Grad Short Archives - Directors Notes

Faris Alrjoob Crafts a Beguiling Mystery of Love with Cannes-Premiering Short ‘The Red Sea Makes Me Wanna Cry’

Through enigmatic voiceover, elliptical editing and gorgeous Super 16mm frames, Faris Alrjoob reveals how he created a mysterious reverie on closure.

Film Festival, Live Action

Grief & Political Rage Converge in Musa Alderson-Clarke’s Searing Cannes Selected Thriller ‘Killing Boris Johnson’

Musa Alderson-Clarke takes DN through the challenge of baking white hot tension into the fabric of his Cannes premiering short about a young man in turmoil.

Live Action, Premiere

Chloe Sarbib’s ‘Jensen’ Finds a Songwriter Struggling to Retain Her Sense of Self Before Taking Centre Stage

Chloe Sarbib explains why she deliberately engendered shifts in her directing style for her heartfelt music drama about identity and self-examination.

Animation

A Spiral of Self-Doubt Ensues When a Woman Finds a Grey Hair in Eilidh Nicoll’s Animated Short ‘Silvering’

Eilidh Nicoll discusses the practical and creative purpose behind the stark black, white, pink and green colour scheme of her short about ageing insecurity.

Live Action

Sachin Dheeraj’s ‘Men in Blue’ Viscerally Exposes the Modern Slave Labour Inflicted on Immigrant Guest Workers

Sachin Dheeraj discusses the visual language he used to depict the deplorable true story of men stripped of their dignity for profit by modern day slavery.

Film Festival

Ten Tantalising Picks from the National Film and Television School’s 2023 Graduate Showcase

As this year's graduate showcase kicks off, DN delivers a list of ten short films from the latest NFTS cohort that are definitely worth checking out.

Film Festival

Ten Captivating Short Films From Emerging Filmmakers at London Film School’s 2023 Graduate Showcase

A testament to imagination, DN recommends a plethora of impressive short films from the early-career filmmakers graduating from LFS in 2023.

Live Action, Premiere

Two Lonely Cat Enthusiasts Connect in Brendan Prost’s Eerie Bifurcated Character Drama ‘Heavy Petting’

Brendan Prost breaks down the pivotal tonal shift at the centre of his unsettling examination of loneliness and desolation.

Live Action, Premiere

Naomi Pacifique Excavates the Intertwined Nature of Bodies and Intimacy in Her LFS Grad Short ‘after a room’

Naomi Pacifique reveals how she wanted to alter on-screen representations of the body through her intimate, exploratory London Film School graduate short.

Animation

A Young Artist Falls Into Nostalgic Pitfalls in Ewa Smyk’s Wistful Hand-Painted Animated Short ‘Homebird’

Ewa Smyk tells DN how she combined 3D modelling with hand-drawn 2D animation to speed up the lengthy creation process of her NFTS grad short.

Animation

Richan Li’s Zany Head-Swapping Animated Short ‘Babble Bubble’ Explores a Hyper-Modern Identity Crisis

Richan Li explains the underlying metaphorical implications of the surreal animal heads her protagonist Norah dons in her 2D animated short.

Live Action, Premiere

The Inevitability of Death Invigorates a Renewed Sense of Life in Omar Kakar’s ‘Man in the Morgue’

Omar Kakar discusses the alchemy of the editing process which enabled him to straddle genres without leaving his audience adrift in a sea of confusion.

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