all the hats the film festival circuit has to offer. As well as an active filmmaker, he’s the Director of the BAFTA & BIFA-qualifying Exit 6 Film Festival and a Festival Strategist & Liaison at Festival Formula. He’s also a produced feature screenwriter.

Live Action, Premiere

Matt R. Smith Takes Us on a Gripping Ride Through a Stylish Tense Nightmare in WTF Horror ‘The Parish’

Matt R. Smith leads DN through building the disturbing atmosphere of his Lynchian-inspired short where a struggling man confesses his darkest recurring dream.

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Animation, Awards

Beauty and Imagination Meet Tragedy and Triumph in Florence Miailhe’s Oscar-Nominated Animation ‘Papillon’

Oscar nominated director Florence Miailhe argues for the emotional superiority of hand-crafted art over AI while breaking down her tactile animation process.

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Documentary, Premiere

Edie Amos Crafts a Vital Poetic Antidote to the Manosphere’s Toxicity in Her Sam Browne Documentary ‘Just a Boy’

Edie Amos' timely 16mm doc challenges and redefines masculinity in the modern age with a blend of striking visuals and the powerful words of poet Sam Browne.

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Animation, Premiere

Hope Springs Musically Eternal in Guy Larsen’s Delightful Stop-Motion Jazz-Fest Short ‘Root Note’

Guy Larsen's fertile allegorical animated short shows how music, beauty and creativity can sprout and flourish in even the most barren of landscapes.

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Live Action, Premiere

Alex Barnes-Auld’s Barista-Battling Comedy ‘Long Black’ Is a Caffeine-Fuelled Brew Fit to Burst

Alex Barnes-Auld's bladder-busting power struggle comedy combines British humour, the style of a Spaghetti Western, and old school practical effects.

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Documentary

Abdou Cissé’s ‘Authors of the Estate’ Captures the Magic of a Community Taking Their Story Into Their Own Hands

Abdou Cissé details how he documented the power of a council house becoming a publishing house in his film about ownership, creativity and the power of words.

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Live Action

Temperatures & Tensions Rise as a Grifter Faces the Music in Chelsie Pennello’s Hectic Comedy ‘Cherry-Colored Funk’

Orchestrating a symphony of controlled chaos, Chelsie Pennello & Corbett Blair reveal how they used the tiny confines of an ice cream shop set to full effect.

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Live Action, Premiere

Amandine Thomas & Gerardo Coello Escalante Capture the Uneasy Nuance of the Tourism Economy in Drama Short ‘SUSANA’

Amandine Thomas & Gerardo Coello Escalante explain why they broke the fourth wall to implicate viewers in the uncomfortable economic realities of mass tourism.

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Live Action, Premiere

An AI-Powered Sex Robot Exposes a Relationship in Crisis in the Nüesch Sisters’ Dark Comedy ‘Marriage Unplugged’

From a glossy sex shop to a sterile home, sister-directors Florine & Kim Nüesch describe using visual world-building to map a relationship’s decay.

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Live Action, Premiere

Love and Loathing Intertwine in Katie Lambert’s Perfectly Formed Teenage Desire Comedy ‘I Hate Helen’

Katie Lambert take us all back to school and maps out the disco choreography and swimming pool shooting of her effervescent coming of age comedy short.

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Live Action

Isabella Eklöf on Condemning the Ones We Love in Her Adaptation of Nick Cave’s ‘The Death of Bunny Munro’

Isabella Eklöf talks to DN about her TV adaptation of Nick Cave's novel, starring Matt Smith as a sex addicted salesman in what may be his best performance

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Live Action, Premiere

Self-Destruction Stymies a Deadbeat Dad’s Attempt To Reconnect With His Son in George-Alex Nagle’s Taut Drama ‘Mate’

Faced with a flawed ending, George-Alex Nagle explains how a reshoot led to a more complex and ultimately superior conclusion for his fraught familial drama.

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