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.

Documentary

Anna Fabricius Maps the Female Form as a Landscape of Empowering Transformation in Her Hybrid Short ‘Shaping Change’

Anna Fabricius details how she weaved documentary disclosures with choreographed movement to create her portraiture of the female body's unfolding over time.

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Awards, Live Action

Harry Lighton Navigates the Intersection of Kink and Suburban Mundanity In His Subversive Queer BIFA Feature ‘Pillion

DN alum Harry Lighton discusses crafting a visual language that finds the tenderness within the transgressive intimacy of his tender tale of queer first love.

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Animation, Awards

Baz Sells Crafts an Eden of Queer Black Love in Tender BIFA & BAFTA Nominated Stop Motion Short ‘Two

Baz Sells, Dean Atta & Ben Jackson trace the five-year journey of bringing their animated short to life, a stop-motion tale of self-acceptance and queer love.

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Awards, Live Action

Cal McMau Directs Balletic Violence and Claustrophobic Tension in His BIFA Winning Prison Thriller ‘Wasteman’

Cal McMau reveals how he embraced tight confines when choreographing the violence in his BIFA-nominated debut feature portrait of a merciless prison ecosystem.

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Awards, Live Action

Personal Grief and Political Upheaval Intertwine in Akinola Davies Jr.’s BIFA Winning ‘My Father’s Shadow’

Akinola Davies Jr. discusses the making of his semi-autobiographical feature 'My Father's Shadow', a debut leading this year's BIFAs with 12 nominations.

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Awards, Live Action

Laura Carreira Crafts a Sensory Portrait of Gig Worker Loneliness in Her Multi BIFA Nominated Debut ‘On Falling’

Laura Carreira explains why removing antagonists sharpened her film's critique of the gig economy and its deleterious effect on he isolated Portuguese migrant.

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Live Action

A Grieving Man Confronts Unconscious Desires in Jacob Samuels’ Dark Suburban Comedy ‘I Want My Mommy’

Jacob Samuels guides us through the delicate tonal tightrope of his unconventional tale of grief, cringe-inducing confession and existential woe.

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Awards, Live Action

The Rapid Escalation of Mob Mentality Consumes a Welsh Village in Mac Nixon’s Enigmatic BIFA Nominated Horror ‘Flock’

Mac Nixon discusses building a timeless and stark world in his monochrome horror, where a lone farmer becomes the target of his neighbours' panicked fear.

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Live Action, Premiere

Housemate Tensions Morph Into a Surreal Nightmare in Hansel Rodrigues & Ieuan Coombs’ Comedy ‘An Indirect Message’

Rodrigues & Coombs delve into visualising sleepless anxiety and awkward Britishness with bold theatrical lighting, composed frames and chaotic handheld shots.

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Article

“Would This Exist Without the Brand?” Margo Mars Lays Out LIEF Entertainment’s Approach to Authentic Storytelling

Margo Mars introduces us to LIEF Entertainment Company, a studio launched with the express goal of auteur brands funding premium auteur driven entertainment.

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Film Festival, Live Action

Maternal Love Persists in Zain Duraie’s Claustrophobic Meditation on Motherhood and Mental Health ‘Sink’

Zain Duraie describes building unbearable tension by stretching a mother's denial to its breaking point in her drama about a son's fractured mental health.

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Live Action, Premiere

Jamie McCormack Weaves Grief and Genre Tension Into a Brooding Tale of Fractured Familial Bonds in ‘Mersea’

Jamie McCormack tells us how he transformed a dormant, personal script about loss into a structurally complete saga by adding a sinister, unseen genre element.

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