Grad Short Archives - Directors Notes

Jordan Chandler Plunges Us Into a Mother’s Relentless Surreal Nightmare in Her Psychological Wild Ride ‘Brutal’

Jordan Chandler talks about channelling her righteous indignation into her blistering thriller about a mother on a Sisyphean quest to save her missing child.

Live Action, Premiere

Strut Into the Sordid Fetishised Underworld of LA’s Karaoke Bar Scene in Naomi Christie’s ‘Object of Desire’

Naomi Christie speaks about the micro-aggressions and lived experiences which informed the seedy reality of her darkly comic tale of race objectification.

Animation

Naaman Azhari Explores the Gulf Between a Mother’s Expectations and Her Son’s Reality in Rotoscoped Film ‘Threaded’

Naaman Azhari champions the creative flexibility of the bare bones live action footage underpinning the rotoscoped animation of his mother/son drama.

Live Action, Premiere

Nathan Ginter’s Darkly Comic Body Horror ‘The Third Ear’ Sees a Nude Model’s Self-Image Begin to Spiral

Nathan Ginter takes us inside the ways he and his crew maximised the potential and adaptability of their locations when crafting their body horror grad short.

Live Action

Hazel Mckibbin Scrutinises Intricate Gendered Power Dynamics In Her Subtextual Drama ‘She Always Wins’

Hazel McKibbin talks about building an intricate dance of dominance, deference and self-diminishment between lovers and family in her charged drama short.

Live Action

A Desperate Romantic Is Prescribed a Rebound in Julie Magnaudet’s Conceptual Rom-Com ‘Broken Hearts’

Julie Magnaudet breaks down the colourful, warm and subversive visual language of her conceit-driven romantic comedy about a women seeking love life help.

Documentary

Miranda Stern’s Cathartic NFTS Documentary ‘milk’ Is an Intimate Exploration of Maternity, Addiction and Loss

Miranda Stern unpacks the cathartic and narrative reasons she opted for an abstract, mixed media scrapbook-style approach for her self-explorative doc short.

Animation

Mansi Maheshwari Depicts the Nightmarish Nature of Parental Lies in Feverish Animated Cannes Short ‘Bunnyhood’

Mansi Maheshwari walks DN through how she created the intense and frenetic scrawled animation style of her manic Cannes-selected NFTS grad short.

Live Action, Premiere

David Robinson-Smith Depicts the Lingering Nature of Trauma and Guilt in His Searing Drama Short ‘Mud Crab’

David Robinson-Smith discusses the considered active cinematography employed in his haunting short where an unreliable narrator recounts a violent assault.

Live Action

Lies of Optimism Weigh on a Struggling Father in Remi R.M. Moses’ Heartfelt Graduate Short ‘Saving Art’

Remi R.M. Moses explains the alternate directorial approaches used for the adult and child actors in his intimate drama about a father struggling to find hope.

Animation

A Rite of Passage Fishing Ritual Challenges a Father-Son Relationship in Ross Stringer’s BAFTA Winner ‘Crab Day’

Ross Stringer breaks down the deceptively minimal monochrome colour palette he used to tell the thematically rich story of his NFTS graduate short.

Film Festival

10 Stellar Shorts by Upcoming Filmmakers at London Film School’s 2024 Graduate Showcase

Celebrating the best shorts by promising graduate filmmakers, DN spotlights the films on offer at London Film School's 2024 showcase.

Grad Short Tag Archive