Live Action Category

Live Action, Premiere

Konstantin Enste Examines Our Skewed Relationship With AI Assistants in Wry Comedy ‘The Death of the Machine’

Konstantin Enste dissects the need to grow and the self-imposed barriers that can prevent it, through a man’s over-reliance on his overworked AI assistant.

Read more

Live Action

Neeraj Ghaywan Unpacks the “Code 360” Method Behind the Emotional Power of India’s Academy Award Entry ‘Homebound’

Neeraj Ghaywan expounds on how a friendship between two young men in rural India became an Oscar contending universal parable for today’s troubled times.

Read more

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.

Read more

Live Action

A Bottle to the Head Fractures Reality in Theodore Collatos’s Surreal Slamdance Winning New York Short ‘Palookaville’

Theodore Collatos discusses reflecting the fractured reality suffered following sudden head trauma through the associational editing of his surreal short.

Read more

Live Action

A Fleeting Encounter Unlocks a World of Whimsical Possibility in David Ma’s ‘The Dancing Girl and The Balloon Man’

David Ma reveals how long lenses and a documentary approach grounded his film about a blooming romance between a dim sum shop assistant and a street performer.

Read more

Live Action, Premiere

Steph Barkley Wrestles With the Volatile, Physical Language of Sibling Rivalry in Murderous Short ‘Sisters’

Steph Barkley explores how a literal messy fight became a narratively rich metaphorical expression of the oft unspoken love and violence of sisterhood.

Read more

Live Action, Premiere

A Floating Nation of Trash Becomes an Unlikely Sanctuary for Second Chances in Tobia Passigato’s Eco-Fable ‘Wasted’

Tobia Passigato reveals how building a real trash island at sea fuelled the punk filmmaking spirit of his powerful tale of human and environmental redemption.

Read more

Live Action

Rosie May Bird Smith Hatches a Surreal Sisterhood From Biological Clock Anxiety in Comedy Short ‘Egg Timer’

Rosie May Bird Smith discusses rejecting CGI in favour of in-camera effects for the opinionated ovarian eggs in her riotous take on fertility anxiety.

Read more

Live Action

Ali Gill Weighs the Nobility of Truth Against the Power of Conformity in Absurdist Satire ‘Party Animal’

Ali Gill details how the voyeuristic cinematography in his allegorical short framed the descent into political madness of a man whose truth falls on deaf ears.

Read more

Live Action

Jim Hosking Unleashes the Absurdist Alchemy of Musical Legends Stevie & Paul in Revisionist Biopic ‘Ebony & Ivory’

Jim Hosking reveals how trusting his unique instincts and fostering intuitive collaborations allows him to create his polarizing, personal brand of comedy.

Read more

Live Action

Riley Donigan Manifests Mental Anguish Through Grotesque Body Horror in His Profoundly Human Short ‘Shithead’

Riley Donigan explains how he utilised slow zooms, frenetic editing and prosthetics to express a struggling young man's accelerating descent into madness.

Read more

Live Action, Premiere

Albert Bullock’s ‘Love Is Real’ Replaces Cinematic Romanticism With a Striking Dissection of the Nature of Love

Following a split, a disconnected couple set out to confront the mechanics of intimacy in Albert Bullock's compelling exploration of modern connection.

Read more