2025 was the third annual event taking place at Lighthouse in Poole, where we showed off the latest talent in short films and shared invaluable insight with our guest speakers.
2025 Official Selection
EFF 2025 Awards
Lacy’s World
WINNER
Louis Tallulah
Best Director
WINNER
Abigail Sakari
Best Screenplay
WINNER
Abigail Sakari
Best Performance
Lacy’s World: Mission New Crib follows a young, wannabe influencer whose dream of online fame blinds her to the reality of her own life— as she searches for a new London pad to live out her dreams. She’s met with delusion bursting encounters throughout the day which shine light on the reality of her living situation…
This raw, satirical British film from an emerging team of female filmmakers mixes dark humour and sharp social commentary, exposing the harsh truths of aspiration and self-delusion in the digital age.
Synergy
WINNER
Maddy Arthur
Best Production Design
WINNER
Arnav Sharma
Best Cinematography
This short film explores identity and self-expression through the mediums of dance and fashion. We follow the journey of August, a gender-fluid person in their early twenties experiencing the mundanity of an urban, fast-paced environment. The film begins with August listening to a track of electronic dance music and immersing themselves in the audio. They are transported throughout the film to four dimensions in their mind’s eye, reflecting separate versions of themself. The distinct layers of the music are performed by the different iterations of August, each exploring a corresponding movement vocabulary. The amalgamation of the separate versions of themself, and the way they dance, represents a synergy – an extended metaphor for how identity is fluid and multi-faceted.
Make A Wish
WINNER
Make A Wish
Audience Award
Director biography
Justyna Green is a British-Polish illustrator, animator and animation director, specialising in short-form content that addresses women’s health and wellbeing. Her work explores complex topics through a combination of humour and sensitivity, offering accessible narratives on difficult subjects.
Director statement
Make a Wish is a warm and surreal, comic exploration of reproductive anxiety and the pressure to have “it all figured out. Through absurd humour, I wanted to capture the emotional whiplash of indecision around motherhood—how painful, and profound it can be. I hope Make a Wish helps anyone facing similar crossroads feel seen, understood, and less alone.
Guest Speakers
We saw two excellent guest speakers in the names of Lois Tallulah, founder of SHORTIES, and Radi Nikolov, the festival director of Screams By The Sea.
Read more about them below.
With over 10 years of experience in film and TV, Radi has developed a diverse slate of directorial work. His knowledge and experience allowed him to mentor the 2021 BFI youth academy in the SW of UK. Projects he has worked on have gone to receive wide online popularity with multi-million viewed shows on YouTube.
His movie, ‘Hearse Buddies’ has gone to achieve international popularity by playing in popular film festivals around the world. ‘Deadly Scare’ is a short that went to achieve ‘BEST ACTOR’ nomination and is in development to become a feature film. His latest film, ‘Doubt Buy The Whiskey’ tackles important subjects about mental health and imposter syndrome within the arts, starring the voice of the Whitcher- Dough Cockle.
In 2023, Radi set out to establish and manage a brand new Film Festival.’Screams By The Sea’ is an inclusive and welcoming genre film festival right where Merry Shelly wrote her original Frankenstein.
Lois Tallulah is an actor, writer, director, and founder of the award-winning platform SHORTIES, which champions emerging female voices in short filmmaking. Known for her powerful performances in films like Bull, The Bezonians, Original Gangster, and Righteous Villains, Lois has also earned international recognition for her directorial debut Eb & Flo, which garnered multiple festival awards including Best Female Film at IndieX and the Las Vegas Movie Awards. A passionate advocate for inclusive storytelling, she is also the founder of Gas Money Productions and continues to make her mark across film, television, and theatre with bold, female-led narratives and a commitment to elevating new talent.
Reviews
Read some of the anonymous reviews left by our attendees
“It’s my second time coming to Electric Film Festival and I always feel so inspired to create and honored to witness the creators’ short films. I hope it extends to London, Manchester and even around the world!”
Anonymous Reviewer