Bond on Cinema

The Story Behind the Oscar/BAFTA-Qualified Short 'Highway to the Moon' with Letitia Wright

My guest today is BAFTA-winning actor and producer Letitia Wright, making a powerful directing debut with her short film, Highway to the Moon. This emotional drama confronts the devastating impact of knives crime, aiming to raise crucial awareness about real-life issues. The conversation explores her inspiration, the film's message, and its significance in addressing societal challenges. #filmmaker #shortfilm #interview #movie #bondoncinema #film #filmmaking #cinematography #oscars #academyawards #youthv #youthvoices #treanding

Jessica Rowlands on Creating Rise | A 3-Year Journey with Zimbabwean Artists

My guest today is Jessica Rowlands, a two-time UCLA Screenwriting Award winner, spent much of her childhood between London and Zimbabwe, a place that remains a source of deep connection and inspiration. 
Her newest short film RISE, is the culmination of her three-year collaboration with Zimbabwean artists and communities, a film with Zimbabwe in its very DNA - from the landscapes of Victoria Falls to the creative team who brought it to life. It is both a celebration of overlooked voices and a call to protect the youngest and most vulnerable among us, reminding us that a little belief in a little person can go a long way.
With its celebration of found family, its insistence that no child be left unseen, and its message that belief and community can transform lives, RISE is more than a film -it is a call to courage, protection, and connection carried onto the world’s most prestigious stage.
Ladies and gentlemen, RISE was written and directed by Jessica Rowlands and filmed entirely in Zimbabwe with an all-African cast and crew, RISE is inspired by the extraordinary true story of Tobias Mupfuti, a boxing coach who transformed his own difficult childhood into a lifelong mission: to see and uplift children often overlooked. 
Through his academy and orphanage in Victoria Falls, Mupfuti has built a community where no child is unseen, creating a found family bound together by belief, support, and joy in the face of adversity. His close involvement in the filmmaking process brings authenticity and emotional truth to every frame.
At the heart of the story is breakout child actor Sikhanyiso Ngwenya, discovered through street casting at just eight years old, whose performance radiates vulnerability, strength, and hope. His work earned him Zimbabwe’s National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding Actor, making him the youngest winner in the award’s history. The moment this film was revealed to the world, the whispers of the Oscars had already began. A story of inspiration and encouragement to millions, if not billions of people from around the world. RISE shows us that one person can make a difference. 
Everything about this film is fantastic, the story, the cinematography, the music score and sound mixing and yes, the award winning performances of both Sikhanyiso Ngwenya and Tongayi Chirisa bring this true story of boxing coach Tobias Mupfuti to life. 
#zimbabwe #actors #filmmaking #filmmaker #filmdirector #boxing #inspiration #encouragement #facingfear #motivation #discipline #film #cinema #bondoncinema #oscars #academyawards 
 

Oscar-Qualified Short Film After Dark | Director Interview with Iain Forbes

My guest today is Scottish-Norwegian filmmaker Iain Forbes and his Oscar-qualified short film AFTER DARK. 
The film was Oscar-qualified after winning Best International Short Film at the Foyle Film Festival in 2024, cementing Forbes’ reputation as one of Scandinavia’s most exciting emerging directors.
Iain graduated from the Norwegian Film School, his short Revisited won a Student Academy Award in 2023. His latest film After Dark continues his run of acclaimed shorts, following Snowman and Semper Fi. 
Iain also brings extensive experience as a first assistant director on Norwegian feature films including Disco, Knerten og Sjøormen, and Dancing Queen in Hollywood.
The award-winning short film After Dark, confronts the unsettling questions that arise when empathy collides with fear, prejudice, and survival instinct.
Ladies and gentlemen, the award-winning short film After Dark, confronts the unsettling questions that arise when empathy collides with fear, prejudice, and survival instinct.
On his way home one night, Kristian encounters a young woman in desperate need of help. He agrees to accompany her to the train station, but as the night unfolds, he begins questioning both her story and himself.
Through this tense and intimate encounter, After Dark explores the contradictions of human behavior, where compassion clashes with fear, and kindness is tested by preconceptions. 
This film will get you thinking and actually shows us signs that we could be overlooking when someone reaches out to us for help. It all comes down to discernment and using wisdom. Even a good hearted person can be taken advantage of in these circumstances. 
#stranger #film #cinema #shortfilm #filmmaker #filmmaking #trending #humanbehavior #filmdirector #oscars #academyawards #scotland #norway #preconceptions #prejudice #fear

