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.

Awards, Documentary

Huiju Park Directs Herself Through Family Trauma With Narrative Precision in BAFTA Doc Short ‘Welcome Home Freckles’

The second documentary nominated for Best British Short, Huija Park separates filmmaker from self in an intimate return home after four years of silence.

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Live Action, Premiere

Emotional Repression Becomes Public Health Crisis in Emma Doxiadi’s Allegorical ‘Something Like The End of The World’

Personal heartbreak unfolds into urgent social commentary as Emma Doxiadi's genre-straddling short transforms emotional asymmetry into literal collapse.

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Film Festival

10 Shorts That Left Their Mark from the 48th Edition of Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival

DN returned to the world's largest short film festival to uncover 10 standout films from Clermont-Ferrand's expertly curated 48th edition programmes.

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Live Action, Premiere

Radical Vulnerability Powers a Deliriously Earnest Exploration of Selfhood in Collaborative Drama ‘The Unexpressed’

Dancing between sincerity & surrealism 'The Unexpressed's' creative collaborators discuss rejecting conflict in favour of shared unravelling in their sismance.

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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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