Projects in genres: Woman Director

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

ANAK WHERE DID WE STAY? is a five-channel film by Sadia Pineda Hameed that brings together The Box’s home movie collection and the artist’s personal/family collection. Rasheed Araeen’s chakras, spouting waves, Beatlesmania, a basking shark, hula dance, an Enoch Powell protest, tidal islands and seafoam floating into the air—the archives converge across time to tell the story of the artist’s mother’s migration from one archipelago to another: the Philippines to the British Isles. The film becomes a gathering site for personal and collective experiences of journeys, resilience and belonging. Road trips unexpectedly reenact the archive, footage finds itself out of context, voices commentate the film as if rewatching a home movie together; mimesis, associations and autonomy are central to the retelling. As camcorders became more accessible from the 1970s onwards, home movies were an unconscious means to rebuild personal archives after colonial displacement, extraction and erasure. ANAK WHERE DID WE STAY?, named after the home movie from The Box’s archive 'Perranporth Where Did We Stay?', unfolds as a conversation between the artist and her mother, exploring the three interconnected journeys of migration, holidays and remembering. Produced as part of The Box’s Reimagining the Film Archive programme (BFI Screen Heritage Fund).

Synopsis

Matei, a young boy living in a village on the outskirts of Romania, finds more solace in the company of his sheep than with his abusive, alcoholic father. When Matei begins to mimic his father's violence and turn it back onto the sheep, we glimpse the anger that may lie in his future. After he publicly humiliates himself in front of the entire village, his anger only grows, made worse by the fact that his father predicted it. It seems Matei is predetermined to be whatever he is told he is, and nothing else. He is stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle of violence and humiliation. So, when Matei runs off into the woods outside his village and stares at an innocent little sheep, he finds himself at a crossroads. Official Selection, Aesthetica 2026 Official Selection, BFI London Film Festival 2026 Official Selection, Encounters Film Festival 2026

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

Nazar is a tender, intimate encounter in virtual reality between participant and performer. It unfolds as experiential poetry within evil eye protection sessions shared across decades by the artist and her mother, exploring embodied care, presence and vulnerability. Grand & Impact Prize, NewImages 2026 Official Selection, Embodied Realms 2025 Official Selection, Shubbak Festival 2025

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.

Synopsis

A 20-minute single-player immersive VR experience that places users inside the body of Zoraan, a British-born Sikh woman navigating menopause amidst climate collapse and the ruins of colonial medicine. You breathe with her. You scream with her. You dance your way out of sedation. Blending real-time visuals, bio-haptic feedback and diasporic sound, this work reframes menopause not as decline but as volatile power; closing ‘The Baby Factory’ to ignite a cultural revolution. Using gesture, voice and biometric feedback, audiences become co-conspirators in a volatile act of embodied rebellion. This is not a metaphor. This is an insurgency. Official Selection SXSW 2026 - XR Competition - World premiere