As well as the multitude of main features that played throughout LFF, press delegates had access to a digital viewing library throughout the month of October. Now that the festival is well and truly over, here’s some thoughts on the few that I managed to watch. Time unfortunately got away from me, but many shorts and features on that platforms aren’t too far away from receiving full releases, so if anything from the programme sounded up your street, keep an eye out.

Into The Forest

Fancying myself another stop-motion fix from LFF after being bowled over by Wildwood, I went to the digital library and discovered Into The Forest, a stop-motion/live-action short from the mind of writer-director Antonin Niclass. Aware of the limitations he has made for himself with the short’s 10-minute runtime, Niclass tells a sweet and simple story of a stop-motion monkey breaking free from being controlled by human hands.

The biggest selling point visually is the seamless blend of stop-motion puppetry against live-action. Calling to mind Robert Morgan’s Stopmotion, Into The Forest does not have to contend with matching its visuals against human actors, and so the film is free to show its puppets interacting with features of this artist’s studio – his open laptop with a jungle screensaver, a desk lamp, etc. Into the Forest is a classic example of an animation being dialogue-free that manages to tell a story just fine without it. Maybe calling it a story would be a mistake, as it’s mostly just about puppets finding out about the world around them. However, it makes for an interesting counterpoint to the sheer ambition and volume of Wildwood, showing that stop-motion in its purest form can still be used effectively for things like this.

Fishbrain

I want to see what a feature-length version of Fishbrain would have looked like: there’s a lot of ideas that it’s playing with, such as grief, familial relationships, and even some body horror elements. The problem with it is that there’s simply too much happening. The 20-minute runtime is full to bursting. This may sound like more of an insult than intended, but it has the pace of those Tiktok edits that cut a feature film to its most noteworthy or intense scenes. It’s better edited than those, but it’s annoying when a short doesn’t feel like a short, rather a feature film that’s missing any fat or connective tissue.

The short is a two-hander between a grandfather and granddaughter, and this is also where the short can come a cropper. The grandfather is mostly believable, but the granddaughter acts overly aggressive and confrontational. It makes narrative sense, but the actress somewhat oversells the drama. The film almost comes together when it reaches its extravagant conclusion, with a set piece which is well-directed and boasts some impressive effects, but once again this feels like it should come at the end of a feature film, and not a short that’s bit off far more than it could ever chew. 

All Yours

All Yours is a little disjointed, but I love what it was going for. The idea of an overworked mother not receiving attention for what she does is a tale as old as time, executed really well in recent films such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, but imagine if that film had had Rose Byrne being overworked so much that her skin starts peeling off and she cooks it as little pastries. If that imagery sounds interesting to you, then All Yours is, well, all yours. The film achieves this visual really well, it looks as realistic as you could get and it really exploits it during the time it has. It’s also cool to see Sophia di Martino (aka Sylvie from Loki) starring in, writing and directing this: I’d be interested to see what she does next as a filmmaker.

The Devil Is In Me

Set in a traditional church, The Devil Is In Me is a classic example of what happens when conservative religion meets a precocious and spiky youngster who claims to be possessed by the Devil. To the film’s credit, it blurs the line between realities very well – you’re not quite sure what to believe, even at the very end, and I love the atmosphere that the old church brought to the mix. However, I wish that this opted for a darker comedic tone than the broad ones it ends up taking – a piece of religious satire needs to go further than this to be successful, and The Devil Is In Me plays things a little too safe. Still, I really liked the central pairing and the ending of it is a great curveball.

ALEX’S ARCHIVE – LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2026 SHORTS