Original Short Film

Director: Alice Panerai

Year: 2026

When drum & bass fan Jay is sent on a countryside walk by his probation officer as part of his mental health rehabilitation programme, he arms himself with headphones, good tunes and fluorescent snacks. But his iPod dies, and he can’t handle the silence. Visions of Pete, his deceased friend, begin to haunt him. Lost in the countryside, Jay eventually finds himself on a bus with a friendly driver, where a conversation about Pete forces him to confront the grief he has been avoiding.

Director: Abraham Fieldsend

Year: 2026

After the loss of their child, a grieving couple’s fragile life begins to fracture. As the mother’s debilitating headaches intensify, they are forced to confront the possibility that the darkness consuming their home is more than grief alone.

Director: Clare Richards

Year: 2026

A split-screen dome projection is not something you see every day, yet its subject could hardly be more ordinary: public benches, located mainly in Plymouth, on the south coast of England. Whenever Tim Hart spots a new one, he takes a photograph, as he has done for 50 years. Just one photo, no more. “Cause it’s the same bench,” he explains amiably in Clare Richards’s documentary, which fills one half of the projection. On the other half, an orchestra performs Samuel D Loveless’ score, also titled BENCHES. His music follows the rhythm of Hart’s daily life as he walks from bench to bench, photographs them, sometimes sits down for a while, then moves on. And not just benches: Hart also photographs telephone booths, fairs, and more. Neurodivergent composer Loveless discovered the photographic archive of his autistic uncle Tim and was struck by the beauty of the everyday, patiently collected over decades. It gave Loveless an opportunity to celebrate a neurodivergent way of seeing the world, not by explaining it, but by sharing it.