Eating Cake

Director: Stephen Ellis

Year: 2002

After not seeing each other for some time, three lifelong friends, John, Keith and Darren, gather for a long weekend away in a dilapidated camper van. They've grown apart in recent years. They pack and leave for the nearest coastal resort to Birmingham; Barmouth in Wales. Darren says goodbye to his partner, Mandy. John advises Keith to lay off Darren and his relationship with Mandy. Keith makes some comments and the relationship of John and ex-girlfriend Liz is revealed. John still seems affected by the mention of her name. Getting ready to go to a club that night, Keith has a slight 'turn' in a toilet cubicle and Darren reveals that he's going to sell the camper van. Keith reacts strongly to this, accusing Darren of being pressured by Mandy. Darren tells them the reason he's selling the van is because Mandy is pregnant. They go to the club to celebrate. At the club, they see Louise, the local girl. John is bullied into talking to her and leaves with her at the end of the night, arranging to meet the following day. While waiting for John to join them, Keith asks Darren if he still sees anything of John's ex, Liz. In the morning, Keith is violently sick. John goes to meet Louise and we see Mandy and her sister Kate, in a car getting lost somewhere in Wales. Liz is with them. They arrive at the campsite while John is sitting on the beach talking with Louise. Keith and Liz have a conversation, hinting at some kind of earlier tryst. The plot thickens. Cincinnati to Cymru tells the story of three friends and their having to come to terms with adult responsibilities.

Director: Deepa Mann-Kler

Year: 2026

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

Director: Christopher Bevan

Year: 2026

In a desperate attempt to escape his troubled home life, a young teenage boy runs away to seek out his estranged father, a once-famed professional wrestler.