Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

Burdened by traditions and her mother’s silence, a girl tries to sift through the desert sand to find her identity card in order to enroll in the Beijing Opera academy.

Synopsis

In the very near future, Harry, a third-generation London cabbie, struggles to retain his place in a fast-changing world. A hard-hitting drama starring Jay Simpson (Black Mirror, Pistol, Chernobyl), Gemma Dyllen (The Death of Bunny Munro) and Anna-Maria Everett (Killing Eve). A Brother Film production in association with Panavision, Kodak, TenThree and Electric Theatre Collective.

Synopsis

When Andre, a successful business man, unexpectedly reunites with his homeless childhood friend Robert, buried secrets from their boarding school days force him to confront the trauma he's tried to forget.

Synopsis

A volatile chess prodigy struggling with anger management attempts to navigate a world that feels hostile, dismissive, and chaotic. While chess offers him control and identity, real life repeatedly provokes his buried rage. After fleeting moments of connection and hope, a final altercation spirals into irreversible violence, forcing him to confront the devastating cost of losing control.

Synopsis

In a near future in rural Britain, Mustafa cares for his deaf sister, Amna, spending their days together in their hidden, isolated home. One morning, anti-immigration vigilantes descend, tearing them apart and leaving each to navigate fear, loss, and the quiet brutality of a world shaped by far-right policies. Amna escapes and searches for her brother, moving through the fields with determination, only to witness a horrific event. A meditation on family, the unbreakable ties between siblings, and the devastating cycles of violence that fracture lives. Against the backdrop of systemic oppression, the film explores how hate divides families, how love endures, and how the human heart persists even in the face of destruction.

Synopsis

Bento Moura is running out of options. Broke, exhausted and under pressure from his estranged family, he takes covert work for a shadowy compliance firm spying on London’s remote workforce. Armed with a Prius and a long lens, Bento hunts for “productivity crimes”: an ad creative skipping agency calls, a project manager dancing in his underwear and a coder choosing the gym over a client status meeting. But as he sinks deeper into the absurdity of corporate surveillance, a routine audit pushes him from casual stalking to breaking into a worker’s home and forces him to decide how far he is willing to go to remain employable. HollyShorts Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

Angela is living a life devoted to everyone but herself. Caught between revolving identities, she has stepped into roles that generations of women before her have occupied. Disconnected from her husband, Malcolm, and struggling to articulate her dissatisfaction, she leaves home the night before her family is set to attend a wedding, and finds herself confronted by the silence that has stretched between them.

Synopsis

A stoic pharmacist faces a tumultuous 11-hour shift at his demanding job. While he successfully juggles an assorted conveyor-belt of patient’s problems, he struggles in desperate slithers of time to fight off the weight of his own festering issues.

Synopsis

Drifting addict Cass becomes embroiled in a toxic agreement with controlling agoraphobic Roya to wear a hidden-camera and spy on her estranged daughter, only to expose Cass to a repressed loss of her own.

Synopsis

A gripping suspense-filled drama thriller with an unexpected twist. The story follows two young black men, Lucas and Wayne, as they navigate a series of mysterious events in the streets of Manchester. The film opens with Lucas and Wayne dressed in black, loading suspicious packages into a van and speeding through the dark streets. The audience is immediately drawn into the intrigue, left wondering about the men's identities and their urgent mission. As they race through Central Manchester, they encounter a police roadblock, turning their journey into a tense standoff. With high stakes on the line, they manage to negotiate their way out of trouble, but the pressure only mounts as they continue towards their undisclosed destination. Amidst the adrenaline-fueled journey, the film delves into themes of brotherhood, loyalty, and the weight of responsibility. Lucas grapples with doubts and apprehensions, while Wayne offers unwavering support, their bond strengthening with each passing moment. As they reach their destination, the true purpose of their mission is revealed when an unexpected twist sheds light on the significance of their delivery and the deeper layers of the narrative.

Synopsis

Maya, a sculptor, agrees to create a portrait of her estranged father, David, a once-celebrated writer now coming to terms with a terminal diagnosis. As she builds his likeness in clay, Maya is forced back to the question that has shadowed her life: what led to her mother’s suicide, and what part David played in it. Outside the studio, Maya navigates the tension the reunion creates in her relationships with her partner, Della, and her sister, Jade. In the final scenes, Maya is left alone in the studio with the almost-finished sculpture, trying to complete the father she has only just begun to understand.

Synopsis

A struggling alcoholic, haunted by his past, is stalked by a dark wolf. On the brink of submission, his mother fights to save him. Official Selection, Encounters International Film Festival, 2026 Official Selection, Filmquest, 2026