Home Carer Uses a Foot Bath and Nail Polish to Befriend an Elderly Woman in the short film FIRST TIMER

Hannah Kathryn Kelso, a BAFTA and BIFA nominated writer from the small, rural community of Alloa in the east of Scotland.
They graduated from NFTS in 2021, and their pilot script ‘The Velvet Teddies’ which was nominated for the All3Media New Drama Script Award.
Kelso co-wrote the standout short film ‘Night of the Living Dread’ which received the nomination for BAFTA Best British Short Animation in 2022, and British Independent Film Awards Best Short in 2022, and there is interest in it as a feature.
They were also shortlisted for BAFTAs prestigious Rocliffe TV comedy writing competition for their comedy pilot ‘Mooncats’ , and Kelso is a Warner Bros Creative Scholar and a Donald Dewar Arts Awardee.
Kelso’s newest short, FIRST TIMER, is about a caregiver named Meghan and her first week on the job as a home carer. She's left alone to visit the elderly Bonnie who has a refreshing, yet challenging approach to her personal care.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kelso’s newest short, FIRST TIMER, is about a caregiver named Meghan and her first week on the job as a home carer. She's left alone to visit the elderly Bonnie who has a refreshing, yet challenging approach to her personal care.
This film is endearing on so many levels. It was such a joy to watch even though it ends on a bit of a sad note, we aren’t left with a feeling of sadness. We’re left with the feeling that we should all pay more attention to the older generation. Learn to interact with them, learn from them and even gain some wisdom from them. 
Bonnie, even left Meghan with a few words of that wisdom, by saying, “You just keep going.” And many of you need to hear that, regardless of what happens in life, just keep going. 
Kelso went bold by filming in 16mm, something I’m lucky enough to see once or twice a year. Real film adds a different feel to the story and in this case, it’s used to compliment the time period in which Bonnie has also lived. And she filmed life in full Technicolor. 
The cinematography is bright, joyful and refreshing and complements the life of Bonnie, as well as again the words of wisdom she gave to Meghan.
#caregiver #homecare #friendship #generational #film #cinema #scotland #bondoncinema #filmmaker #filmmaking #filmdirector #filmproduction #16mmfilm #16mm #kodak #cinephile 

The Truck | Oscar-Qualified Short Film: The Search for the Morning After Pill in Americana

Liz Rao - THE TRUCK Short Film
My guest today is filmmaker Liz Rao and her debut Oscar-qualified live action short film “The Truck”. Academy Award®-winner Spike Lee and acclaimed actor-director Joan Chen have boarded the coming-of-age thriller as executive producers, lending high-profile support as the film entered post-production.
Set against the simmering anxieties of post-Roe America, “The Truck” follows a Chinese American teenager and her boyfriend as they attempt to buy the morning-after pill in a small town where reproductive rights are contested and quietly policed.
Liz Rao is a Brooklyn-based Screenwriter and Director. “The Truck” World-Premiered at Telluride, screened at MoMA, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Oscar-qualifying Florida Film Festival, won Best Screenplay at Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, screening in more than 50 festivals and counting, worldwide. 
With Lee and Chen now championing her debut, “The Truck” is positioned as one of the year’s most anticipated indie breakouts, poised to ignite conversations around autonomy, identity, and the quiet horrors of coming of age in a country where choice is no longer a given.
Ladies and gentlemen, Liz Rao’s THE TRUCK is tense, emotional and can be somewhat polarizing in a landscape that is constantly changing in America. Regardless, of what side of the aisle you are on in America, we are still dishing out judgement, even racism across our country. 
The simple act of looking for the morning after pill can make some people feel they are wearing a scarlet letter and this topic isn’t going away anytime soon. 
#morningafterpill #teenlove #americana #shortfilm #film #cinema #spikelee #filmmaker #filmmaking #filmdirector #filmproducer #oscars #academyawards 

Oscar-Qualified Short EM & SELMA GO GRIFFIN HUNTING: Four Years in the Making and It Does not Disappoint!

Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting is a Depression Era coming-of-age fable, set in an alternate 1930s where there exists a long-standing cultural paradigm that mothers take their adolescent daughters on a sacred rite-of-passage hunt to slay a mythical beast under maternal supervision. 
From start of pre-production to the film’s premiere at Sundance 2025 (as one of just 21 US Narrative Shorts Films) was a painstaking four-plus year journey that enlisted a hand-picked team of international VFX artists whose collective filmographies span Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter, LOTR and Avatar universes. 
These talented artists worked on weekends and after-hours to slowly bring a big vision to the screen on a very small indie-film budget, where the biggest currency was time and patience.  
Ladies and gentlemen, Alex Thompson’s Oscar-qualifying short film EM & SELMA GO GRIFFIN HUNTING is a Depression Era coming-of-age fable, set in an alternate 1930s where there exists a long-standing cultural paradigm that mothers take their adolescent daughters on a sacred rite-of-passage hunt to slay a mythical beast under maternal supervision.
On this hunt, daughter Em (Hereditary breakout & Tony-winner Milly Shapiro) doesn’t see eye-to-eye with mother Selma’s (Pollyanna McIntosh, AMC's Walking Dead) dogmatic adherence to darker aspects of this ritual, and tensions soon boil over.
The team behind Em & Selma set out to craft a dark, poetic fairy tale with an underlying transgressive streak and arthouse filmmaking sensibilities to balance out its broader fantastic elements. 
When I first saw this film, it blew me away because it was black and white, more of a noir-look which adds so much depth to the characters, the landscape, but also the story. The story is dark too. 
The visual effects and cinematography are stunning and they should be when you have visual effects artist who have worked on Superman, The Marvels and even Avatar. 
The story itself as I said is dark. The interactions between Em and Selma tell a much deeper story and one I was not expecting. It’s like watching three short films in one. You have the Griffin creature and the tiny flying ones, you a mother taking her daughter on a hunt as a right of passage, but Selma’s backstory starts to come into view in a very dark metaphorical way.
Everything about this film was brilliant. Add actresses Pollyanna McIntosh from The Walking Dead and new actress Milly Shapiro, and you have a stunning film. 
I could go on and on about this film and only one of two absolute original short films this year that dared to go all out with the storytelling and cinematography. 
Took four years to make this film and it was worth the wait. 
#fairytale #blackandwhitefilm #filmmaker #filmmaking #filmdirector #filmproducer #cinema #cinematography #vfx #thewalkingdead #animation #drama #oscars #academyawards 

Oscar-Qualified SHORT BEYOND SILENCE: Two women of different generations share similar trauma

Ladies and gentlemen, Marnie Blok’s Oscar-qualified short BEYOND SILENCE is emotionally powerful and that’s not a strong enough description of her film. 
Beyond Silence stars Henrianne Jansen, a deaf actress making her breathtaking screen debut. The film tells the story of two women — one who has remained voiceless for over three decades, and another just beginning to reclaim her voice — offering a visceral exploration of generational trauma, resilience, and the act of speaking truth after years of silence.
With its authentic portrayal of deaf experience and its resonance with movements like #MeToo, Beyond Silence has become a touchstone for conversations about empowerment, representation, and healing. 
Very powerful performances by Sigrid ten Napel and Tamar van den Dop, added depth and nuance to the film’s intimate narrative. 
BEYOND SILENCE proves you can film in one room, with only 2-3 actors and tell a story that will move audiences. 
The cinematography is spot on perfect, the colorization of the film with blues, greens and whites with a bit of a muted tone adds to the powerful narrative. 
To all the Academy members, BEYOND SILENCE should be Shortlisted without question and I will leave it at that. 
#oscars #academyawards #deafactress #film #filmmaking #filmmaker #filmdirector #filmproducer #cinema #cinematography #deaf #silence #metoo #sexualassault #bondoncinema 

A BEAR REMEMBERS: An Old Woman Sparks Memories of a Bear that Roamed the Hills during her Childhood

