Projects matching: Just

Synopsis

Gary's just proposed to his girlfriend. However, their relationship only exists in a virtual world – the Betaverse. Technophobe best mate, Dave, suspects she's a scammer, so he begrudgingly enters the Betaverse to spy on them. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2026 - World premiere

Synopsis

First-time mother Alice’s fragile world begins to unravel when post-partum psychosis transforms the isolation and uncertainty of new motherhood into a disorientating journey through fear, memory, and fractured reality.

Synopsis

Bel was a Kenyan-Scottish woman who dreamt of singing to the whole world. A gifted musician, singer, and writer, she performed under the stage name Heir of the Cursed and in 2021 was on the absolute cusp of wider fame. But just as the world was finally about to discover her name, Bel took her own life, leaving behind poignant video diaries and a mobile phone full of amazing, unreleased songs. She was a brilliant artist fighting to be heard, yet she remains largely unknown today. Her untimely death and a small but beautiful body of work form her legacy now. Much like the legendary musician Nick Drake who also died young, the power and mystery of Bel’s music lies within the heavy pathos of her life's sudden end. Whatever deep internal struggles led to her tragic death were also at the very heart of what powered her mesmerising art. This documentary tells the story of an artist on the edge of stardom, and her sister Leah’s fierce determination to fulfil Bel's dream: releasing her final record and sharing her with the world. Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2026 - Closing Night Film - World premiere

Synopsis

Rob Beaton has been weaving tartan and tweed in the Scottish Borders since he was 14. Now 84, he is Scotland's oldest and longest-serving mill worker, operating 100-year-old traditional shuttle looms. With no apprentice to carry on his craft, the mill where he has worked for over four decades may soon be forced to close. But elsewhere in Scotland, a different story is unfolding. At another mill in Highland Perthshire, a young apprentice is learning the trade, and the ancient rhythms of the looms are being passed to a new generation. Once, Scotland's textile industry employed nearly 75% of the population. Today, that figure stands at just 0.2%. Against the backdrop of that decline, the stories of these two mills paint a portrait of an industry at a crossroads. Through his film, Callum McCulloch-Nowlan celebrates the workers, machines, and spaces of Scotland's weaving tradition, while exploring the urgency of preserving a disappearing craft.

Synopsis

Based on The New York Times article ‘The Lost Children of Tuam’ by Dan Barry, published in 2017. Focusing on history enthusiast Catherine Corless, who whilst researching the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, for a local historical society, uncovered a devastating possibility that as many as 796 children had been buried in unmarked graves on the property. The discovery rallied a campaign for justice for both victims and survivors of the home. Excavation of the mass grave began in the summer of 2025. Official Selection Galway Film Fleadh 2026 - World premiere Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2026 - International premiere

Synopsis

An experimental animation that connects the history of colonial navigator Captain James Cook, his home region of the North York Moors (NYM), and the enclosure of common land to private land. The aim is to show how colonial practices of land seizure, British elites used a legal and rhetorical framework developed overseas to justify seizing common lands in England through the Enclosure Acts - including Captain Cook’s home of the NYM - a privatisation which still lingers today. Through animating on oak materials foraged in the NYM, the film aims to connect this legacy to the living landscape. This includes animation on foraged oak wood, leaves, 8mm developed in oak bark extract, and oak toned prints. The title CAPTAIN COOK IS DEAD refers to the popular proclamation, ‘The king is dead, long live the king!’ in that Cook’s legacy of colonialism lives on in our ever-privatised natural spaces.

Synopsis

The film follows a young Dhananjay as he recounts the crazy true story of how he was kidnapped as a child… Well, the crazy true story of how he told his mum he was kidnapped as a child… But as he relives the events in vivid detail, his playful retelling takes an emotional turn, and he begins to understand just how deeply the experience affected his mum. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Synopsis

For the first time in 30 years, a film crew gains rare access to Pennsylvania’s maximum-security women’s prisons. Inside, The Lady Lifers – a band led by former soul singer Naomi Blount – turn grief into music and defiance. Though Naomi never took a life, she is serving life without parole. To have any hope of freedom, she must express guilt she does not feel – a cruel paradox of the justice system. As her music echoes beyond the prison walls and reaches the public, lawmakers and activists, the question remains: Will her voice be enough to finally set her free - and to free those she left behind? Official Selection Durban International Film Festival 2026

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

Told through the lives and motivations of those on the frontline, WE, THE HATED turns its camera on the people behind one of the most polarising protest movements in recent memory. What emerges goes deeper than placards and road blocks: these are individuals who have weighed up the personal consequences of action against the existential stakes of inaction. With fossil fuels driving both the climate crisis and global conflict, and governments increasingly cracking down on dissent, the film raises urgent questions about protest, power and what democracy actually means in practice. Director Rich Felgate, who is in a relationship with Just Stop Oil's founder, brings an insider closeness to the story whilst retaining enough balance to speak to audiences well beyond the already converted. Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2026 - World premiere

Synopsis

An intimate portrait of a women's group in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The documentary follows the women as they collaboratively create a stage production. Through writing sessions, rehearsals, and candid conversations, the women craft a performance rooted in their lived experiences - stories shaped by addiction, family fracture, and encounters with the justice system. The documentary follows the evolving group dynamic, capturing moments of vulnerability, frustration, and unexpected humour as the women negotiate what it means to share such personal stories in a public space for the first time.

Synopsis

In the grey rhythms of a 1990s British secondary school, a student begins to sense a discomfort that has no name, just a feeling that the role they’re playing doesn’t quite fit. Through a missing pair of joggers, an unexpected line from Macbeth, and the quiet rituals of uniforms, registers, and school corridors, this film traces the first flickers of identity forming - not through revelation, but recognition.