Project Detail

Burnt Toast

Name: Burnt Toast
Director: Helen Anna Flanagan
Genre: Experimental, Human Rights, Woman Director
Released: 2025
Duration: 25 min 15 sec

Boy in a mask peeking through dirty blinds and widow

Synopsis

A contemporary ghost story that resurrects legendary British comedian Tommy Cooper, who famously died mid-performance in 1984. Blending machine learning, VHS footage, archival materials, and a trained impersonator, the film follows Phil, an unemployed magician trapped in the decaying home of the director’s late schizophrenic uncle. Phil’s hallucinatory act navigates the alienation of late capitalism, touching on social class, identity, mental health, and delusion—all punctuated by his trademark jokes and failed magic tricks.
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026

Details

Year: 2025
Type of project: Shorts
Running time: 25 min 15 sec
Director: Helen Anna Flanagan
Producer: Helen Anna Flanagan
Editor: Helen Anna Flanagan
Screenwriter: Helen Anna Flanagan
Director of Photography: Oliver Hodges, George Ellis, Helen Anna Flanagan
Sound: Samuel Rogers, Mali Draper, Sebastian Pappalardo
Composer: Jackson Harvey
Principal cast: Daniel Taylor

Genre

Experimental Human Rights Woman Director

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Helen Anna Flanagan

Visit Website

Page updates

This page was last updated on 26th January 2026. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

A woman muses on what it is to fall. To fall flat, heavily in love, deep into sleep, or into a holiday pool that time on a faraway Greek Island at 2am. Waves keep crashing, summoning Deeply, Madly as an obsession with moments of being mid-motion — bodies, emotions and time that all succumb to gravitational forces. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2023 Official Selection Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2023

Experimental Fantasy Woman Director

A Talent For Murder

Director: Anton Corbijn

Year: 2026

A mysterious young man from a New York publisher is sent to Switzerland to persuade the renowned writer Patricia Highsmith to write one final instalment of the Ripley anthology. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2026 - World Premiere

Thriller

A man in a suit stands in front of a newspaper printing press

Ink

Director: Danny Boyle

Year: 2026

In 1969, as rising media tycoon acquires the daily newspaper "The Sun," his partnership with editor Larry Lamb turns the paper into Britain's most influential tabloid. Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2026 - Opening Gala Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2026

Biography