Watch the nominated entries at Deaffest 2024

Shortlisted nominees for the Deaffest 2024 Film and TV Awards

The nominated entries will be screened at Deaffest 2024 on Saturday the 11th of May 2024. All screenings are subtitled.

D Minor | Dir. Luke Williams, UK

When a deaf man’s deceased wife appears when he plays her guitar, he decides to make a song to bring his memories of her back to life.

Diagnonsense | Dir. Samuel Dore, UK

Diagnonsense is a drama set in 1996 at a psychiatric hospital where Deaf Social Worker Louise meets Patrick, a Deaf patient who has been kept there for 36 years and wrongly diagnosed as schizophrenic by Dr. Nicholson. Louise has to fight discriminatory attitudes to get an institutionalised Patrick to appeal against his diagnosis to get him released but he has to recall his painful memories of the events that led to his incarceration.

Pas le choix | Dir. Hrysto, France

Hugo is a cabaret drag artist at “Chez Titi”. With his sister Victoria, his faithful friend Matt, and all the regulars of the famous cabaret at hand, Hugo takes to the stage for his latest number. Afterwards, when he is found murdered in his dressing room, Matt seems to be the obvious culprit… but is he?

“No Choice” is both a murder mystery and a bilingual psychological thriller which addresses the themes of guilt, falsehood, and identity, performed in French Sign Language (LSF) and French.

You shall hear | Dir. Petra Katharina Wagner, Germany

Mila, who is under two years old, is deaf and lives in an intact family with her parents and older brother, who are also deaf. During a routine examination, the doctor finds out that Mila’s auditory nerve is developed, with the insertion of a cochlear implant and appropriate support, she would have the chance to develop almost normal hearing and speech. The doctor wants to give Mila a “normal” life. The parents reject the operation because they don’t see her deafness as a defect and the hospital calls in the youth welfare office and the case goes to court.

Firefly | Dir. Anna-Marie Scragg, UK

A young girl who is deaf, living in a rural fishing village with her widower Dad and Grandad, sees her life turned upside down when she is left with an increasingly abusive stepmother. A story of resilience against adversity.

MISH + GRAHAM | Dir. Nathan Crossan-Smith, UK

It’s 2032. The Connect App has changed everything: it could be the answer to the social care crisis or the beginning of the commodification of care. An unlikely friendship between two strangers in four meetings, moving between BSL and spoken English. Ready to Connect?

Night Shift | Dir. Bim Ajadi, UK

A Deaf, female security guard on the night shift observes a man in the midst of a crisis: they find a new way to communicate.

The Singer | Dir. Cora Bissett, UK

Joe is a young deaf man whose ambition in life is to become a singer. Only when he stumbles across struggling street musician Andy, who himself is losing his hearing, do they discover how much they can help each other to become a symbiotic performing team

Father Tongue | Dir. Ivgeny Gashinsky, Israel

A non-functional relationship between Dror (10) a deaf child and Moshik, his father who struggles to accept his deafness. Moshik insists on integrating Dror in a school for hearing children, where Dror experiences bullying. He first sees his son’s distress after Dror attacks the class bully and is expelled. Now the two have to communicate to find solutions.

La Maynade | Dir. Julien Bourges, France

Sarah does not know her parents. One day, a message tells her that her father, Marc, has disappeared in the Pyrenees. She decides to go to Gérard, Marc’s best friend, at “La Maynade” to find out more about his parents…

Millstone | Dir. Peter Hoffman Kimball, USA

Featuring an entirely Deaf cast and shot exclusively in American Sign Language, this is the story of a married couple who – after having tragically lost a child – seeks out a new, experimental therapy. Their grief is consuming them, destroying their marriage, and driving a wedge between them and the rest of society. They have found the only therapist who might be able to help them – but his process could be worse than anyone imagined.

