SFL 2026 | SHORT FILMS SHOWCASE
🗓 SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
SHORTS AT SCI-FI-LONDON
SCI-FI-LONDON loves short film! We think shorts are perfect for science fiction, as they let filmmakers play with big ideas and high concepts without adding drama just to fill 90 minutes or more. We hope you make it to one of our five amazing programmes.
BEST SHORT FILM 2026 – BROADCAST
Dir: Ewan Pollitt | 8 Mins | UK
Amid the housing crisis of near-future London, a struggling young woman pursues a controversial deal for a home of her own.
Writer and director Ewan Pollitt and his team have delivered a piece that is as timely as it is witty. It is exactly what great science fiction should do: it holds up a mirror to our current society and asks what might happen if things move just a little further in the wrong direction.
By taking the very real anxieties of the modern housing crisis and pushing them to a satirical, near-future extreme, the film manages to be both deeply entertaining and genuinely unsettling. It is a highly accomplished work that resonates long after the credits roll. Congratulations to the entire team on a well-deserved win.
SHORTS I: THE LONG WAY HOME
A journey across the stars becomes a journey into human connection. In this programme, lost astronauts, solitary researchers, and rebels confront isolation, legacy, and the fragile ties that bind them. A collection of interstellar adventures that asks: how far would you travel to find home, and what would you risk along the way?
SHORTS II: SYNTHETIC HEARTS
Love in the age of robots is awkward, messy and occasionally sparks in very unexpected ways. Lonely men fall for the thing in their hand, androids fall for humans, and corporate experiments turn dating into a high-stakes game.
SHORTS III: THE MEMORY ARCHIVE
Memory is a tricky thing. It fades, it lies, and now you can back it up, replay it, and completely ruin your life with it. In these films, the past refuses to stay buried, whether it’s trapped on a hard drive, beamed through a dodgy signal, or revisited one too many times.
SHORTS IV: THE SYSTEMS DESIGN
Good news. Everything works. Bad news. It’s working exactly as intended. In these futures, housing is impossible, success is automated, and self-improvement comes with terms and conditions, which of course, no one reads.
SHORTS V: EARTH ALTERED
Earth has seen better days. In these stories, it’s been flooded, abandoned, reclaimed and occasionally visited by something unexpected. Aliens drop in, humans hang on, and nature starts quietly taking over.