Bedcrumbs

"We initially anticipated setting up very stylised shots, but as everything came together, we found ourselves pulled towards a much more naturalistic style and shooting predominantly handheld."

For his tender directorial debut Bedcrumbs, writer/director Ross O'Donnellan talks to DN about the cinematography pivot that shaped the film's final look, where we bear witness to a couple's flailing relationship as the carousel of lovers invited into their bed only serves to reveal how far apart they are.

Bonde

"Once we removed the score, the whole film changed. The house started to speak. The pauses became heavier. The audience had to sit inside the world instead of being guided through it."

Filmmaker Billy Chester breaks down the formal discipline behind Bonde, his stark Swedish island short in which a sheltered farmer confronts the collapse of his routines after suddenly being left to navigate the world on his own. It's a film that trades exposition for ambient texture and dialogue for half-murmurs, trusting the audience to listen at a pitch ordinary cinema rarely demands.

Resort

"It felt more like we were navigating a mosaic, and as soon as you pushed one part one way, all the others could instantly lose their place as a consequence. Or find their place."

Building a fragmented edit where each scene threatens to dislodge the rest, Chanelle Eidenbenz discusses the post-it manifesto behind her subtly searing autofictional NFTS grad short Resort, in which a mother and her two adult daughters quietly collide during a family holiday.

A Song for Gracie

"I wanted to anchor this idea of memory as landscape, and build images and sequences that speak to stillness, grief, and possibility."

David Liu talks us through finding the visual language for his temporally fluid story around love and ghosts, A Song for Gracie—where the High Desert carries everything two weary lovers can't bring themselves to say.

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

"That's when we get excited about filmmaking — when we see something that can poke under the skin of what people think and start interesting conversations and debates. That's when you know you're making interesting work."

WePresent, the arts platform from WeTransfer, not only commissions provocative director-led short films, it backs their makers with the freedom, funding and reach to create exactly the work they want, while providing a worldwide audience eager to watch it. In our extensive partner conversation, WePresent editor-in-chief Holly Fraser outlines how the platform approaches commissioning, production support and a distribution model which sees directors retain the rights to their films — and why they, "Don't want to work with artists who are too safe".

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

Now in its second year, SXSW London is the European edition of the long-running Austin-based festival. Italian film critic and journalist Veronica Orciari digs into the festival’s 2026 shorts for DN, exploring its thematic strands across Brief Encounters, Distant Voices, Ghosts, Ghouls and Glitches, Human Nature and Protest Will Not Be Tolerated, among others. Here are the ten most compelling shorts from this year's programme for you to hunt down.