Big Syn Institute and London’s Piccadilly Lights invited shorts (up to 5 min max) or 59 sec social media videos to be screened on Piccadilly Lights as part of the Big Syn International Film Festival. The finalists are receiving public votes on our Instagram and the Jury will select the winner/s amongst the most like films.
Winning films will be screened in full at the Piccadilly Lights in November this year.
These are stories or opinions of change, resilience and adaptability covering all major global or local issues such as climate change, poverty, cost of living crisis, war, injustice, discrimination, disability, mental health, and many more.
Donations help us keep entries free for UK’s marginalised filmmakers, charities and filmmakers from Ukraine.
It also helps us keep the screenings free of cost for millions of viewers from across the world.
DIRECTOR – Coco Bond
ASST. DIRECTOR – Eshaan Ghosh
PRODUCERS – Eshaan Ghosh & Coco Bond
EXEC. PRODUCER – Zahra Deljoui
SONG – Zahra Deljoui & Jonatan Bäckelie
DISTRIBUTED BY – Horus Music
CAST:
Kiki with the Devil
Daniel Briffa
Preston Shannon
Jack Grant
The official music video for ‘I Wanna Feel’ by British-Iranian queer artist Zahra Deljoui. Directed by talented filmmaker Coco Bond (Film Kernow) & co-directed by equally talented filmmaker Eshaan Gosh, visually interprets the song’s themes through the story of a drag queen, featuring Daniel Briffa as Kiki with the Devil, reclaiming their identity and self-love after leaving a relationship that suppressed their creative expression. In ‘I Wanna Feel’ Daniel makes their debut on screen alongside the incredibly talented seasoned actor Preston Shannon, the two have an enigmatic chemistry that speaks to LGBTQIA+ audiences from the moment they appear on screen. The visual narrative emphasises resilience, transformation, and self-acceptance, blending cinematic storytelling with intimate, soulful moments that reflect the track’s emotional depth and Zahra’s lyrics about identity and belonging. Dripping with queer culture, the music video was filmed in Plymouth’s queer district with the hospitality of Vault72 nightclub.
Director: Iker Zaratiegui
Production company: Kaptura Producción Audiovisual S.L.
Company behind Yarnasa: Opportunity Health S.L.
An everyday moment can change when someone starts choking, especially when they are alone. This short film introduces Yarnasa, an automatic, self-applicable anti-choking device from Opportunity Health. Through images of the device and a demonstration using a choking simulator, it presents the idea of helping oneself or another person in an emergency. At its heart is a simple ambition: that nobody should have to face choking alone.
Produced by: Bold Studio
Key Animator/Director: William Kelly
Voice actor: Laura Demaude
In Europe, millions of sows are forced to give birth and rear their piglets in crates too small to turn around in. Their confinement has many terrible effects on their welfare, with caged sows frequently suffering from reduced muscular and bone strength, urinary tract infections, abscesses, lesions, and lameness… not to mention a very poor emotional state, based on not being able to behave naturally. To live. It isn’t fair. Not for sows like Hilda or her babies, who didn’t choose this life. And not for the 1.4 million citizens who called to End the Cage Age years ago, and are still waiting for the European Commission to produce the long-awaited cage ban. No sentient being should have to suffer in this way. Let’s get cages banned in Europe!”
Directors/credits: Rosie Viva and Sam Allen, produced by April Kelley
Maybe it’s bipolar? is a short film created by Rosie Viva and April Kelley produced in partnership with Bipolar UK and follows a day in the life of someone living with undiagnosed bipolar. The film launched Bipolar UK’s ongoing Maybe it’s bipolar? campaign, which aims to help people recognise that the little-known symptoms of hypomania may be signs of bipolar.
Directors: Kyra Bartley and Mike Moloney
Executive Producer: Kate Griggs
The film follows a young girl, Lola, who turns to the internet after learning she has dyslexia. When the information she finds paints a bleak picture of her future, she meets a dyslexic inventor who takes her on a journey to discover the remarkable strengths and achievements of dyslexic thinkers throughout history, including Muhammad Ali and Henry Ford.
Featuring the voices of Jeremy Irons and Liv Tyler, this star-studded animation is designed to help every dyslexic child understand that dyslexia is a brilliant and different way of thinking.
Director: Film on the Brain/LGBT Foundation
Older LGBTQ+ community members share their experiences of growing up in a different world, the rights they fought for, and why many feel those hard-won gains cannot be taken for granted. Their stories are a powerful reminder of how far we’ve come, and why we must continue working towards a future where every LGBTQ+ person can live a vibrant, connected and authentic life. Learn how LGBT Foundation is supporting LGBTQ+ people across the UK, including our incredible older generation, and discover why protecting progress matters now more than ever.
