Directors Notes // The Home of Independent Filmmaking

Giovanna Molina Deploys the Power of Silence and Raw Honesty Between Teens in High School Drama ‘Quaker’

Giovanna Molina reflects on her experiences of speaking truth to power and embracing silence in her short inviting us into the misunderstood world of Quakers.

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.

Film Festival

10 Genre-Spanning Short Films That Capture the Essence of SXSW London 2026

DN takes a closer look at the wide short film selection of the second edition of SXSW London, selecting 10 must-watch titles for you to hunt down.

Article, Sponsored

“If I Get Fired For This, At Least It’s a Great Film” Editor-in-Chief Holly Fraser on Commissioning at WePresent

WeTransfer's arts platform WePresent commissions provocative director-led shorts, backing filmmakers with the creative freedom, funding and reach to make them.

Live Action, Premiere

David Liu Builds a Lifetime of History Between Lovers in His Temporally Fluid Short ‘A Song for Gracie’

Past and present blur at a Mojave gas station as David Liu's elegiac short asks what it means to carry every version of yourself into an uncertain future.

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.

Live Action

Profound Solitude Slowly Collapses Around a Sheltered Farmer in Billy Chester’s Stark Swedish Island Short ‘Bonde’

Billy Chester traded a composed score for ambient texture and dialogue for half-murmurs in his enthralling rendering of a secluded farmer's isolation.

Live Action

Ross O’Donnellan’s Tender Directorial Debut ‘Bedcrumbs’ Sits Inside the Quiet Erosion of a Failing Relationship

Shot on 16mm in sweaty, dreamlike hues, Ross O'Donnellan's queer chamber piece watches non-monogamy fail as a bandage stretched over a broken bone.

Film Festival, Live Action

Cannes Double-Hitter Vida Skerk Finds Solidarity in the Industrial Sublime in Haunting ‘Left Behind, Still Standing’

Vida Skerk's second consecutive La Cinef Cannes selected short binds a closing British steelworks and the immigrant overseeing it into one haunted reckoning.