Author

About the Author /

Sarah is a true multi-hyphenate within the film industry. Alongside her role as Associate Editor & Head of Outreach for Directors Notes, her extensive festival experience ranges from MC and juror duties to previously serving as Deputy Director of Brighton Rocks, where she helped steer its growth into a BIFA-qualifying event. Sarah also produces for Brighton film collective The Imaginary Project and contributes as a freelance writer for publications including 1.4 and Shots Magazine.

Live Action, Premiere

A Mother and Daughter Circle the Unspeakable in Amelia Sears’ Quietly Devastating Transposed Mythical Drama ‘Ceres’

Amelia Sears reimagines an ancient myth to explore the invisible weight of coercive control, harnessing the narrative power of stillness and near-touches.

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Live Action, Premiere

A Struggling Couple’s Sexual Revival Takes a Titillating Turn in Kyle Jon Shephard’s Shifting Comedy ‘Role Play’

Discover how Kyle Jon Shephard used subtle performance slips & purposeful camera language to track changing power dynamics, hiding intentions in plain sight.

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Music Video

Saul Abraham Channels Adult Vulnerability Through the Lens of Childhood Innocence in Tender Music Video ‘Tell Him’

Directing children through emotionally weighted material, Saul Abraham focusses in on the construction of his tender school photos collaboration with Truman.

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Live Action, Premiere

Mylissa Fitzsimmons Navigates the Messy Territory of Performing Adulthood in Two-Hander Motel Drama ‘I’m Not Sure’

Mylissa Fitzsimmons unpacks crafting a predatory game, blocking actor movement in a cramped motel to amplify the tension of every glance and approach.

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Live Action, Premiere

A Chronic People Pleaser Goes on a Desperate Mission to Embrace His Dark Side in Louis Paxton’s ‘Tippy Toes’

Louis Paxton discusses his process for finding the sweet spot between raw emotional enquiry and laugh-out-loud ridiculousness in his new micro-budget comedy.

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Live Action, Premiere

Lorenzo Gonnelli Builds Familiar Tension Only to Collapse It in His Morally Suspended Fractured Short ‘Godless Animals’

Lorenzo Gonnelli talks crafting tension through omission and having the unseen carry more weight than any image shown in his genre subverting thriller.

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Live Action

Ben Wheatley Builds a Cardboard Multiverse in His Gloriously Unpolished Lo-Fi British Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Bulk’

Ben Wheatley chats about embracing the joys of DIY aesthetics in his low-budget mind-bending multiverse thriller, where film form echoes narrative function.

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Live Action, Premiere

Charlotte Serena Cooper Dismantles Queer Screen Death Tropes with Genre Pastiche in Riotous Satire ‘Bury Your Gays’

Drawing on years of script supervision, Charlotte Serena Cooper masters the visual grammar of five distinct genres to subvert a tired cinematic cliché.

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Article

Sarah Smith Top Ten Feature Films of 2025

Films about transformation, characters who ache and fall apart magnificently—Sarah Smith shares the ten features that lodged in her heart in 2025.

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Art & Fashion

François Larpin Finds Absurdist Poetry in Restraint in the Surreal Holiday Storytelling of ‘A Festive Tale’

Faced with the saturated festive ad space, François Larpin built a distinctive world, stripping Christmas to its essence for his branded seasonal triptych.

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Live Action

Victor Nauwynck Pumps Primal Desire Into Marital Decay in His Transgressive & Visually Arresting Short ‘The Bull’

Victor Nauwynck discusses how pivoting from a planned, restrained visual style to reactive handheld cinematography unlocked his film's animalistic crescendo.

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Animation, Documentary

Ruben Gagliardini Conjures an Animated Chimera to Battle Corporate Cynicism in His Documentary ‘Macchina Continua’

Ruben Gagliardini talks to DN about constructing a hand-drawn machine-as-character to illuminate the human cost of Italy's deindustrialised heartland.

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