Projects in genres: Woman Director

Synopsis

Following Zahra Ahmed, a 26-year-old British-Sudanese woman working the night shift at a rundown East London off licence with her colleague Danny, an aging aspiring DJ. Despite her strict Muslim faith forbidding gambling, Zahra impulsively buys a lottery ticket after recalling an embarrassing encounter with Khaled, a man from her past whose arranged marriage to her was called off. To their shock, Zahra's ticket wins the £184 million Euro Millions jackpot. While Danny celebrates wildly, Zahra panics about the religious implications and how to explain her sudden wealth to her traditional family. As Zahra navigates the complex challenge of claiming her prize while maintaining her elaborate cover story to her parents, she must confront the tension between her desires for a better life and her deeply held beliefs. This film explores themes of faith versus temptation, family expectations, cultural identity, and the age-old question of whether good fortune can ever truly be separated from consequence. Official Selection Sydney Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

Ryan is destined to dance, but has to put his passion aside to tend to his duties at his family’s nail salon.

Synopsis

Situated at the physical-virtual threshold, loss·y memorializes corporeal passing and digital rebirth. The work intertwines animated sculptural “dances” with interactive spatial audio, inviting audiences to navigate invisible thresholds as they move. loss·y presents three split-seconds of a motion-captured female-female pas de deux: each moment is suspended in a vignette that overlaps projection and 3D prints encapsulating the dance in sculpture, with spoken-word poetry and spatial sound design. The installation’s audioscapes blend cold technical facts, accounts of digital dysmorphia and surveillance, and computer-generated sampling, creating an elegy to the vital body that is at once human and digital. On its surface a critique of today’s techno-society, loss·y collusively takes up digital reduction and surveillance as creative media, revealing reverence for the uncanny wonder that pulls us forward into our new, hybridized world. Official Selection SXSW 2026

Synopsis

You're a Secret Agent during a dangerous time, Evil-doers are plotting to destroy the world. Complete missions, manage your agents & use Intel to narrow down the plot and save the Earth. Play a real-life VR obstacle course using every inch of your room - you will run, roll, sneak & hack to victory!

Synopsis

Alannah and Amara, a married couple in their early thirties, are ready to take the next step: starting a family. At a lively children’s birthday party, their enthusiasm for parenthood is met with a barrage of real-life parenting confessions from friends. They hear everything from birth horror stories to the absurdities of toddler logic. Amid the laughter and chaos, the couple’s desire for a child grows stronger. Navigating the maze of fertility options, they consider everything from anonymous donors to a “Tinder for sperm.” Their journey takes a humorous, heartfelt turn when their gay best friend David offers to help as a known donor. What follows is a series of awkward, hilarious, and deeply intimate attempts at home insemination complete with strap-ons, science goggles, and the unglamorous realities of conception. Despite their optimism, the process proves emotionally taxing. When medical tests reveal that David’s sperm counts aren't up to the task, the couple persevere. They seek a new donor, pursuing intrauterine insemination (IUI) and confronting the financial and emotional costs head-on. Official Selection BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

Young women see themselves as rivers, connecting poetic imagery to landscapes in a multi-voiced narrative that transforms into political commentary: Kazakh women choose to live without men. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - Forum Special - World premiere

Synopsis

With dreams of starting a perfect family, Saga and her British husband Jon move to the isolated house deep in the Finnish forest where Saga spent much of her childhood. But as soon as their baby is born, despite the reassurances of everyone around her, Saga knows something is terribly wrong. As their marriage starts to crack and Jon struggles to support his wife, only Saga suspects the disturbing truth about their newborn child. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

When septuagenarian Lenny's reality is devastated by the discovery of a prolonged, pernicious crime committed against her by her own son, an unexpected connection helps her to begin a journey towards re-forging her fractured identity.

Synopsis

Fab plans a surprise for Cassie on their first anniversary, but Cassie's rough day, coupled with a party popper mishap, leads to a heated argument over dinner options. What starts as a takeaway tiff over Caribbean or pizza spirals into an identity battle, revealing deep-seated resentments about their racial and queer identities. With half of the film shot in one take, FISH & CHIPS is a tender, unflinching exploration of mixed-heritage identity, queer love, and the fine line between connection and conflict. Official Selection BFI Flare London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

A trippy tale capturing the creative vision of writer Jack Thorne and director Marc Munden, as a British crew and young cast film this timely adaptation on the remote islands and interior of Malaysia during monsoon season. The crew battle twisters, torrential rain and scary insects to create this hallucinatory fever dream, featuring behind the scenes interviews, observational footage and mesmerising performances by the newbie cast.

Synopsis

"I don’t know why you insisted on sleeping together like kids. We were eighteen, for god’s sake…" "I just got lonely sleeping without you." Ruweena and Zoe were best friends - well, sort of. Actually, it was more like Ruweena followed Zoe everywhere, from lunchtime to after school and even to uni, while Zoe kind of… tolerated her. Then, six years ago, Ruweena disappeared and left Zoe all alone. Zoe likes it better this way. Doesn't she? So why is it that she still keeps the single bed they used to sleep in - why is it that she lets Ruweena kiss her the moment Ruweena reappears? And why does it feel as if there's something terribly, awfully wrong with the bed they used to call theirs?

Synopsis

Over one night at a women-themed gallery preview, a withdrawn young woman is forced to face buried trauma when an artwork exposes her best friend, pushing them both to confront consent, complicity, and the fractures in their friendship.