Cast
Gabe: Olly Roy
Ghost/Alex: Melvin St James
Crew
Director/Producer: Tom Paul Martin
DOP: Natalja Safronova
Gaffer: Michal Kedracki
Make-Up Artist: Hanni Wellian
Alex had hidden who he was all his life. He was never able to be open about himself or his sexuality. He was hiding in plain sight, living like a ghost. Even after fleeing Malawi and reaching the UK, he was not safe to be truly himself. It was only when he got to Micro Rainbow safe housing and met Gabe – who was open and unapologetic about himself and his sexuality – that he began to become whole.
It’s still illegal to be LGBTQI in more than 60 countries – including Malawi, where Alex is from. And LGBTQI people fleeing persecution are still not safe when they reach the UK. Micro Rainbow provides safe, inclusive housing for LGBTQI people seeking protection in the UK. Micro Rainbow now has 30 safe houses across England and Wales, and can offer over 40,000 safe bed-nights a year to people like Gabe and Alex. Help us raise awareness of our work – share our film!
Ramzey Sabbagh
Created with members of Company Three
Made with Media Trust Films
Funded by the Mercers’ CompanyCreativity
… if I didn’t go to Company Three I wouldn’t have space for that.”
Anxiety, avoidance, doubt – feelings we all know. But what happens when teenagers have seven years to tell their own stories and shape their own futures? Those feelings don’t disappear, but doubt stops holding us back.
Best For You
What Autism Feels Like: Young People’s Stories is an animated film created entirely from the verbatim words of autistic young people. Every line is drawn directly from interviews, giving autistic young people the opportunity to share their experiences in their own voices, rather than having those experiences interpreted by others.
Through a distinctive animation style that both protects anonymity and brings personal experiences to life, the film explores the realities of masking, stimming, sensory differences, and the vital role of supportive families, friends, and communities.
Developed in collaboration with autistic young people and neurodivergent creatives, the film offers an authentic and insightful perspective on autism. It highlights the challenges autistic young people can face, while celebrating the resilience, creativity, and strengths that help them navigate and thrive in a world that is not always designed with them in mind.
Director: Chris Payne
Barons Court Project Director: Michael Angus
“A picture paints a thousand words” tells the story of artists, who have lived experience of homelessness, meeting to paint at Barons Court Project, Hammersmith and Fulham’s only day centre for rough sleepers. It tells how they have found a place where their creativity and talent can flourish and how they come together in community. It also tells how we have turned their work into cards so they can earn an income, £40K paid out to the artists to date. The main point is that Barons Court Project needs more space, as homelessness continues to rise, so we will raise the roof and build a brand-new art studio in the loft. The film was used for fundraising purposes and our appeal to raise the money for the works and has been successful, we now have the funds and works are due to commence shortly.
Rabia Zakria and Rob Durbin
The Washing Machine Project was founded on a simple belief: washing clothes should not hold anyone back. Across low-income, remote and displaced communities, handwashing takes time and physical effort, disproportionately affecting women and girls. More Than a Machine tells the story of a practical innovation designed to ease that burden and create more time for life beyond laundry.
Director: Tania Gentidou
DoP: Veronika Wilmers
Sounddesigner: Tamir Eichelberger
Editor: Rebecca Jahn
We follow a dancer in an underwater world. What initially appears as a fragile symbiosis of movement and material gradually turns into a suffocating struggle. The plastic bag coils around her body, depriving her of air. In this dance, the dancer fights for breath, control, and life.
Hope and Homes for Children Team
The Shocking Truth About Orphanages challenges the widespread belief that orphanages offer a safe and nurturing environment for vulnerable children, exposing the harmful impact of institutional care and highlighting a fundamental truth: children thrive in families, not institutions.
Through a compelling call for change, the film advocates for every child’s right to grow up in a safe, loving and supportive family, while challenging outdated care systems that separate children from their families and communities.
Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the film highlights the importance of protecting children’s well-being, addressing the exclusion of vulnerable children, and building inclusive systems that uphold their rights.
Reflecting Hope and Homes for Children’s vision of a world where every child grows up in a loving family, the film calls for a global shift from institutional care towards family-based alternatives, ensuring that vulnerable children are not left behind in the pursuit of sustainable development.
Andrés Hidalgo, Gabriela Menendez
Trapped in the monotony and information overload of a supermarket back home, a young woman is swept into a sensory, timeless journey to the heart of a Shuar community in Ecuador. What they teach her cannot be manufactured or copied. And when she returns to the aisle, nothing looks the same.
Haller foundation
Told by the children at Nguuni in Kenya, Haller’s new film shares our story through the eyes of the next generation.
Created in partnership with the Regen Trust, the film explores Haller’s work supporting communities to build sustainable livelihoods while caring for the land they depend on. It also introduces an innovative new project bringing together regenerative farming, clean water and renewable energy.
Muthoni Muchiri explains the project and brings its impact to life, alongside the brilliant children whose energy and enthusiasm make this film so special.
Filmed in Kenya by Karl Karanja.
Written, produced and directed by Will Clothier.
Filming coordinated by the Haller Kenya team.
