© 2026 The Couch Critic
In Kumasi, five lifelong friends known as “the Aunties” gather for a day of shared rituals shaped by decades of sisterhood. Through moments of dance, laughter, and prayer, their individual stories come together as one. Akosua is an intimate portrait of friendship, tradition, and the strength found in community.
In a near-future society where a high-stakes virtual exam dictates one’s future, a disadvantaged student must decide whether to risk everything by cheating or accept a system designed for her to fail. This film was made as part of the American Film Institute’s 2025 Directing Workshop for Women Program.
Agadez, a desert city in northern Niger, is weighed down by geopolitical interests and the harsh European border policy. The filmmaker weaves testimonies of three courageous women who each, in their own way, try to confront this reality. They speak about their work, their role in the community, and how they put solidarity into practice. Their inspiring stories offer a glimpse of a feminism that is not theoretical, but rooted in everyday life—a feminism that is truly practiced and lived.
Four friends gather for drinks. As the night deepens, reason quietly slips out of the door, and drunken madness takes its seat at the head of the table.
A man descends through nine phases of texture, life, degradation and colour.
Come, let's daydream in the arms of Mother Nature while our feet sink in deep mud, let's wash each other, I'll let you see a simple truth.
A short film that poetically explores the sterile landscape of music consumption in the streaming era.
Years after a game that was never meant to end, the cards are dealt once more. What begins as a casual night of UNO among strangers is quietly interrupted by a man who has seen the game before… and survived it. As familiar patterns begin to resurface, the players find themselves slipping into roles that aren’t theirs—voices, memories, and unfinished conflicts bleeding through each turn. Possession becomes participation. Guilt becomes gameplay. And the past refuses to stay buried. As the lines between player and pawn blur, one truth emerges: Some games don’t end. They wait.
On the one-year death anniversary of her mother, Mikey is forced to face her inner demons while paralyzed as her guilt manifests itself into physical form.
this is not my fault. this is not his fault. this is your fault.
Short Stop is a short film about a kid with cystic fibrosis trying to join his college baseball team but can't due to his condition and needs to find a new meaning for his life other then baseball
Six old friends gather at Megan’s house for a quiet reunion while her parents are away. What begins as a casual night of music, drinks, and nostalgia quickly becomes tense as old memories resurface and the group dynamic begins to fracture. As the night goes on, an unsettling feeling takes hold, turning the familiar setting into something increasingly dangerous.
Ryzyup (pronounced rih-zee-up) presents a series of unstable, shifting images that resist clear recognition. Shapes appear briefly before dissolving back into motion and texture. The film invites a mode of attention where perception softens and the viewer begins to drift inward.
Can we imagine an archaeology of the future? An unearthing of objects that have not yet been used, a reconstruction of societies that have not yet come to dance. And yet, traces guide an erratic movement from which all our rhythms seem to draw. There is, within archaeology, a visceral drive to reconstruct myths that might serve us as shelters—against which to contrast forms of community, of everyday life, of living.
Leo the clown hosts a children's TV show. During the show, he tries to keep his smile and composure, as the failures increase. A balloon pops, a failed drawing is revealed and the audience's demands become increasingly pressing, awakening his childhood nightmare. Leo breaks down and reveals his story through a fairy tale. A film with surreal elements that deals with violence, loss, guilt and the gray area between victim and perpetrator.
Heather invites her new friends over for a sleepover of secrets and face masks. But soon, her mistreatment of those around her comes back with a haunting grin, and nowhere to run.
The story of the moth, where Teodora Alonzo's story sparked patriotism and courage from her son, the Philippine National Hero,o Dr. Jose Rizal, as he remembers the story not about the danger of the flame but what it can symbolize to his countrymen.
Libre Comme L’air (Free as the Air) is a poignant cinematic collaboration between Miss Claire Aznar and The OFW Project Productions. Set against the iconic, fast-paced backdrop of Manhattan, New York City, the film serves as a visual love letter to resilience and the pursuit of one's authentic self.
After a failed blind date, Kazuyo is inspired to upgrade the AI programme of her late partner, Adam. But his sensory limitations force Kazuyo to confront the reality of grief, memory, loneliness and mortality.
In the not too distant future, a man without hope attempts to save the life he was hired to end with HELPER, a world changing technology that allows anyone to possess another's body at the host's request.
