FARMERS!?

"The image of these farmers dancing arrived almost fully formed. It was such a specific vision that I felt there must be something buried within it. There was enough mystery, emotion and contradiction baked into that image for me to believe an entire world could grow from it."

Freddie Leyden unpacks dismantling the bleak stereotypes of rural masculinity and shaping unexpressed emotions into instinctive choreography in his Ireland-set experimental short ‘FARMERS!?’, in which he turns the inner worlds of his countrymen into a living painting where rituals of everyday life and folklore intertwine.

For Better

"If unwantedness is the malaise of our age, then 'For Better' doesn't attempt to find an answer. Instead, it suggests we gather around what we can't understand and try to grapple with it (or burn it down) together."

Writer-director Kitty Percy on modern loneliness, the tonal tightrope between sweetness and real threat, and choosing communion over a tidy resolution in her bittersweet comedy drama 'For Better' — in which Alice Lowe stars as a lonely woman who waits at the side of an A-road in a wedding dress, holding a sign that reads MARRY ME, convinced the right stranger can fix her.

MEAT

"The camera is a point of reference. It's there amongst it all, figuring things out for itself. It doesn't give you an answer, but lets you ask the question of how you feel about this character in this predicament."

Making his leap from commercials into narrative film, Jacob Hopewell turns the male gaze back on itself in visceral horror short 'MEAT'. Born from Abi Zakarian’s blistering stage monologue, it follows a dishevelled woman who walks into a room of silent men to recount her night, until hunters become the hunted.

Discipline

"A lot of my work explores identity, what happens when someone’s obsession can define them and the control, or lack of control, they demand over what makes them who they are. Sean’s case particularly stood out to me, as he is not in control of his career or success."

Colin Peppard digs into his 'Discipline' music video for Makeshirt Art Bar, exploring the relationship between Harry Styles tribute artist Sean McNicholas and the man himself, capturing this stunning portrait in Benidorm over a few days with a skeleton crew, and how the thumping track perfectly contrasts with the colour and absurdity of the Spanish seaside town.

SEED

"I decided early on that I wanted the film to feel like a nature documentary from another planet, and to accomplish this feeling, I insisted that all of our camera shots be locked off and to rarely use close-ups."

Trash Planet scavenging meets hand-drawn whimsy in Cameron Macgowan's 'Seed', a wordless sci-fi fable in which two feral men foraging through a garbage-strewn wilderness discover a plant creature that upends their world.