Live Action Category

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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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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Awards, Live Action

Vanity Propels a Disturbing Longing for the Past in Kathryn Ferguson’s BAFTA Nominated Belfast-Set Short ‘Nostalgie’

Kathryn Ferguson dissects the tonal shift in her Belfast-set drama debut where a faded 80s pop star's hope of reliving his glory days hits a chilling reality.

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Live Action

Caleb J. Roberts Transcends Preconceived Notions of Gay Relationships and Intimacy in His Tender Short ‘Purebred’

Using long, slow takes, Caleb J. Roberts details drawing us almost uncomfortably close into his tender and intimate relationship between on-off-again lovers.

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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

Will Wightman Unleashes the Domestic Disgust of Shared Flats in Insta360 Comedy Horror ‘This Place is a Sh*thole’

Will Wightman explains layering practical chaos with post-production keyframing to craft impossible camera moves in his tale housemate horror.

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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

Firas Itani Charts the Invisible Sisyphean Weight of Everyday Labour in Tense Drama ‘Lower Ground’

Denying any relief, Firas Itani uses framing, contrasting colour & relentless routine to depict skewed power dynamics in his portrait of everyday servitude.

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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

Lope Serrano’s ‘The Cause Of The Accident That Started The Fire’ Turns Creative Crisis Into Meta-Narrative Excellence

We learn why Lope Serrano used a printed waveform as a structural guide to make creative paralysis tangible in his celebrated Spanish film industry showcase.

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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

Gus Reed Choreographs a Delicate Dance of Discontent in His Enigimatic Disquieting Short ‘Losing Season’

Gus Reed breaks down the precise blocking used to map a psychological power struggle when a woman's stagnation is disturbed by an uninvited visitor.

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