Freedom Swimmer

Director: Julian Konczak

Year: 2025

Following a pilgrimage through the sacred sounds of India – a land of many faiths, including Vedanta, Islam and Buddhism. Using striking visual material accompanied by an evocative, multi-layered soundtrack, the audience is taken on a unique sonic journey through the sacred sound practices of many of the world’s key religions. A combination of interviews, performances, and natural sounds creates a rich, immersive cinematic experience. With an intimate, direct camera style, viewers can get close to the many spiritual practitioners, musicians, and meditation teachers who form the fabric of the journey. Bubbling hot springs, subtropical nocturnal symphonies of insects, and harsh, frozen mountain winds combine with mantra chanting, classical Hindustani music, and the dynamic temple sounds of drums and trumpets. This audiovisual tone poem invites you to experience heightened sensory awareness and the transformative, healing power of sound.

Director: Elizabeth Hobbs

Year: 2026

After the death of their ill-tempered and controlling father, middle-aged sisters Constantia (Con) and Josephine (Jug), find themselves at a loss. The story takes place in 1920 and is set within a European townhouse where Constantia and Josephine have always lived with their domineering father. The two sisters' mother died when they were young, and they have spent their lives enslaved to the rhythm and routine of Father’s house. Even in death they fear their father and imagine him springing out of the wardrobe or shouting at them from his grave. Over time, their father’s control diminishes and they find comfort in taking part in peaceful activities in each other’s company. An unexpected visitor also helps them to find the courage to begin their lives anew. A merry, rude, and lyrical, animated adaptation of the modernist short story written by Katherine Mansfield in 1920. In this adaptation the sisters will begin to assert themselves in joyful, unexpected ways that could only be depicted in animation. Official Selection Quinzaine des Cinéastes / Directors' Fortnight Cannes 2026 - World premiere

Director: Eamon Bourke

Year: 2026

Filmmaker Eamon Bourke lost his mother, Sue, when he was three and has no memory of her. When his father decides to sell the remote Lake District home where she died, Eamon returns with his camera to document the house and its clearing. Among Sue’s belongings - diaries, poems, photographs and tapes - he discovers a box of damaged cassette recordings. After painstakingly repairing them, he uncovers something extraordinary: his mother’s voice. Through these intimate audio diaries, Sue speaks candidly about motherhood, sings to her children, and captures fleeting family moments Eamon never knew. One final tape records her describing the onset of hepatitis, days before she fell into a coma and died in 1983. Another, more haunting still, features three-year-old Eamon calling out to his unconscious mother in hospital, in a desperate attempt to bring her back. As Eamon pieces together this archive, he confronts the enduring impact of early loss, speaking with his father and sisters while retracing the emotional landscape of his childhood. Set against the vast beauty of the Lake District, a deeply personal exploration of grief, memory and love - an attempt to recover what was lost, and to finally say goodbye.