Bristol Girl Review: Encounters Film Festival

Encounters is Bristol's international film festival and home to the UK's most prestigious international short film competition. Founded in 1995 to mark the centenary of cinema, the festival takes place each September on Bristol's Harbourside, bringing together filmmakers, audiences, and industry from across the world. The festival's centrepiece is its international short film competition, which screens hundreds of short films drawn from more than 50 countries across competitive and curated programmes spanning fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental work.

We had the honour of attending the festival this year and it was an absolute dream! The festival was held over a number of venues and we were able to attend screenings at The Watershed, Bristol Megascreen and the Planetarium which were all such fantastic venues. The Planetarium at We The Curious was especially great as we got to see three 360° films about Cornwall’s extraordinary evolution and heritage. Being from Cornwall, this was personally a very special screening, with one of the films ending with a shot of my home town I shed only a few tears.

The Watershed was the central hub though, bustling with audience members, filmmakers and other industry members, the smell of coffee and freshly made popcorn in the air. To get to go there every day and rub shoulders with filmmakers was a real treat, to watch their films, hear from them and applaud for them, it’s a rare thing unless you live in London which has a lot more festivals than other cities in the UK. And for a film lover like me, speaking to directors and writers and animators, I mean, you couldn’t ask for much more.

Photography by Portland Productions

A great opportunity to experience short films

What struck me though was how many people at the festival were in the industry. I didn’t meet many people who were just audience goers and most assumed I was in the industry too. It was an interesting thing to observe and made me a little sad. In a world filled with algorithms and short form content, it’s interesting that short films aren’t more popular. Is it the lack of a well known platform to watch them on? Are short films not considered a worthy opponent to feature films? And if so, why?

As an audience, I think it’s also a great space for us to learn what we like, to tease our senses and to support independent cinema. There are streaming services out there for short films and some popular platforms like Disney have some to watch for free, but I doubt many of us would have heard of these platforms or seen them advertised so access just feels limited or hidden in some way.

Short films are often a side thought at awards shows as well, much like other dismissed genres such as horror and documentaries, and yet they provide complex, intriguing and speedy storytelling, perfectly designed to fit into our busy lives. They are also a creative breeding ground for actors, artists, directors, script writers, a place to team up, to play and to brainstorm. The building blocks of the film industry are made there, the craft learned, the abilities perfected. Like garage bands, everyone has to start somewhere, and many people start by making shorts.

At Encounters, I set about watching as much as I could! Over the 4 days of screenings, I managed to watch 57 short films. There was such a mix of genres, techniques, and styles – it was incredible! It would obviously be impossible to write about them all, so I’ve narrowed down to a Top 10; in no particular order, these are the ones that have stuck with me far beyond the credits rolling.

Our Reviewer, Amy, at Encounters Festival

1. The Gleam

Dir. Veras Fawaz / Netherlands / 2025 / 30 minutes

Every summer, painter Momo and his oldest friends return to his father's house by a lake in France. This year, alone at the water, he sees a mirror-bright disc hanging silently above the lake. It vanishes before anyone else can see it. When he tells them that night, nobody believes him. He stops his medication and investigates in secret, hunting for witnesses online and lying to the people closest to him, until a fight sends them home without him. Alone, he turns the house into an observatory. Cables out the windows, a camera at the sky. Then the house begins to answer. 

The film was actually my favourite of the whole festival. It was beautifully crafted, well paced and the acting was very strong. I could have easily watched a feature length film of this and the 30 minutes allowed for the story to develop more.

2. Into the Betaverse

Dir. Varun Raman and Tom Hancock / UK / 2026 / 14 minutes

Gary's just proposed to his girlfriend. However, their relationship only exists in a virtual world – the Betaverse. Technophobe best mate, Dave, suspects she's a scammer, so he begrudgingly enters the Betaverse to spy on them.

This film was SO unique, a mixture of live-action and janky, hilarious video-game animation. It was so, so silly, very funny, heartwarming and an interesting look at online worlds.

3. Coyotes

Dir. Said Zagha / France, Palestine, Jordan, UK / 2026 / 20 minutes

A Palestinian surgeon drives home after a long night shift, but little does she know that a commute through a desolate West Bank road will change her forever.

If I had the time, I would show this film to everyone in the world. It was SO GOOD! I have thought about it every day since the festival. One of the best builds of tension and foreboding I have ever seen, you are on edge the entire time and are never quite sure where it is going. The lighting of this film was also so impressive for it being shot mainly in the dark, and the acting was fantastic.

4. Moderation

Dir. Benedict Cohen / UK / 2026 / 14 minutes

As a content moderator, Annabel patrols the internet for evil. So must contend with a steady stream of unrelenting bile, fed directly into her eyeballs. Luckily, she bonds with her melancholic colleague, AJ, over an illicit rooftop vape session. But after watching a particularly gruesome acid attack film, she spots AJ across the room and, before she has a moment to think, they are having sex in the wellness room. So they quickly fall into a habit - and gradually become addicted to the pattern of trauma followed by the ecstatic relief of sex.

