Creating a Scene: BBC Introducing Arts

Actor, writer and producer Chizzy Akudolu presents a collection of dramatic short films from the best of new British film-makers. Reflecting modern Britain, subjects range from speed dating, the climate emergency and school friendships to spotting UFOs. Aisle 17; Swiped; Muriid; A Conversation with My Enemy; Money Up; Blue Corridor 15; Desert Town Landings; Pub Kid; Cardiff, I Love You; Dinah; This Camera Is Broken

Marcelo's Phantom

Marcelo's interest in writing becomes an unstoppable obsession once he meets a strange man on the bus.

Broken Sky

Gerardo is deeply in love with longtime lover Jonas. When Jonas falls for a stranger he met at a local nightclub, heartbroken Gerardo soon seeks solace in the arms of Sergio. Despite other interests, Gerardo and Jonas can't bring themselves to end it.

Bodyshop

A ghost soldier bids farewell to his mother then possesses bodies worldwide to meddle in unfaithful relationships in Taiwan, Japan, Spain and Thailand. In Hong Kong he encounters his soulmate amid protests and they take refuge in a garage.

Apostles

A dying scholar gathers 12 young men at his remote manor to explore death through philosophy, ritual, and transgressive acts—blurring the line between thought and obsession.

When Everything Was Blue

A heartfelt short narrative film that follows a family as they navigate the emotional and physical toll of a father's 9/11-related illness, all captured through the intimate lens of a home video camera.

A Menina que Nunca Viu o Mar

Iara, a girl who is about to come of age, dreams of seeing the ocean, but lives in Rio Grande do Norte's countryside with her mother, a woman who's dreams were swallowed by the waves and who fears of losing her daughter.

Puedo Explicarlo

Prayers for Bobby

Bobby Griffith was his mother's favorite son, the perfect all-American boy growing up under deeply religious influences in Walnut Creek, California. Bobby was also gay. Struggling with a conflict no one knew of, much less understood, Bobby finally came out to his family.

When Robert Met Judith

Robert, an elderly man in a nursing home, drifts through a quiet routine until fellow resident Judith reaches out with warmth and persistence.

Liberated Don Quixote

Russian stop motion animation depicting the court of the Duke and Duchess as they mock and abuse the titular hero.

Fujimi Block No. 2 Symphony Orchestra

High school music teacher, Morimura Yuuki, is the concert master and first violinist of the amateur orchestra, Fujimi Orchestra. Surprisingly, a young conductor named Tonoin Kei (known as a musical genius) joins this small orchestra to conduct. Even though Tonoin is a strict conductor, all the members adore him for the notable improvements in their performances and soon Yuuki feels his efforts for the orchestra have been fruitless. Yuuki soon comes to the conclusion that his crush of 3 years likes Tonoin, and he decides to give up on her and leave the orchestra. Tonoin refuses to let him quit, confessing that he loves Yuuki, which reveals that he's gay. Tonoin's love confession confuses Yuuki and it leads to a very horrible misunderstanding.

Julián (Transmutación)

Julián, a 10-year-old boy, is going through a stage of change in which he cannot find peace with his surroundings. In a dream stage, a beetle becomes recurrent in his dreams.

We Are Faheem & Karun

Karun, a young security officer from South India, is stationed in Gurez, a remote village in Kashmir. One day, a charming man named Faheem comes to the check post and meets Karun. This marks the beginning of a romance, which, from the outset, is doomed – Faheem, bound by the societal taboos surrounding homosexuality in the context of his religion, cannot live openly, while Karun, due to the constraints of his profession, must also hide his true self. The film explores the intersection of love, identity, and repression in a region steeped in conflict.

Vogel, flieg!

Adina lives in Germany with her father and little brother after fleeing Afghanistan. War trauma and uncertainty about her mother's fate are constant companions in the family. Adina's need to dance her worries away is countered by her father's strict rules.

Pê

Pê, a man with terminal cancer, wanders through his city, Lisbon. Throughout the day, he is confronted with a reality unaware of his suffering while he prepares his imminent death by writing a farewell letter to his daughter. When emptying her father’s house, the daughter discovers the letter. It is the beginning of a new encounter.

Crash!

A surreal, moody short about the fetishisation of automobiles and auto accidents.

Blitz

An elite college athlete contemplates taking Adderall as his last chance to pass a critical exam despite previously failed drug tests.

What to Film...

After spending a few months in quarantine, a young filmmaker struggles to find inspiration.

Double Lover

Chloé, a fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul. A few months later she moves in with him, but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.

My Brother the Devil

Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.

Starcrossed

Two brothers develop a sexual attraction to one another amid the unkind world around them.

Romeos

Lukas, 20, is a prisoner in his own body. As a pre-op transgender person, he is constantly finding himself trapped in uncomfortable, compromising positions. His best friend, Ine introduces him to the gay scene in Cologne where he meets the confident and gorgeous, Fabio. The two develop a romantic relationship that tests the boundaries of love. ROMEOS forgoes stereotypes and conventions to offer an honest and humorous examination of the most basic of human conditions: friendship, sex, and love.

August

August tells the story of two former lovers, Troy and Jonathan, who reunite after a long ago painful breakup. After spending several years in Spain, Troy returns to Los Angeles and decides to phone Jonathan and meet for coffee. A seemingly innocent rendezvous turns into an attempt to revive passions past. Only this time it's not that simple as Jonathan has a new beau, Raul, and is trying to make the right decision a second time around.

Flow

A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.

The Boys in the Band

At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.

Pretty Boy

Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

Brothers

The story of two brothers, Tom and Jake, and their problematic relationship.

Pariah

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Just Charlie

Football star Charlie has the world at her feet. With a top club desperate to sign her, her future is seemingly mapped out. But the teenager sees only a nightmare. Raised as a boy, Charlie is torn between wanting to live up to her father's expectations and shedding this ill fitting skin.

Finsterworld

The film tells different stories in a kind of parallel Germany about love, affection and hatred.

The Little Matchgirl

An animated short based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a poor young girl with a burning desire to find comfort and happiness in her life. Desperate to keep warm, the girl lights the matches she sells, and envisions a very different life for herself in the fiery flames filled with images of loving relatives, bountiful food, and a place to call home.

Clapham Junction

Set in the Clapham district of south London, England, the film is inspired by true events. The paths of several men intersect during a dramatic thirty-six hours in which their lives are changed forever.

The Giver

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

Tea and Sympathy

A sensitive young man recalls his time in boarding school when the only person who seemed compassionate towards him was his housemaster's wife.

From Straight A's to XXX

When a change of circumstances leaves Miriam unable to pay her college tuition, she makes a surprising decision: to start performing in adult films, using the pseudonym Belle Knox. Miriam lies to her family and her friends at school, keeping her double life a secret. But soon rumours spread and Miriam becomes the subject of vicious online attacks and unwanted attention. Miriam fights back: she talks to the media, saying her new line of work empowers her as a feminist. But her confident stand has unintended consequences. Miriam is shunned by her conservative family and her colleagues in the adult film world. One impulsive decision has quickly spiralled out of control - and Miriam's problems are just beginning.

Destino

Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.

Mammal

After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

Palm Trees and Power Lines

A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.