As a former youth worker, Max Fisher learned the importance of building trust, taking leaps of faith and above all, finding the humanity in people. It’s this the Rogue director seeks to showcase in his current work as a filmmaker, pairing a keen eye for the little details with a big heart and a wry sense of humour. Elevating a simple premise into a thought-provoking comment on morality and redemption – with a few laugh-out-loud moments along the way – his first short film, Small Change, is a brilliant example of the genre. He tells 1.4 about finding his short form groove and why it’s the small ways in which people change that make for the greatest impact

For many years, ‘cabaret’ has been synonymous with a bowler-hatted Liza Minelli trussed up in suspenders, doing her doe-eyed turn as Sally Bowles in the eponymous 1972 flick. Here to drag that into the 21st century is director Floria Sigismondi, who, together with Sam Smith, has created a ‘modern retelling’ of the spectacle of cabaret – one that joyously celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and the queer world in all its multifaceted, body positive glory – for Smith’s track, Unholy. Featuring extravagantly theatrical costumes, a narrative of betrayal and liberation, and Sigismondi’s trademark cinematic visuals, it’s a show in every sense of the word. Looking back over her 30-year career as a director, Sigismondi talks to 1.4 about feminism in filmmaking, finding inspiration in the sharp edges of life, and the siren call of the theatre

In this compelling short, Niko & Eleanor, Sam Severin gives us a poignant account of a bizarre yet beautiful symbiosis formed between an Alzheimer’s sufferer and the opportunistic young man who breaks into her house. With stunning visuals and wonderfully complex characters, the New York-based writer and director’s work explores themes from intergenerational dynamics to the male gaze. 1.4 talks to her about directing her own material and her research on the world of cam-girls in an era before Only Fans.

Canadian director Adrian Villagomez has shown boundless creativity in his recent music videos for Jean-Michel Blais and Denzel Curry. From a hip-hop dancer trying to master a courtly French minaret in Blais’s Passepied, to faultless, sweeping sand dunes and jungle in Peru for Denzel Curry’s Melt My Eyez album, it seems that Villagomez is on a roll. We met up with the director to hear how violin lessons and being a film geek can lead to surprising places

CANADA director Gerson Aguerri has a knack for wonderful and wacky filmmaking, bringing the inanimate to life and making big things happen on a small scale. 1.4 catches up with the Barcelona-based director about mastering stop-motion animation for his spot for Travel Oregon and why VHS mixtapes were precious treasure

David Findlay produces fabulous work that is light on dialogue and heavy on emotional impact. Music runs through the veins of all of his pieces, and his new short Lay Me By The Shore is no exception, with music by Norwegian artist The White Birch. 1.4 catches up with the director about shooting the film, working with first-time actors, and his teenage dreams of pro snowboarding.

Somewhere amidst the Montreal fall, film director Vincent René-Lortie is sitting down in a cafe to write... probably. Films Sit Still and La Nuée have continued to build on his growing reputation, offering powerful narratives and dreamlike visions both bleak and surreal, shot through with rays of hope. With the trailer for his latest work Invincible just released, and exciting new plans around the corner after signing with The Cornershop, the future is surely as bright and golden - with a touch of the bleak - as that Canadian Fall outside. We sat down - figuratively speaking, in the Montreal cafe of our mind's eye - for a chat with Vincent.

The work of Stockholm-based director Malin Osafo is a visual feast for the eyes, with her knack for captivating lighting and multi-layered effects. Her new video for Olivia Dean’s Danger, shot in a single day, flips, rotates, and warps our view with kaleidoscope visuals that keep you on your toes. Having recently signed to new–land’s New Talent roster, Malin catches up with 1.4’s Becca Nichols about her ironic sensibility, the power of post-production, and how falling in love with sculpture led her to directing.

Ben Dean has rightly earned himself a reputation for highly dynamic films, and his new spot for Flipper’s Roller Boogie is no exception. With a high-speed chase of jumps, swerves and explosions, all to a pulsing beat, rollerskating has never been this dangerous, nor this cool. 1.4 chats to the Doomsday director about the challenges of shutting down Mexico City, custom-made skate rigs, and taking inspiration from the locations he uses.

As a visual artist, director, model and meme queen, Agusta Yr wears many hats - but uniting this thoroughly modern multihyphenate’s creative ventures is a wicked sense of humour. An unlikely attribute in the serious business of fashion, to be sure, but one the Icelandic-born, Miami-raised creative wields like a six-inch stiletto heel – stylish, but sharp as hell – to explore beauty standards, body ideals, digital personalities and the increasing prevalence of social media in videos that fizz like Instagram fever-dreams. A master of digital manipulation who’s equally at home in front of and behind the camera, Yr constructs surreal animated worlds peopled with 3D scanned models for the likes of Gucci, Converse, The 1975 and Remi Wolf. Having recently signed to Pulse, she tells 1.4 how being an outsider in two cultures fuelled her creativity, and why Britney Spears would be her dream client

An alumnus of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Joe Connor’s journey into directing has taken him from making ‘strange, silent, anarchic theatre about vacuum cleaners’ to big-budget music videos for the likes of the Rolling Stones, Coldplay and Sam Smith – all thanks to a Damascene moment in the projectionist’s booth at an old 35mm cinema. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but an inquisitive nature - coupled with a deeply immersive approach and a commitment to embracing the creative energy at the heart of every project - has served the Warrington-born filmmaker well, producing an eclectic and electric body of work that defies description. Along with the release of his new short film, ‘Breathe’ - a visceral reminder to pause our hectic post-Covid lives for just a moment – he tells 1.4 why there’s a hunger for unique ideas, realised in theatrical ways.