The most insane thing about this film is that the director said after the screening that it was based on real experiences! The concept is so thought-provoking, I had never really thought about real people actually being moderators, assuming it was mostly done by bots and algorithms, so it gave me a lot of food for thought and was done so well. It was the perfect balance of being tonally dark and having humour, and it felt quintessentially British where there is a dark, rainy cloud over a lot of our lives and we crack on regardless. 

5. Stuck

Dir. Matt Nicholas / UK / 2026 / 20 minutes

Dr Atkins is the hospital’s golden boy, the pride of the proctology department, the leading expert in removing “foreign objects” from patients. It’s his 30th wedding anniversary, and he’s on a roll! Wendy (his wife) and he agreed to not go big… or so he thought. He’s on thin ice with her as it is and, when her present arrives halfway through his shift, he realises he has very little time to find the perfect gift. He sends Dr Jones (his junior doctor) on a quest for the perfect gift but, when the perfect gift presents itself inside a patient, will he risk it all for love?

The above blurb sounds good right? Now what if I tell you it is also a musical?! This is honestly everything I want from a short film. Humour, a fleshed out concept, utter silliness, great acting and well-edited. I couldn't praise this one enough, it was simply brilliant.

6. 4 Wise Monkeys

Dir. Xin Wang / France, China / 2025 / 15 minutes

A short-sighted neighbor, deafened police officers and a mute Chinese family: a mortifying aggregate, based on a true sotry, which triggers a chain of circumstances, leading to the death of a man and bringing an entire community out of its silence.

I wrote notes in my programme for each film that I saw throughout the festival just to keep track of my immediate thoughts and emotions. For this film, I wrote in huge red letters across the page, “THIS FILM WAS AMAZING!”. And it really is. I somehow did not know about this story and so it was utterly shocking. It was such an intense film, edited and shot in a way that showed each level of the event and how it all occurred, building as it went. So brilliantly crafted, a truly spectacular piece of filmmaking.

7. Sub5

Dir. Laura Kavanagh / Ireland / 2026 / 13 minutes

A tense, contemporary social-thriller exploring the dark crossover between online incel misogyny and real-world danger. When a teenage son sabotages his mother’s online dating attempts as a bitter prank, he unleashes a threat he can’t control — turning clicks into consequences and a desperate race against time.

“Well, well, well, as if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.” This is very topical and so I was drawn to it because of its current cultural significance - thankfully it was also great. A dark, twisted tale, with a good twist at the end to boot, leaving you wanting more. 

8. Paper Trail

Dir. Don Hertzfeldt / USA / 2026 / 14 minutes / no dialogue

A 14-minute high-speed study of someone's life, seen only through pieces of paper. New animation techniques were developed to create the film's unique look and pace.

This one hit hard. A person’s life is seen through drawings from when they were a child, exam papers, and employment paperwork. Hitting a certain point and realising the repetitiveness of life was astounding, miserable even, and made you realise just how time we spend doing the same things. The film was well-made, an ASMR dream with the sounds of all the pens and pencils, couldn’t recommend this one enough.

9. The Pigs Underneath

Dir. Charlie Dennis / UK / 2025 / 12 minutes

In a resource-strapped British estate where daily goods determine survival, residents are forced to meet a mysterious quota to prevent a monstrous awakening. A young man and his resilient mother face a desperate race against time when their contributions are stolen, and they must confront betrayal, sacrifice, and horrifying secrets buried deep within the community.

The note I wrote down in my programme for this was, “INJECT THIS IN MY VEINS NOW!” Maybe a tad extreme but OH MY GOD this was good! I love anything post-apocalyptic or survival based and this was a brilliant concept. I could watch 10 seasons of this right now. The sound especially was great and added so much tension.

10. The Rossini Garden

Dir. William Burger, Tara Rewal, Simeon Jacob, Odelia Laine, Garance Mondamert, Mathilde Vergereau, Arthur Wong / France / 2025 / 10 minutes

Hervé, 80 years old, is a famous artist: through his garden he creates ever-evolving and surrealistic landscapes. Tonight, he is hosting his last exhibition, during which he will reveal under the pearl willow his final master piece.

By far, the most beautiful animation that I saw at the festival. Absolutely breathtaking artistry. It was like a water colour that was lit with glitter, every frame rose like the tide and shone like the sunlight was hitting it. The story was poignant and loving, and the relationship between the central characters was intriguing and sad.

Final Thoughts

You can see the variety and the vibrance of the film festivals selection. I could have easily named ten more films, but these were all the most succinct, the most clear in their message, and were all so beautifully crafted they impressed me the most. Many of them are available to view online, some on Youtube, some on other platforms, seek them out, immerse yourself, you won’t regret it.

My takeaway from Encounters Film Festival is simply to spread the word, to get people to go and encourage you to watch short films. For a woman with ADHD and who lives for “girl dinner”, a short-film festival is literally a smorgasbord of content! You get so much included - different venues, genres, lengths of film and variety of experiences.

There were films, music videos, talks, live events and even a closing party at Wake The Tiger. You can dip in and out, pick and choose what you want to attend, or just go to everything and let it wash over you. As the festival’s executive director Dave Taylor-Matthews says in the festival programme, “None of this works without you being there. Films come alive when they are watched, shared, argued over, laughed at and talked about.” If you are able to go in the future, you will get to experience all of that and more. And if you need someone to go with, we will definitely be back!