Tarneit | Dir. John Sheedy, Australia

Tyrone lives with his distressed mother and her boyfriend Pommy, a lowlife who despises immigrants and homosexuals. Tyrone’s best friend Clinton, a refugee, lives with his overworked mother and older brother Shaker, who also has firm ideas about race and sex. Despite these obstacles, Tyrone and Clinton are deeply bonded. Partly because they’re both Deaf, partly through a shared sense of neglect, but mostly because they share a dream of one day escaping the harsh violence that swirls around them.

Coffee Morning Club: Episode 1 | Dir. Louis Neethling, UK

Members of the Coffee Morning Club gather for their regular meet up to find that a camera crew has been invited to film a documentary about them. A bombshell leaves the members of Coffee Morning Club reeling.

Food Fighters: Episode 2 | Dir. Camilla Arnold, UK

In the second episode of ‘Food Fighters’, presented by Marios Costi, four children are given two challenges to complete to impress the series judge, Coco Briden, and the guest judge, Nadia Nadarajah, to get through to the quarter finals. The theme for today’s episode is ‘Zero Waste’.

See Hear: A National Scandal | Dir. Andrew Taylor, UK

Yvonne Cobb investigates why there were four care homes for elderly deaf people in the UK in 2016 and now there’s only one. What does this mean for the future of care for elderly deaf people?

Sign2Win Series 2: Episode 4 | Dir. John Maidens, UK

In this episode of Sign 2 Win, partners Yen and Warren who have been together for 15 years, do they know each other well enough to win £1,000? How determined are the school friends, Kevin, and Amin, to win the show? Best friends Georgina and Georgie have always been mistaken as twins. Does this mean they can read each other well? Who do you think will win?

Re:Growth | Dir. Douglas Ridloff, USA

Throughout history, the Hearing community has likened the Deaf community to unwanted weeds, seeking to eradicate them through tools like hearing aids, cochlear implants, and even CRISPR gene editing. This harmful mindset, known as Crab theory, reflects the internalized oppression felt by Deaf individuals isolated from their peers and language models. This poem reframes the Deaf community as resilient and beautiful, despite society’s attempts to uproot them. Just like stubborn weeds in a garden, the Deaf community perseveres and flourishes, challenging the notion of their undesirability and showcasing their potential for growth and strength amidst adversity.

Rite of Identity | Dir. Youmee Lee, USA

Rite of Identity is a film about a deaf child who struggles with an overwhelming soundscape.

The Device That Turned Me Into a Cyborg Was Born the Same Year I was | Dir. Chella Man, USA

Through visual metaphors and circumstantial installations, Chella Man explores his cyborg identity and personal relationship to the freedom and constraints cochlear implants created.

Threshold | Dir. Sofya Gollan, Australia

Threshold is a deeply personal exploration of what it means to have a little machine as part of your body, a portrayal of the Deaf experience rarely seen. The acceptance of a cochlear implant is not an automatic, seamless entry to a world of sound but rather a chaotic understanding of what it is like to hear.

Alfredo Corrado | Dir. Julien Bourges, France

Julien Bourges partly retraces the life of Alfredo Corrado, an American deaf artist.

Today, considered an important figure in the French deaf community, Alfredo Corrrado came to Paris in the late 1970s, at a time when sign language was forbidden and scorned.

This unique documentary on Alfredo Corrado recounts the creation of International Visual Theater (IVT) and the adventures of the first deaf theater in France at the Château de Vincennes, which changed the history of deaf people in France.

Birmingham Made Me | Dir. Rinkoo Barpaga, UK

Rinkoo Barpaga is a multi-disciplined performer making a name for himself on the comedy circuit. But as a Deaf Asian man, his journey to success hasn’t been easy.

Elevated | Dir. Palmer Morse, USA

Effective communication is a challenge every climber faces. It’s a sport that requires intense focus, dedication, and overcoming fear. For Deaf climber Sonya Wilson, communication and community is of vital importance. Elevated is a non-verbal film sharing Sonya’s experience as a Deaf woman and outdoor advocate working to bridge the gap between the Deaf community and the outdoor industry, one crag at a time.