Set in a mosque waiting room in 1980s South Wales, and inspired by the true story of writer-director Sara Nourizadeh's parents, a young couple whose relationship crossed boundaries of culture, faith and expectation.
At a time when Iranian politics dominated UK headlines and shaped public attitudes, a Welsh woman and her Iranian fiancé prepare for an Islamic conversion ceremony – a requirement they must fulfil if they are to marry. What follows is a quietly charged and emotionally intimate portrait of two people trying to navigate a moment that is both deeply personal and subtly political. As they wait for the ceremony to begin, small details – a trembling hand, a whispered joke, a fleeting moment of doubt – reveal the emotional stakes beneath the surface. Their conversation dances between humour and tension, affection and uncertainty, reflecting the push and pull of family pressures, cultural misunderstandings, and their own hopes for the future.
Authentic VHS archive footage of the real couple is interwoven within this scripted drama, grounding the film in lived experience and offering an unexpectedly tender glimpse into the decades that followed.
With her teenage daughter being relentlessly bullied for her appearance, her mother - an esteemed plastic surgeon - finds herself in a complex moral dilemma.
For centuries, fisherman Stan Rennie and family worked the waters off England’s North East coast . But when a vast tide of poisoned crabs washes ashore like a biblical plague, Stan’s world is turned upside down overnight.
Dealing with the devastation of his business and failing health, he is thrown into a battle for the future of the region where he’s spent his entire life, an unlikely figurehead for a grassroots campaign to find the truth, delivered the only way he knows how - with heart and gallows humour.
A film about the grief of navigating a world suddenly, inexplicably, irrevocably altered.
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2026 - F:ACT Competition - World premiere
A disenfranchised birdwatcher heads into the woods to find solitude from society, but events soon conspire against her. Will she go to extreme lengths to preserve her tranquillity?
A parent’s message to their child, narrated while remembering the course of their life via the medium of their footwear... Love, Loss, and Walking Boots.
In an era of increasing brain fog and cognitive decline a profound exploration of humanity’s greatest conundrum - the nature of consciousness and self. A powerful, dream-like journey delving into the hearts and minds of four individuals whose lives intersect at the threshold of memory and reality.
A quartet of voices: Maureen Winfield represents the struggle of the caregiver - her husband regressed to the period when they were engaged and no longer recognised her or the home they lived in for 40 years; Wendy Mitchell, diagnosed with young-onset dementia, embodies resilience, she uses ingenious coping mechanisms to navigate her changing perceptions; Pegeen O’Sullivan, daughter of novelist Liam O’Flaherty, offers a surprising perspective - although she has lost her memories, she has also been liberated her from fears; neuroscientistAnil Seth provides a scientific counterpoint, suggesting that our "normal" reality is itself a form of controlled hallucination.
By weaving together deeply personal lived experiences with performance and scientific theory, CONSCIOUS illustrates how dementia shifts our internal worlds, challenging our preconceptions of ageing, showing us that whilst there are devastating losses on on the dementia journey, there can also be triumphant gains.
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2026
In 1991, having just given birth, Farida struggles to cope without knowing if her family in Iraq is dead or alive after the gulf war breaks out. Though physically in Newport, her mind is at war... far away.
A kind hearted, working class volunteer dons the Santa suit each year, quietly transforming his community through simple acts of generosity, testing whether his belief in giving can inspire others to carry the magic forward.
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
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
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
