Projects in genres: Woman Director

Synopsis

Retracing Allen Ginsberg’s 1967 ‘trip’ to the Llanthony Valley, Wales Visitation follows an attempt to channel the poet and document his route through enactments, alignments and apparitions. Using clues gleaned from Ginsberg’s poem of the same name, the film unfolds as a semiotic trail where the filmmaker’s encounters echo and accumulate. Handheld footage of tourists, sleeping horses, birdcalls and day/night cycles signpost a route as it begins to form. A diary, a dramatisation and a spiritual road movie, Wales Visitation traces not a fixed path, but the conditions under which something might be called back. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

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.

Synopsis

With her teenage daughter being relentlessly bullied for her appearance, her mother - an esteemed plastic surgeon - finds herself in a complex moral dilemma.

Synopsis

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

Synopsis

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?

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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.

Synopsis

Framed by the idea of “a thought, a bubble,” the film unfolds through four chapters following women at different moments of life. Each of them is a foreigner - in a country, in love, or in her own existence. From the birth of a child to the invention of love, from a search for meaning to the persistence of an old dream, their stories move through fragile connections and quiet transformations. Like bubbles, these lives appear briefly, shimmering with colour and questions, before dissolving and continuing elsewhere.

Synopsis

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

Synopsis

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.

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It’s 2006. In a small town in North Wales, 16-year-old Morgan stands on the edge of his future, guiding us through haunts, hangouts and nights that linger long after the last bus leaves. The year is 2006, Tony Blair is Prime Minister, Twitter has just been launched, and young people are quickly getting used to a world where social media and technology are beginning to take hold. 16-year-old Morgan, voiced by Callum Scott Howells (It’s a Sin), is searching to understand where he belongs, his journey set against the backdrop of a community in Llanberis – a small town at the foot of Snowdon in Wales. Featuring music by Welsh artists including Super Furry Animals, John Cale and High Contrast.

Synopsis

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.

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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