Female Protagonist Tag Archive

Animation, Documentary

Eoin Duffy’s ‘Christine Sinclair: Kind of a Big Deal’ Finds Inspiration in the Quiet Leadership of a Football Icon

Eoin Duffy returns to Directors Notes to discuss meeting the animated challenge of documenting the most prolific goal scorer in international soccer history.

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Live Action, Premiere

Elias Suhail Follows a Young Mother to the Excruciating Edge of an Impossible Decision in ‘Beneath a Mother’s Feet’

Through near-wordless accumulation and visions of djinn and dread, Elias Suhail honours the gravity of a departure his film refuses to make easy.

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Live Action

Camila de Ilhéus Turns the Agony of Online Dating, Language Slips and a Brazilian Wax Into Cringe Comedy ‘Sofia’

Static frames, held beats and a sly aspect ratio shift power Camila de Ilhéus' squirm-inducing story of first impressions gone excruciatingly wrong.

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Live Action

Prey Turns Predator as Jacob Hopewell Aims the Male Gaze Back on Itself in Visceral Horror Short ‘MEAT’

Born from Abi Zakarian's blistering stage monologue, Jacob Hopewell turns the male gaze inside out, resulting in a raw and genuinely terrifying confrontation.

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Live Action, Premiere

Sisterhood Turns Up Where a Husband Never Will in Kitty Percy’s Bittersweet Roadside Comedy Drama ‘For Better’

Kitty Percy's short roots for solidarity over romance as a lonely woman on a roadside in a wedding dress realises she's been waiting for the wrong thing.

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Animation

Exploring Survival Mechanisms and Resilience in Laurence Thérien’s Annecy-Winning Short Film ‘Ball Face’

Fresh from winning the Cristal for a Graduation Film at the 2026 Annecy Festival, Laurence Thérien joins us to discuss RCA short film 'Ball Face'.

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Live Action

Grief Wears the Face of a Stranger Who Arrives With the Storm in Kalani Gacon’s Himalayan Drama ‘Family Man’

Kalani Gacon conjures a missing father from the rain in his near-wordless Himalayan myth where image, weather and a single song carry the unsayable.

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Live Action, Premiere

The Guest of Honour Won’t See Out Her Own Birthday in Kalainithan Kalaichelvan’s Darkly Comic Tamil Short ‘Karupy’

Across shifting chapters, Kalainithan Kalaichelvan pieces together a grandmother whose family realise how little of her inner life they ever truly knew.

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Live Action

Marissa Goldman Mines the Voyeurism and Loneliness of Online Life for Off-Kilter Comedy Short ‘Max Distance’

Marissa Goldman crafts a mirror-laced world where digital loneliness turns into a surreal, tender, and darkly funny study of human obsession.

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Live Action, Premiere

The Blaine Brothers Revisit a Seismic Family Event to Inspire Single-Take Comedy Drama ‘Undeletable’

The Blaine Brothers revisit the exact spot of a supremely awkward family revelation to capture their single-take voicemail short starring Sophia Di Martino.

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Live Action

An Otherworldly Mollusk Magnifies a Flawed Relationship in Nathan Mark Ginter’s Practical FX Short ‘Steak Dinner’

Nathan Mark Ginter's 16mm NEON & Kodak supported practical FX anti-rom-com centres a wounded, otherworldly creature as it stress tests a couple's relationship.

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Live Action, Premiere

A Mother and Two Daughters Circle Their Shared History in Chanelle Eidenbenz’s Subtly Searing Short ‘Resort’

Mosaic editing and a rich sonic world coalesce in Chanelle Eidenbenz's auto-fictional short where a fractured family orbits each other without quite landing.

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