This piece was written by Jahziah Dixon, one of the Encounters Film Festival 2025 Roaming Reporters – a talent development scheme in partnership with BFI Film Academy South West.
Near the end of September 2025, I once again had the honour to attend a film festival thanks to Watershed and BFI Film Academy SW after my first one (Cinema Rediscovered) back in July.
Encounters Film Festival prioritises independent short films released in recent years as opposed to older features at Cinema Rediscovered, and I’ve decided to write about my personal highlights from each category (animation, documentary and live-action).
Lesbian Space Princess
Lesbian Space Princess is about a space princess named Saira who goes on a quest through the galaxy to save her ex-girlfriend Kiki, who has been suddenly captured by the Straight White Maliens as a way for them to obtain Labrys, a special axe weapon.
To start with, the film is highly creative and has a strong sense of humour throughout. On her journey, you see Sarah face many well-thought-out obstacles along the way, like a cave with pink goo inside that goes after people that bring ‘bad vibes’ or battling off drag queens at nightclubs, all of which present plenty of jokes.
You also get to see Saira make friends on her adventure, such as a gay ex-pop idol who rides in a problematic ship, referencing fictionalised parasocial online relationships. The amount of funny ideas the film comes up with makes it really fun and delightful to watch, and has you waiting on what Tumblr-inspired idea happens next. The animation also increases the humour and enjoyability thanks to expressive comedic movements and wonderfully colourful world-building.
Her quest serves as a journey of self-acceptance where she learns to have more confidence in herself, endearing me more to Saira’s character as she slowly realises that she deserves better than her narcissistic ex-girlfriend at the start.
Overall, I was surprised at how hilarious and entertaining this watch at Watershed was, and I hope it gets released in more theatres later because it’s certainly one of those movies where the audience reaction makes it more enjoyable.
Incident
Incident is one of the many short films I watched at Encounters and possibly my favourite short I saw at the festival as a whole. It’s a documentary composed entirely from body and security cam footage of an event (or should I say incident) where a man was wrongfully shot by police in Chicago in 2018, and displays how the officers and the public responded to the shooting.
The film successfully recreates the incident through piecing together the footage recorded in real time to create this visually intriguing experience, told in a very unique way, unlike most documentaries I’ve seen. What makes it so impactful to watch is how blunt and raw the film feels: it has no added music, editing cuts, sound effects or anything like that; only the necessary recordings from each angle are displayed.
This makes you entirely focus on the disturbing, tragic and maddening shooting that took place on that day, which leads to a fascinating film to see unfold in such a straightforward fashion, especially in the dead silence of the cinema compared to when I originally watched it at home after it was nominated for Best Docu-Short at the Oscars. A chilling watch which should have won the award.
Aftersun
Aftersun is a film originally released in 2022 about a woman reminiscing on a particular holiday she had with her father over twenty years ago, mainly through old video footage she recorded.
On face value, it’s another slice-of-life story, documenting Sophie’s time bonding with other children and playing with her dad. The main meat of the film, though, and the one I find most compelling, is the subtleties going on with Sophie’s father, Calum. Calum is seen to be more of a laid-back father type who’s occasionally playful with his daughter when he wants to be. As the movie progresses, you start to see a few moments that seem a bit odd and imply he could be in a tough spot mentally.
Throughout the film, there are multiple scenes where you can see Calum somberly doze off while he’s alone, such as before he decides to purchase a several-hundred-pound rug, where he just stares at the floor. Or, more noticeably, when he sits in his room crying after a crowd of people sing happy birthday to him. He also smokes a lot by himself outside in the dark, which could also indicate stress.
The biggest and most hauntingly melancholic way that the film depicts Calum’s struggles is by having occasional flickering light sequences in a dark room, with adult Sophie looking back at her father throughout them. They are greatly made and upsetting, gradually getting more and more so until the famous last dance scene featuring the song Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie.
It’s one of those scenes where you can do a whole other detailed essay by itself, devastating to watch on its own, as well as representing how oblivious Sophie was towards Callum’s depression throughout the film, showing child Sophie smiling while contrasting with adult Sophie looking more sad and aware of it.
Seeing the way the film portrays this dynamic between them is really striking from an emotional perspective and reflects a lot about childhood innocence and how you could be more unaware of the serious things in life around that time. It also makes the film feel more impactful on rewatches because it could feel like you’re adult Sophie herself watching through her own footage again, catching glimpses of Calum’s pain you may have missed the first time.
The presentation of this film also matches how poignant the screenplay is by having very beautiful cinematography, slow pacing, a melancholic score and ambient sound design to create this sombre atmosphere that you could easily get engaged and moved by.
The performances in particular are also huge standouts, with Frankie Corio being a really great child actor, and Paul Mescal as Calum doing a perfect job at being an emotionally damaged yet chill father figure – another Oscar nominee from Encounters that should have received the Oscar.
Overall, Aftersun will most likely go down as one of my personal favourites of the decade and a remembered classic in indie film circles thanks to its notably sad story and characters that you get more out of on rewatches. I hope Charlotte Wells makes another film after this, but we can only wait and see.