My guest today is part of the acclaimed directing duo, Zhang & Knight, Linden Feng and the Oscar-qualified short film A BEAR REMEMBERS.
Their film won the Canal+ Prize and Best European Film at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and the Jury Prize for Drama at Aspen Shortsfest. The film has since appeared at major international festivals including Telluride, Hollyshorts, and Bolton International Film Festival.
Blending lyrical visual storytelling with deep cultural resonance, A Bear Remembers is a haunting meditation on generational memory, myth, and the quiet, invisible forces that linger in the spaces between. A Bear Remembers marks the narrative debut of Zhang & Knight, a London-based directing duo whose soulful work explores themes of cultural identity through folklore. Known for their award-winning music videos and commercials, their distinctively dreamlike style has earned international acclaim.
This film represents their transition into longform storytelling, and they are currently developing their debut feature project.
Ladies and gentlemen, A Bear Remembers is a haunting meditation on generational memory, myth, and the quiet, invisible forces that linger in the spaces between. Set in a remote village nestled among hills steeped in myth, the film follows Peter, played by Lewis Cornay, a curious local boy who becomes fixated on a strange sound echoing through the valley.
His search leads him to Ebba, played by Anna Calder-Marshall, an elderly woman whose long-buried childhood memory of a legendary bear spirit is suddenly reawakened. As Peter shares found footage with her, the boundary between past and present begins to blur, calling forth something ancient and powerful.
I love this short film. You feel the curiosity of the young boy and you feel the emotion and memory of Ebba as she thinks back to a time of meeting the mystical bear. T
he wonderment is expanded when Peter gets to relive Ebba’s memory and encounter with the bear from her childhood. A perfect story where we see one generational memory handed over to the new generation.
#film #cinema #filmmaking #filmmaker #filmdirector #filmproducer #cinematographer #mystical #mystery #bear #Wales #UK #bondoncinema #cinephile #oscars #academyawards 

Tom Koch's Oscar-Qualified Short Film About Memory & an Endearing Love

My guest today is filmmaker and actor Tom Koch. Raised between the South of France and London, Tom Koch turned childhood struggles with asthma into a creative drive that ultimately led him to New York, where he founded Mes Films en Couleur, a production company dedicated to telling true stories with a twist.
His Oscar-qualified short film OLIVE, starring Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress Lesley Ann Warren, is making waves on the festival circuit that examines the fragility of memory and the enduring power of love through the disorienting lens of Alzheimer’s. OLIVE has already garnered international recognition, winning the Silver Screen at the Young Director Awards in Cannes and Best Short Film at Sidewalk 2025, while earning a nomination for Best Live Action Short at Flickers Rhode Island International 2025.
The film has appeared at prestigious festivals including Hollyshorts, Walla Walla Movie Crush, Cordillera International, New York Shorts International, as well as the Global Drama Project.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Koch’s short OLIVE examines the fragility of memory and the enduring power of love through the disorienting lens of Alzheimer’s. There are so many adjectives I could place on this film. It’s beautiful, surreal, heartbreaking, brilliant, stunning, what can you say? OLIVE is an award winning film that truly represents the millions of caregivers around the world taking care of a loved one with Alzheimer’s.
It’s never-ending around the clock care and Tom’s film OLIVE expresses every important element of that caregiving and he shows it with great love. We all need to keep our eye on this film this Oscar season. #filmmaker #shortfilm #interview #cinema #film #bondoncinema #filmmaking #cinematography #dementia #alzheimer #lovestory

How Greenlandic Filmmaker Christoffer R. Stenbakken Created an Oscar-Qualified Short THE THIEF

My guest today is Christopher Stenbocken, a talented film director whose Oscar-qualified short film, 'The Thief,' is making waves. His journey from East Greenland to Copenhagen, beautifully captured in a travel documentary, showcases his unique approach to filmmaking. This insightful discussion explores his creative process and the impact of his Greenlandic roots on his projects, highlighting the meticulous cinematography and dedication to film production.
His short, THE THIEF was selected for the 75th Berlin International Film Festival in the Generation Kplus competition, where it electrified audiences with its fresh voice and raw emotional immediacy. 
Winner of the Best Danish Fiction Award at Odense IFF 2025, an extraordinary feat for the first short ever produced in East Greenland.
Ladies and gentlemen, Christoffer Stenbakken’s Oscar-qualified short film THE THIEF is the most authentic film in 2025.
He went back to his hometown in East Greenland and filmed with non-actors, used improvised dialogue, including a young performer from special education whose quiet intensity grounds the story. It becomes a vivid portrait of adolescence at the edge of the world, told by a community rarely seen on-screen.
This film is so beautiful on so many levels and I’m not talking about the vast landscape of Greenland. It’s beautiful because it is so authentic. The film has emotional depth that truly comes natural, not forced or acted from a script. 
This is the truest art of filmmaking and Christoffer Stenbakken has dared to do what many won’t do. THE THIEF is the definition of authentic filmmaking. It’s not wonder it is in the running for the Oscar shortlist. 
#filmmaker #filmmaking #filmdirector #filmproduction #Greenland #dogsledding #bondoncinema #cinema #cinemtography #shortfilm #shortfilms #film