Word of Mouth

From sunny visuals to surreal decay, Danny Jelinek breaks down the gamified nightmare world of Word of Mouth - starring Aliya Kamalovaand, Kim Seltzer and the disconcertingly friendly AI voice of Rhys Darby - which sees a lonely young woman become addicted to an AI-driven mobile app that commodifies her conversations.

Good Luck Fuck Face

Oli Beale talks to DN about the freedom he found in the writing of his debut short Good Luck Fuck Face, a biting comedy where two friends brainstorm the perfect cancel-worthy barbs to get career-ending payback on a cheating husband.

Goosecam

Ira Groza lays bare the simple but incredibly effective way in which she created the surreal Girls Scout Studio webcam short Goosecam - where a static camera stream fractures as cultural fragments emerge, transforming apparent exploitation into an examination of how personal history inhabits digital performance.

Girls on Film

Anna Smith joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about her career, building the Girls On Film Podcast and Awards into an important force in the cinematic landscape, the shifting dynamics of criticism and why the fight for diversity in film is far from over—even as we celebrate hard-won progress.

And The Cranes Kept Dancing

Animator Natasza Cetner returns to Directors Notes to discuss how “being constantly worried” about her work made her rethink her priorities and create And the Cranes Kept Dancing - a hypnotic animated short with woodcut-inspired visuals.