Though by his own reckoning he’s “nothing more than a cheap hack”, a flick through Maxim Kelly’s reel reveals an eccentric creativity and an excitingly experimental mindset. Whether he’s dabbling in deepfake technology or more retro films formats, the Caviar director finds more inspiration in “rubbish stuff” than cool – and sees filmic potential in every lived experience. From an Orwellian dystopian disaster movie featuring an alien ant to a manic homage to ‘90s rave culture, his work combines refreshingly original concepts with strong visuals and careful craft. Having recently moved to Barcelona and become a father for the first time, he tells us why the pandemic was the best thing that ever happened to him

Pairing Christian symbolism with surfing, Portuguese director Marco Espirito Santo’s film demonstrates the beautifully complex power dynamic between a surfer and their waves. 1.4 speaks to Marco about shooting on film, the importance of sound and the birth of his new creative studio LaPush, a collaboration with Brazilian filmmaker Del Reginato.

Weekend chill: The fusion of visuals and music will make your heart purr

What with climate change, the dismantling of women’s reproductive rights, and the lingering loneliness of the pandemic, the world feels like a rather anxiety-inducing place right now. Thank goodness, then, for Sindha Agha, whose viral videos tackle these issues head-on, armed with a down-to-earth demeanour and a wry smile in a bid to help us become “kinder, funnier and calmer creatures”. Channelling personal insights through a gloriously colourful aesthetic that melds collage, stop-motion and conceptual imagery, the Corner Shop director’s most recent campaign for the National Network of Abortion Funds is a brilliantly leftfield riposte to the overturning of Roe vs Wade. She tells Selena Schleh about honouring her Sufi heritage through filmmaking – and why finding the humour in life is imperative.

The medium is the message

By Chris Levine, 2004

It's all about love, gambling with life, and sheep

Filmmaking beyond the catwalk

From a child vampire to a serial killer-turned-hopeless-romantic and a gentle giant impervious to pain, the fascinating, finely-drawn characters that people Eugen Merher’s films are a world apart from film-school stereotypes. Add in a knack for emotional storytelling and whiplash-inducing plot twists, and it’s clear that – like the elderly escape artist in Break Free, a joyful spec spot for adidas - the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg graduate is going places. As his student Oscar-finalist short, The Boy Who Couldn’t Feel Pain, hits the festival circuit, Eugen reflects on his filmmaking journey, from making ‘cheap action flicks’ on a borrowed DV camera to spec spots and feature dreams

Mellow, moody and marvellous

Australian director Kyra Bartley is currently on a roll with two recent commercials winning acclaim. The Reluctant Shanty, featuring real-life refugees, was made for the UNHCR to mark this year’s World Refugee Day, while The Smart Network is Here was shot for Vodafone New Zealand. Kyra talks to 1.4 about her latest work.

From producing French hip hop to filming beauty and cruelty in Bolivia - that's the road just travelled by Paris-based musician Sandór Waïss. To accompany the release of an upcoming new album, Sandór Waïss has written and co-directed a short film titled Broken Blue, pulling together three powerful music videos. Best known until now under his hip hop pseudonym, BBP, Sandór Waïss spoke to 1.4 about his move into the spotlight.

Curious as to what a modern-day version of Dante’s Purgatorio would look like? In his latest video for Sad Night Dynamite, Lucas Hrubizna uses pioneering volcap technology to summon up a bleak vision of abandoned gas stations, deserted shopping malls and stuttering neon signs, peopled with the souls of the departed. Bringing an experimental and painterly approach to post-production, the Blink director delights in the space where technology meets art. Interweaving surrealist influences with cutting-edge VFX skills to bend the laws of physics and conjure alternative versions of reality, these are mesmerising music videos to make your brain itch while you ponder: is it all a dream?

Five years ago when Atawhai Charteris was 17 he walked the length of New Zealand recording his adventure in a short film of entertaining highs and lows. Now the self-taught filmmaker has taken his craft to new heights with this look into the beautiful, heart stopping art of bodyflying.

Escaping from the perils of war is just the first step for refugees fleeing from Ukraine. Many suffer from crippling post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, even after finding safety abroad. Latvian film director Andzej Gavriss captured this aspect of their recovery in a powerful film for the UNHCR, called Uprooted. Here, he explains how the project came about.

Getting the message across in astonishing ways

Eno Freedman Brodmann’s film The Pitch created quite a buzz after winning a silver medal in last year’s 1.4 awards. We asked his collaborator Niccolo Montanari to interview Eno on how he’s currently doing with the dismal business of pitching for commercials. They upped the stakes and delivered a short film: The Interview