Student Film Archives - Directors Notes

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.

Live Action, Premiere

Manuel Tröndle Crafts a Moving Portrait of Queer Life Under the Horrors of Conversion Therapy in ‘Mending’

Manuel Tröndle explains how he created his poetic short about conversion therapy with close camerawork, an immersive feel and a fine sense of montage.

Live Action

Michael Lazovsky’s Historical Holocaust Horror ‘Magdalena’ Acutely Captures the Difficulty of Letting Go of Trauma

With terrifying transitions, a foreboding tone and a Soviet-era atmosphere, Michael Lazovsky discusses collapsing past trauma and present reality.

Film Festival

10 Must-Watch Shorts from the London Film School’s 2022 Graduate Showcase

DN dishes out a stacked list of ten distinctively cinematic short films from the London Film School's 2022 graduate showcase.

Live Action

Phumi Morare Demonstrates a Woman’s Extraordinary Defiance in the Face of Oppression in ‘When the Sun Sets’

Phumi Morare reveals how she authentically represented her apartheid set Student Oscar-winning film about a woman's determination to protect her family.