Andrew’s Story
Jake Joynston and Rob Howells
Standing Tall is a not-for-profit matching talented people into stable jobs and safe homes, helping them leave the streets for good. This is Andrew’s story in Liverpool, transitioning from the streets into a stable job with ISS and he’s recently secured a tenancy on his own home.
The film was made by the Comms team at ISS (have asked for more info on name of director but not got it yet).
AzuKo, and Nirapod Bangladesh Songstha
In the heart of rural Bangladesh, homes tell a story of resilience – but also of struggle. AzuKo’s ‘Pathway to home improvement’ programme does more than build stronger walls. We build stronger communities.
We provide construction training that transforms women into skilled builders. Housing advice that helps families plan for their future. Access to finance that makes dreams possible. From design to construction to long-term maintenance – we’re there for the whole journey. This is housing justice.
Organisations: AzuKo, and Nirapod Bangladesh Songstha
Location: northwest Bangladesh
Videography: Reza Shahria Rahman and Turjoy Chowdhury
Editing: Daniel Camargo
Narration: Jo Ashbridge / AzuKo
Thank you to HelpFilm for making this film possible
Don’t be a Harold: Support Drug Reform
Transform Drug Policy Foundation
Meet Harold, the leader of his local Community Watch, whose views on drugs are rooted in moralising and ignorance just like the UK’s drug policy.
“Don’t be a Harold” is a mockumentary that puts a spotlight on the unhelpful and damaging misconceptions that allow the UK’s failing drug laws to persist.
Please watch and share!
Shooting Star Children’s Hospices
A Little Light tells the story of Dylan James and his family. Dylan James tragically died less than a year after first being diagnosed, just weeks before his 4th birthday. In the film, his incredible parents, Alison and Warren, bravely describe their journey and the care they received from Shooting Star. As Alison talks about the different support they received, members of staff representing the Shooting Star team appear on stage holding a candle. Over time, the stage becomes full of points of light and whilst still very dark, faces are increasingly illuminated as each support team is represented on stage, symbolising the wrap around care and light that Shooting Star provided when the unimaginable happened.
Refuge
Take a tour around this seemingly picture-perfect house, can you spot the red flags for abuse?
Trigger warning: domestic abuse.
The most dangerous place for a woman is her own home.
If you’re experiencing domestic abuse, you are not alone. Call our National Domestic Abuse Helpline 24/7 on 0808 2000 247 or visit www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk.
Rescued Orangutan Climbs a Tree For The First Time
International Animal Rescue
The moment you’ve all been waiting for… Jojo steps into his massive outdoor enclosure for the first time!
After 17 years at YIARI’s rehabilitation centre, Jojo finally has the freedom to explore a beautiful two-hectare forest space built just for orangutans like him – those who cannot return to the wild because of injuries, health issues, or the lasting effects of captivity.
At first, he took it slow. Jojo stepped out cautiously, pausing to breathe in the new air and take in the sounds around him. Then, with a confidence we have been waiting years to see, he reached the nearest tree… and climbed it for the very first time in his life.
Jojo’s journey from a 30cm chain near an open sewer to a life among the trees has been long and full of challenges. But today, he is surrounded by leaves, branches and sky – not bars.
Murlan Dameria Pane, Head of the West Kalimantan BKSDA, said: “This enclosure is a concrete example of a long-term commitment to orangutans with physical or health limitations that make release into the wild difficult. With this enclosure, we can ensure optimal animal welfare, while also supporting conservation work for orangutans and other wildlife at the local level.”
This milestone was made possible thanks to the Ministry of Forestry, the West Kalimantan BKSDA, and YIARI’s incredible partners and supporters.
Jojo may never live fully wild, but from today, his life is wilder than it has ever been!
Young K&C – It Takes a Village Campaign
Young K&C
The It Takes a Village campaign creates community-led solutions to address youth crime and exploitation in our neighborhoods.
This overview explains how Young K&C is tackling serious youth crime and exploitation (SYVE) following the rise in incidents post-lockdown. By centering the voices of young people, local residents, and frontline workers, this initiative ensures that those most affected by these challenges have a direct role in shaping the support services they need. The project moves beyond traditional methods, focusing instead on a collaborative approach to safety and support.
Learn how this community-led project is building a safer environment for the next generation across the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea through collaborations with local authorities and familiar faces to stitch together a stronger support network.
If you are interested in how collective action can make a real difference in preventing youth exploitation, find out more at www.youngkandc.org/it-takes-a-village
Race Council Cymru (RCC)
A documentary featuring the stories and lived experiences from the Windrush generation in Wales. Through personal narratives, it explores their remarkable journeys, challenges, and contributions to Welsh society. With a focus on recognition and the lasting legacy of the Windrush generation, the documentary inspires reflection on the importance of equality and cultural diversity in Wales.
Coming to cinemas across Wales in October 2023.
A documentary funded by The Welsh Government.
Directed by Will Langley
Produced by Professor Uzo Iwobi CBE