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Exploring themes which range through motherhood, class and race, debut feature Earth Mama from Savanah Leaf is a stunningly quiet but hard hitting film. The young filmmaker has built upon her 2020 documentary short The Heart Still Hums, co-directed by Taylor Russell, and her own lived experiences with an adopted sister to create a world which absorbs every part of you. The camerawork in Earth Mama offers surreal expressionistic moments juxtaposed with raw documentary-esque storytelling and Leaf's forceful authorial voice confidently allows the stunning images of her characters and the Bay Area locations to often say more than is contained in the subtle dialogue. Featuring a captivating debut performance from Tia Nomore the characters of Earth Mama also serve as a love letter to the women and individuals let down by the very systems supposed to protect and guide them.

Set within the glossy, vapid and veneered world of a car advert, The Talent from Thomas May Bailey plays out an uncomfortable blurring of reality and fantasy. Bailey fell upon the central premise of the film after having experienced the very same desires as his protagonist while working on sets and seeing where he wanted to get to but not quite knowing how to get there - a chronic affliction all too relatable for anyone toiling in the creative industries. A virtual production stage with all of the false promises of an eternal perfect sunset and the vacuous but enticing world of flashy cars plays the perfect host to his satirical look into the film industry and the aspirational desires of those within.

Is There Anybody Out There? From Brighton-based director Ella Glendining is a self-professed love letter to the disabled community and anyone who has ever felt other. It is a formidable debut feature by a filmmaker who has refused to allow society's expectations or prejudices about her disability to stand in her way, instead using her tenacity to build a career in a notoriously difficult and ableist industry.

Glendining embarked upon an emotional four year journey to tell her story. Is There Anybody Out There? Follows the filmmaker's global search for someone who may have experienced life from the same vantage point she has and over the course of the film takes us on a powerful journey of moving discoveries, sad truths and poignant intimate moments whilst remaining true to her own fierce love and acceptance of herself.