Directors Notes

How did a silent, father-daughter animation crafted over six and a half years in Iran defy odds to win an Oscar? We bring you the second part in our series of interviews with this year’s Academy Award winning short film directors as we speak to Shirin Sohani & Hossein Molayemi, the filmmakers behind In the Shadow of the Cypress who reveal the creative triumphs and logistical battles behind their Best Animated Short Film Oscar winner, and why its absence of dialogue speaks louder than words.
[Watch/Read the full interview]

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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A film which has been on the Directors Notes radar since we caught it at the London Film Festival last October, Sarah speaks to Sandhya Suri, writer/director of the BAFTA nominated/British Independent Film Awards winning crime thriller Santosh, about feeling compelled to step out of her documentary background for this gripping feature exploring the complexities between women in positions of power and dissecting the all too common violence inflicted on women.
[Read the full interview]

Links
The 9 Short Films Deserving of Top Billing on Your BFI Flare 2025 Watchlist
Onir’s ‘We Are Faheem & Karun’ Tells Kashmir’s First Queer Love Story

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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A film for all the misfits who have also misplaced their instruction manuals for life and a filmmaker who first appeared on the Directors Notes pocast back in 2012 with his short film at the time, we sit down for an interview with DN alum Karan Kandhari, writer/director of possibly the strangest film you’ll see this year ‘Sister Midnight’, to chat about following his characters’ lead in the writing process, the pushback he faced trying to make the film 10 years ago and why if Radhika Apte hadn’t accepted the role that could well have been the end of the project.
[Watch/Read the full interview]

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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Defying expectations of being the longshot nominee as the lone genre piece competing for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film by triumphantly taking home the Oscar last Sunday, ‘I’m Not a Robot’ is a delightfully entertaining blend of sci-fi, dark comedy, and existential drama that doesn’t go where you expect. DN sat down with writer/director Victoria Warmerdam & producer Trent a couple weeks before the ceremony for a SPOILER filled discussion about the making of their CAPTCHA inspired Oscar winning short.
[Watch I’m Not a Robot & the full interview with Victoria & Trent]

Check out all of our Oscar 2025 interviews

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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In this instalment of the Director’s Notes podcast, we explore the 18th BFI Future Film Festival, delving into its programme of electrifying moving shorts and speaking to the inspiring filmmakers behind them in the iconic BFI Southbank. Jesse catches up with Young Programmer Felix Farrow, who provides insight into the BFI Future Film Festival selection and programming process. We then speak to three filmmakers who wowed us with their outstanding works, beginning with Lada Kopytova, who discusses finding her film Blueprint in the edit, followed by a brief interview with Grac Talbot about their Wizard of Oz inspired, mixed-media film We’re Not in Essex Anymore. We then close out with our chat with Dylan Scott, director of A Few More Minutes, Please, an incredibly funny and powerful short film about social anxiety.

The entire selection of films are available on the BFI’s YouTube channel until the 6th March.

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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Writer/Director Franz Böhm speaks to DN about capturing the all too real horrors of a young man’s experiences on the frontline of the Ukraine-Russia war who is forced to make a difficult decision in order to protect others in his true life inspired BAFTA winning short film ‘Rock Paper Scissors’.
[Watch/Read the full interview]

Please Note this interview was recorded before Rock Paper Scissors’ BAFTA win.

Check out all of our BAFTA 2025 interviews

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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Director/Editor Theo Panagopoulos sits down with DN to discuss his BAFTA nominated documentary short The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing for which he reclaims archival Scottish missionary footage from the 30s and 40s of his ancestral Palestine to question the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and the land.
[Watch/Read the full interview]

Check out all of our BAFTA 2025 interviews

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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Our first episode of 2025 sets the bar pretty high for the episodes to come this year. This week we’re joined by BAFTA film committee chair Anna Higgs who as well as discussing her route into the film industry and the innovative work she’s done in her roles at places like Film4 and NOWNESS, talks to us about BAFTA’s work to support and nurture talent within the film industry, the process of how films make it to BAFTA nomination, how the voting system works and also shares her advice for building a sustainable film career.
[Watch/Read the full interview]

Links
Directors Notes BAFTA interviews
Anna Higgs’ website
BAFTA Awards
BAFTA Programmes
BAFTA Membership
Standing on the Shoulders podcast

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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In our last episode of the Directors Notes podcast for 2024, we bring you Sarah’s chat with, at the time BIFA nominee and now, The Douglas Hickox Award winning director Christopher Andrews for his blistering debut feature Bring Them Down, which pits Christopher Abbott against Barry Keoghan in a tense thriller about two warring farming families set against the harsh landscape of rural west Ireland.
[Watch/Read the full interview]

Check out all of our BIFA 2024 interviews

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
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We sit down with Nina Gantz the talented filmmaker behind this year’s BIFA Best British Short winner Wander to Wonder, a stop-motion tale following a trio of tiny performers from a beloved children’s television show as they struggle to navigate life after the untimely death of the show’s creator. Gantz takes Directors Notes inside the extraordinary craftsmanship of her film, which offers a unique and poignant exploration of loss, blending humour and sadness in perfect harmony.
[Watch/Read the full interview]

Check out all of our BIFA 2024 interviews

Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.
Find us at:
DN newsletter
YouTube
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