Thank you to all the filmmakers who participated in the 2026 Lift-Off Sessions Volume 2!

The festival platformed hundreds of films, each project worthy of recognition and celebration. We want to extend a giant thank you to everyone who took part and a special congratulations to all the incredible talent that went into making these projects.

Lift-Off Sessions is designed to be the entry into the Lift-Off Global Network. A platform for the avant-garde, Sessions isn't about selecting the 'best' or most 'commercial' projects; it is about providing a screening opportunity for everyone, connecting these new and emerging voices with new audiences. An option we hope highlights and educates each month!

YUM

Director: Krishi Sanjeev Motiyani
Producer: University Of Hertfordshire
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Synopsis:
An Independent 2D film that imagines a world where the routine slaughter and consumption of humans is normalised — mirroring how society treats chickens today.

Mommy I don't want to

Director/Producer: Asif Pervez
Writer: Chris Friedman
Country of Origin: United Kingdom, United States

Synopsis:
Set in 1975, in a quiet suburban town, Mommy I Don’t Want To follows JAY, an eighteen-year-old who appears ordinary but harbors a dangerous compulsion. By night, Jay prowls neighborhoods, feeding urges he neither fully understands nor can suppress. What begins as trespassing and voyeurism gradually evolves into a disturbing pattern of crimes that terrorize the community.

Wolf Park

Director/Writer/Producer: Tom Madigan
Country of Origin: United States

Synopsis:
A strange drifter picks up odd jobs while living out a nine-year curse as a werewolf.

Topraktan Tabağa

Director/Writer: Merve TEKİNİŞIK
Country of Origin: Turkey

Synopsis:

The process of harvesting the madımak plant from nature, as well as preparing the madımak dish outdoors, evokes a longing for the past.

Homage To Sergei Parajanov

Director: Nairy Shahinian
Country of Origin: Armenia, Germany

Synopsis:
Shot entirely on mobile phones, this highly experimental film emerges from years of displacement, loss, and survival following the war in Syria, where my family once lived, and beyond. The film begins with footage captured in 2019 in a new family apartment in Yerevan, Armenia—where the family originates from—after more than six years of rupture marked by the looting of the family home in Damascus and the death of my father.

Redamancy

Director/Writer: Kimberley Jade Godfrey
Producer: Geordan Miller
Country of Origin: United States, United States

Synopsis:
A short romance that follows a couple from their youth to their old age, proving love does last.

Man of the house

Director/Writer/Producer: Sparkling brook
Country of Origin: France

Synopsis:
A mysterious ex resurfaces as a birth approaches.
Obsessed with the truth, he inserts himself into a couple’s life, determined to uncover who the real father of the unborn child truly is.

Blackout

Director/Writer/Producer: Collins Ekrikpo
Country of Origin: Nigeria

Synopsis:
Two university students who go for night reading on campus get ambushed by a skilled burglar. The male student strives to save himself and the girl.

Waking up is a gift

Director/Writer/Producer: Eser Muzafarov
Country of Origin: United Arab Emirates

Synopsis:
We often wake up to the sound of an alarm and the weight of our daily chores, forgetting the silent miracle that occurred while we slept. 'Waking up is a gift' is a cinematic essay that contrasts the tranquil beauty of the natural world with the relentless pace of modern city life to deliver a powerful perspective check.

Lisbon Luxury

Director/Writer/Producer: Alex Viegas
Country of Origin: Brazil

Synopsis:
In Lisbon Luxury, I explore the quiet power of presence through cinematic imagery and original sound. More than a tribute to a city, this short is an invitation to feel, where luxury is found in stillness, and elegance speaks in silence.

COLORS.

Director/Writer: Michael LeGrand
Country of Origin: United States

Synopsis:
COLORS follows Lucas, a man trapped in a colorless cycle of emotional numbness and invisibility. As he drifts through his days unseen, a brief encounter with a woman named Joy disrupts his gray world, introducing warmth, connection, and color.

Last Cow in the Universe

Director/Writer: Elyas Ltifi
Country of Origin: Tunisia

Synopsis:
Lasaad, university student, has a crazy way of fixing Tunisia.

The Lift-Off Season Awards is an annual event that celebrates the very best of indie film. Following each Lift-Off film festival, films that have excelled in their respective category are short listed for a Season Awards Nomination.  At the end of the year, once all the 12 city-based festival have taken place, the shortlisted nominated films are reviewed again by the jury and Official Nominations are designated.  Click here for more information about the Lift-Off Season Awards.