Films:

1. DZIFA Dir: Savannah Acquah (UK, 2022)  19:48

Esther and Chioma try to connect as Chioma struggles to fully understand the nuances of Esther’s life as a non-binary person. But through a queering of a Ghanaian naming ceremony, the couple are invited to reconnect in a celebration of diasporic Black queer joy.

2. FIRST STEP SWIM, Dir: Caitlin McMullan (UK, 2023) 6:56

First Step Swim follows Caitlin on a journey of wild swimming as she navigates not only her relationship to her body, but also to the water and space in which she inhabits through this short film.

3. ITCHING, Dir: Catherine Marriott-Brown (UK, 2023) 7:41

Shot on 16mm film, Itching tells the story of a lonely young mudlark with an itch she just can’t scratch.

4. ORIGINAL SKIN, Dir: Mdhamiri á Nkemi (UK, 2023) 12:20

In an alternate world where having sex means swapping bodies with the other person, a young woman struggles to be herself, defying her small conservative community where swapping is taboo. A deeply intimate portrait of identity in transition.

5. SUPERVISION, Dir: Sophie Colquhoun (UK, 2022) 13:29

Bea, an isolated and psychologically abused girl decides that rather than turn into her mother, she will instead become a spider. The decision to transform herself into a spider is one that propels her through an otherwise empty existence until the discovery that her mother too had tried to do the same in her youth. This transgenerational wound, bonds mother and daughter under the shadow of the spider and all that could’ve been.

Films:

1. SEE YOU IN THE DARK, Dir: Asena Nour (UK, 2022)  17:51

On the opening night of a group exhibition, Nora, a young female artist is hacked by an ominous troll. What follows is a descent into sexual trauma, as she and her friend Kyra search for the perpetrator in a night-long odyssey.

2. TWITCHING, Dir: Madelaine Moore (UK, 2022) 14:54

When Ella discovers that her internet date, the recently bereaved Mark, sleeps in a giant bird’s nest made of clothes, she must choose whether to stay in her own comfort zone, or take part in his unconventional grieving process.

3. PERSONAL EFFECTS, Dir: Will Webb (UK, 2022) 10:48

After her brother's death, Katie meets with his ex-girlfriend to solve a mystery: the personalised mix CD he left her.

4. THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH CHRIS AND LIV, Dir: Louisa Harris, Daniel Rands (UK, 2022) 13:19

Chris & Liv do everything together, or at least Liv thought they did. As the besties get ready for a wedding reception, the cracks in their friendship start to surface between the borrowed clothes, backhanded compliments & bloodied noses.

5. LA BRIDE (THE DOG’S LEASH), Dir: Nicolas Piret (Belgium, 2022) 3:48

The bell tower rings and the birds fly away.
In the countryside on the outskirts of a small village, a dog tied to a very long rope, watches them disappear in the horizon.
It’s time for him to go;
Prance across fields;
How far will his rope allow him to go ?

6. ANOTHER DEAD SAILOR, Dir: Jack Lennard Willoughby (UK, 2022) 9:34

A modern fable about a sceptical young Smoker who has been sat in a busy pub listening to his drunk Conspiracy Theorist friend’s countless outlandish beliefs. One of which is the ancient maritime myth that “if you light a cigarette with a candle, an innocent sailor dies at sea”. The young smoker grows weary of the bullshit, so makes an excuse to smoke a cigarette outside. But forgetting his lighter, he uses one of the pub’s candles...

Films:

1. SOUTH FACING, Dir: Reneque Samuels (UK, 2023) 10:40

When a headstrong daughter confronts the new owner of her family’s former shop, she's faced with an uncomfortable revelation.

2. RISE, Dir: SHIRZAN Anon (UK, 2022) 10:40

Inspired by real life accounts of Iranian refugees who worked alongside the director to develop this story, we see Niloo, a teenage girl resisting the patriarchal ‘morality police’ who kidnap her from the streets of Tehran.

3. SCRUTINY, Dir: James Quinn (UK, 2022) 9:00

On a bus journey across south London, a young man’s anxiety spirals into a vortex of self-doubt and torment - causing him to question: can he trust his memories? An illustration of the process and impact of anxiety, and the demands of city life that intensify it.

4. AFTERPARTY, Dir: Alex Matraxia (UK, 2022) 9:06

Charlie goes through their usual routine; a record on the vinyl player, sifting through old photos, preparing themselves a bath. But one evening, Charlie’s bathtime is interrupted by some old friends who decide they’re going to crash – friends they haven’t seen in years. Though Charlie is bitter about old history and reluctant to host, their friends help them come to terms with what they’ve gone through and what it means to remember – especially for Charlie who floats seamlessly between the past and the present.

5. LIAR, Dir: Lottie Graham (UK, 2022) 5:40

Abisola uses her imagination to hide from her home life, until her friends find out.

6. OUTDOORS, Dir: John Mark Fitzpatrick (UK, 2022) 13:00

Bim and Nathan meet in the park and have immediate chemistry. But Bim finds himself too exposed when a chance encounter reveals what he’s trying to hide.

7. YOU FIT THE DESCRIPTION, Dir: Davy Lazare (UK, 2022) 12:00

You Fit the Description is a short film that flips the script on Stop & Search. Nico, a young black man, will harness the power of his community to send a message to the justice system - but at what cost to himself?

Films:

1. TEXT ME WHEN YOU ARE HOME XX, Dir: Niklas Bauer (Germany, 2022)  10:00

At night, a woman enters a stranger’s car, casually and voluntarily. But soon she begins to sense the dangerous situation she might be in.

2. FITTING, Dir: Caitlin McMullan (UK, 2023) 10:51

FITTING explores the relationship between the director, an amputee, and her prosthetist, by their contrasting experiences during the making of a prosthetic leg. It asks what it means for to create an extension to someone else’s body, and the impact this has on both maker and amputee. Demystifying this unfamiliar space and experience for the viewer, and questioning stereotyping and prejudice widely seen within our society's consideration of body image.

3. THE PLANT COLLECTOR, Dir: Kathryn MacCorgarry Gray (UK, 2022) 4:50

Julia collects plants from all over, particularly the gardens of notorious killers across the UK.

4. MANMADE, Dir: Plum Stupple-Harris (UK, 2023) 15:00

Funerals can be true male environments where men want to cry but refuse to while their past rides up to hit them. Eddie Holgate is caught in this exact situation. His father has built him up all his life to be tough in an attempt to trickle down his masculinity. But as a tumultuous and charged service at his team's football pitch sparks unwanted memories, Eddie is forced to examine the man he idolised his father to be against the husband and caregiver he very much was not. With the help of his older brother, Joe, Eddie manages to unpick years of emotional neglect and abuse, and finally, allows himself to cry.

5. THE CALL, Dir: Riffy Ahmed (UK, 2023) 13:52

During a difficult visit to her single immigrant mother, Athena discovers that what she thought was age-related mental decline is in fact an inherited magical gift.

6. NO BALL GAMES, Dir: Sam Brewster (UK, 2023) 2:35

Compassion casts you out. In this cyclical fever dream, a woman struggles to win over the crowd.

7. HIDDEN FROM VIEW, Dir: Celine Hunter (UK, 2022) 15:25