Short Film Tag Archive

Live Action

An Intimate, Evocative Dive Into Fertility, Fear, and Women’s Agency Through Magical Realism in Rita Heer’s ‘Abja and Her

Rita Heer breaks down the practical effects process behind using floating resin and edible jelly to physically manifest a woman's egg freezing trepidation.

Read more

Music Video

Sharif Abd el Mawla Explores Dystopic Loneliness & Primal Mating Dances in Surreal Music Video ‘In Search of Yang’

Sharif Abd el Mawla steers us through the "clunky, imperfect, but genuine" movement language used to transform actor Sam Spruell into an otherworldly antihero.

Read more

Live Action

Idyllic Surroundings Mask a False Serenity and Something Far More Sinister in Nick Dugan’s ‘Foxhole’

Nick Dugan shares how a fateful trip led to his gripping story of surface beauty and stillness acting as a façade for a sinister and violent reckoning.

Read more

Film Festival

Poignant, Playful and Powerful: 10 Must-Watch Shorts from BFI Flare 2026

DN returns to BFI Flare, the UK's largest queer film festival, to curate a list of 10 unmissable LGBTQIA+ shorts being celebrated during it's 40th edition.

Read more

Live Action

Taryn Ward Reckons With Disorientating Grief in His Quiet, Contemplative Short ‘NEST’

Immersing audiences in isolating silence, Taryn Ward details crafting his intimate portrait of a man mourning his late brother in his now empty house.

Read more

Animation, Premiere

Inside Mine! – How Louis Morton’s Short Film Explores Capitalism and its Environmental Impacts

Louis Morton on befriending rats underground, adapting a great-grandpa's tale and the hand-drawn process of unearthing a climate parable in his SXSW animation.

Read more

Film Festival

SXSW 2026 Guide: 14 Emerging Filmmakers You Need to Know

With the SXSW Film Festival here again Directors Notes took a deep dive into this year's line-up and selected 14-filmmakers with bright futures ahead of them.

Read more

Live Action, Premiere

Rhubarb’s Vivid Pink Bleeds Into the Murky Darkness of Dementia in Steven Boyle’s Stirring Surreal Short ‘Tusky’

Steven Boyle takes us inside crafting a candlelit portrait of dementia that is both unflinching and strangely beautiful as a farmer loses his grip on reality.

Read more

Awards, Live Action

An Unlikely Friendship Blossoms in Lee Knight’s Touching Oscar-Nominated Short Film ‘A Friend of Dorothy’

Clearing the set to calm a nervous icon, Lee Knight reflects on creating a deeply safe and supportive environment for an absolute acting legend to shine.

Read more

Live Action, Premiere

Carissa Gallo Navigates Inner Turmoil and External Expectations as a Woman in Shutting Off Drama ‘Someday It Is’

Carissa Gallo explores the quiet tension of inner conflict vs outward perfection as a woman's deep malaise prompts her to flee her life for a desert motel.

Read more

Awards, Documentary

Hilla Medalia on Silent Protest, Sorrow and Her Oscar-Nominated Documentary ‘Children No More: Were and are Gone’

Hilla Medalia discusses filming a female-led Tel Aviv vigil where silence becomes the most radical, devastating protest against the killing of innocents.

Read more

Awards, Documentary

Alison McAlpine Finds the Universe in the Unhurried Gaze of Donkeys in Oscar-Nominated Doc ‘perfectly a strangeness’

In the vastness of the desert, Alison McAlpine follows three donkeys into an abandoned observatory and discovers a new language for what a story can be.

Read more