Locusts Beyond A Phantasia

Director: Efosa Osaghae

Year: 2026

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

Director: Julia Fry

Year:

Using ideas from Carl Jung - exploring and accepting the inner world, Carolyn Abbate - analysis of dissonance to find the narrative voice - and Hilde Lindemann Nelson - using narrative to repair damaged identity, I filmed my process of creating puppets and recorded some of the thoughts that arose as I made them. I utilised emergent practice in the filmmaking, which meant letting go of preconceived ideas to let narrative arise in the moment. I wanted my puppets to unite, rather than fight in the traditional Punch and Judy manner.

Director: Keshavi Jaharia

Year: 2026

In 1970s London, Simran arrives at Heathrow Airport from Punjab to be married in two weeks. Dressed for the journey, she moves through the warmth and order of the terminal until she is quietly diverted into a secondary corridor. In a calm examination room, procedures are explained to her in a familiar language, framed as routine and voluntary. What follows is a polite, administrative process that determines her right to enter the country. When Simran is allowed to leave, the airport resumes its rhythm. Outside, her future husband waits. Life continues.