UK Shorts

Trailers and Info

Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely - UK

Set in the wake of a viral outbreak that has ravaged the world, a failing survivalist, thinking he's the last human alive meets another who forces him to confront his grief and achieve his greatest goal... Not just to survive but to live.
Together they journey across the perilous and desolate Essex wasteland to find the fabled colony of Doggerland; The last remnant of a human society that hasn't fallen into barbarism.
A dramedy about the impossible; making a friend in the apocalypse.

Director - Adam McHattie

Filmmaker Adam McHattie began his film journey on the Essex coast in a strange, remote town called Burnham-On-Crouch. It’s here that he fell in love with all things film and especially, making them.
At the age of seventeen (And after a few disastrous school grades) he decided to move to London and do what he could to enter the film industry, he began as a runner and worked his way up the ladder, specialising in post production and on set camera workflows.
His tenacity and never ending commitment to the role landed him several studio films such as Star Wars: Rogue One as a dailies lab operator and The Gorge as a Second Assistant Editor.
In between roles he finds himself going back to that strange town, Burnham-On-Crouch and carrying on his childhood dream, making films with his friends.

Director Statement

This film was everything we hoped for growing up;
To show off our town, to make something the local people would cherish and to prove that we were no longer the kids just making silly little sketches.
We were professional filmmakers with stories to tell.

We put on a showing in one of the best Cinemas in the world (at least for me anyway) at the end of June 2025 in our local theatre 'Rio Cinema'.
We sold out our first screening within a day and we are now looking to put on another.
This was a place that I grew up in, sneaking in to see films that I absolutely shouldn't have been seeing and still come back to whenever I'm home, although I pay for the tickets this time.

The Team & I hope that this film reflects our passion and love for our crazy little town, it may not be much, but it's ours.

Good Choice, Joseph - UK

A man who feels paralysed by choice is sent into an existential spiral after finding a mysterious tape player that can tell the future.

Director - James Farrell

My name is James, I am a 25-year-old freelance filmmaker currently working on my debut short film 'Good Choice, Joseph'. Growing up on the South-East coast of Essex, working in the film industry felt like a distant pipe-dream - nevertheless, I was undeterred as a child and have been making films for as long as I can remember.

After graduating from Westminster Film School, the daunting pressure to decide what to do with my life inspired the script for 'Good Choice, Joseph'. Its offbeat, cynical humour reflected my own exasperated feelings at the time; feelings that were shared by the team of local filmmakers who helped me bring it to life.

Nowadays I am working as an assistant in the British film industry and am excited to finally be sharing our film with the world! I look forward to making more eccentric and outlandish films in the future.

Director Statement

‘Good Choice, Joseph’ is a story born from my own experiences with decision paralysis. Myself and creative collaborator Grace Derriman pulled from our own struggles with anxiety when forced to decide what to do with our lives after leaving university, hoping to distill those feelings in an accessible and entertaining short film for a general audience. Choice paralysis for us was a whirlwind of fear and self-doubt which left us totally overwhelmed, we were so afraid to make the wrong decision that we never made any decisions at all. The absurdity of our experiences soon pushed the project into the comedy/thriller genres; which in hindsight feels very apt.

This film is my debut as a writer/director, making it an especially personal project for me. I had originally planned to create it entirely by myself, but as the scope of the production expanded I (thankfully) enlisted the immense talents of Oliver Dickens and John Rose to star in the film. It was entirely self-funded and brought to life by a cast and crew who gave their talents for free, with equipment lent to us as a favour. I’m immensely proud of what we have achieved and hope that our film resonates with audiences who might also recognise something of themselves in Joseph’s unending struggles.

Awards

TimeLine Film Festival

Milan
Italy
April 4, 2025
Best Picture

Hertfordshire Film Festival

Watford
United Kingdom
April 9, 2025
Best Picture Runner-Up

McMinnville Sci-Fi Film Festival

McMinnville, Oregon
United States
May 17, 2025
Best Picture

Rabbit Skull - UK

Toby, a reserved and sensitive boy begins to mask his expression – both figuratively and literally – when childhood friend Lukas slowly starts to lose himself to the hateful rhetoric of his new acquaintance, Max. Feeling their divide growing but unable to break free from their toxic relationship, Toby crafts a crude mask of a rabbit skull, escaping into the persona to prevent his inner turmoil from fracturing his reality.

Director - Will Fleming

The Key to Everything - UK

In the space between life and death, Elijah has been running for what seems like eternity. He follows a mysterious guide, Charon, to an abandoned house deep within the woods where he is confronted with surreal memories and relics from the final moments of his life. As the secrets of the house unfold, he is able to meet the darkest version of himself sparking the final chapter of this perpetual cycle; Charon’s own final moments are revealed as his soul is able to pass on, with Elijah taking his place and guiding the next lost soul.

Director - Ian McLean

Hi, I'm Ian!

I love storytelling, specifically through film. The process - I've recently realised - is my happy place. If I'm not writing, I find myself day-dreaming about how I might light this scene or how I'll shoot another. Over the last five years I've written countless shorts and three features (two more in development) all in the hopes of improving my craft and uncovering more about myself in the process, knowing that one day I'll be ready to share my work with the world.

This time last year I decided to double down and get to filming. It was all sitting there, ready to go and there was a fire within me to get it off the ground, however I could. With absolutely no budget and a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears, I've gotten to filming. In that time I've shot five shorts - some better than others - but with every new project I can see my progression and improvement as a filmmaker in real time, which keeps that fire burning full throttle.
Although I'm only skimming the surface of where my passion is going to take me, I'm incredibly proud of what I've accomplished in this short time.

I hope you enjoy the film x

The Kismet Test - UK

In a twisted corporate experiment, two strangers are locked in a room together for 23 days. At the end, they must vote on who they think is an android. For the human, a fortune hangs in the balance, for the machine, it's life or death.

Director - J.J. Vaughan

J.J. Vaughan is a Manchester-based filmmaker and a graduate of the Manchester Film School. His debut short, ‘A Life, Amiss’ was adapted from a viral Reddit story that focused on memory and loss, and was selected for the annual Kinofilm Manchester Film Festival. His second short, ‘The Kismet Test’ is a dystopian sci-fi with satirical undertones. It explores corporate control and the cruelty of artificial consciousness.

Director Statement

Once the Turing Test is passed, what comes next?

‘The Kismet Test’ explores a future where the line between artificial and organic intelligence has become blurred. When a human is placed in isolation with one of The Kismet Corporation’s newest lifelike androids, will they start to question their own humanity?

To bring the corporate bleakness of Kismet’s world to life, I chose to shoot the majority of the film in black and white to depict a clinical world devoid of joy and identity. In contrast, the film opens with a series of satirical in-universe commercials presented in colour. These serve as both world-building to unveil Kismet’s dominance across different sectors and a juxtaposition between their corporate image and the monochrome reality of the test environment.

I also set out to integrate as many fictional Kismet subsidiaries as possible through the script and production design. In total, 9 were featured. Some via visual product placement and others through in-world ads played over a speaker system.

We shot on a RED Komodo 6K using Cooke S4 lenses, provided by my university. The RED’s compact build allowed for intimate handheld work, whilst we chose the Cooke lenses for their character and great reputation.

As a director and editor, montages have becoming a defining element of my style, and ‘The Kismet Test’ is no exception. The film contains 4 distinct montages, each serving different narrative purposes.

The retrofuturistic production design of ‘The Kismet Test’ drew inspiration from the ‘Fallout’ games and ‘Severance’. This allowed us to stretch our budget, whilst achieving something unique and timeless.