The YDA 2026 Focus

The rising stars who won Golds in this year’s Young Director Award share with shots the origins and ideas and behind their films, the production highs and lows and what they’re planning next.

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The modern horrors of INKUBUS’s medieval tale

Director Reza Sam Mosadegh, who won the YDA Special Jury Prize for his powerful film, explains why a shocking story of 17th century sexual abuse remains relevant today and how his experience as a refugee led her to filmmaking.

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How Glitter Kiss finds the humanity in hate

Director Augustė Gerikaitė, who won a YDA Gold in the Short Film category for her tender study of homophobia and redemption shares how she set out to prompt empathy and reevaluation of prejudices.

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Jean Chapiro finds the message beyond La Mar

After picking up Documentary Gold at this year’s YDA, director behind La Mar tells Jamie Madge how she found the human story inside a climate crisis.

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Ziga Ciber lifts the veil on his YDA win

Director Ziga Ciber shares the deeply personal inspiration behind his haunting documentary, White Veil, which won a YDA Gold in the Film School - up to 10 mins category.

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Yuan Yuan embraces uncertainty in When Winter Comes

The two-time YDA Gold winner tells Jamie Madge why her short turns away from solving a disappearance and instead focuses on the complicated emotional life of the person left behind.

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On the rise with Jessie J. Rowlands

Director Jessie J. Rowlands talks about her YDA winning film RISE which scooped a Gold Screen in the Short Film - 10 mins and over category. She gives us the scoop on the inspiration behind the film, the shoot in Zimbabwe, and how conviction is contagious.

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Štefánia Lovasová's intimate glimpse at abuse

Director Štefánia Lovasová won a Gold Screen in the Film School -10 Mins and over category at this years YDA. Here she tells us about how her sister got her into film, shooting on 16mm, and the magic of good casting.

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A bird's eye view of Tobias Eckerlin's YDA win

Director Tobias Eckerlin's affecting short film, A Sparrow's Song, won a YDA Gold in the Film School category. Here, he talks to us about building trust with his team, the symbolism of birds, and the real-life figures behind the film.

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​How Losing Voices broadcasts the silenced

With press freedoms under threat, Elias Ben Dahhou, whose powerful film won YDA Gold in Film School, Passion Projects and Changing the World Frame by Frame, explains his mission to raise up the voices of those who’ve suffered from speaking out.

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Lucy Knox's hidden gem

Director Lucy Knox's YDA Gold-winning documentary, Opal Fever, captures the experiences of women living in an isolated opal mining town. Here, she shares the joy of finding stories on the ground and going back to her video art roots.

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How Tanner K Williams brought Beat Bunny to boiling point

Returning YDA Gold winner (and shots Awards The Americas New Director of the Year) Tanner K Williams tells Jamie Madge how he turned intimacy, pizza and meticulously planned choreography into one of the year’s most talked-about music videos.

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Aime Octave takes us to Rwanda

Director Aime Octave's film Echoes Beneath The Hill won a Gold Screen in the Film School -10 Mins and over category in this years YDA, plus the film received a Special Mention. Here he talks about his filmmaking background, the personal inspiration behind the film, and what is coming next.

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How Sooyeon Shin found beauty in a bad dream

After picking up Animation Gold at this year’s YDA, South Korean director Sooyeon Shin tells Jamie Madge how a recurring dream, an unresolved childhood memory and hand-drawn textures shaped her deeply personal film, To My Old Nightmare.

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How Kevin Koch scored with Naples

After winning YDA Gold for Sotto il Vesuvio, director Kevin Koch explains why limited film stock, unpredictable crowds and a little footballing fate helped shape his vivid portrait of the city.

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Willy Hajli builds on Castles & Ruins

After receiving the Video Art Gold at this year's YDA, director Willy Hajli tells Jamie Madge about the memory, meaning and monochrome imagery behind his winning film created to mark ten years since Brazilian rapper BK’s debut album.

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Markus Tangre's pulling the strings of a YDA win

Bacon director Markus Tangre picked up a Gold Screen in the Short Film (Up to 10 mins) category at this year's YDA for his beautiful and thoughtful film Ivar. Here, he talks about puppetry, experimentation, and making films people can engage with.

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Olivia de Camps' bold and beautiful YDA win

Picking up a Gold Screen in the Commercial category at the YDA, as well as a Cannes Lions Grand Prix, SMUGGLER director Olivia de Camps' spot for The Ordinary defies usual beauty commercial conventions. Here, she talks about bucking trends, taking chances and winning big.

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Gustav Bondeson's curveballs and beautiful chaos

Director Gustav Bondeson's ad for RF-SISU, Where Do We Play, won a YDA Gold Screen in the Charity Commercial category. Here, he chats about embracing the mayhem of directing 50 kids on ice skates.

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Sophia Smith is in bloom

Director Sophia Smith won Gold in the Short Film - Up to 10 mins category at this year's YDA. Here she talks about instagrammable phenomena, her journey into filmmaking and her potential future in the industry.

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Tom Oliver sounds it out for Ella Douglas

Director Tom Oliver won Gold Screen for Creative Use Of Sound at this years YDA. Here he shares how he fell into directing, used the power of post, and taking things one project at a time.

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Sai Karan Talwar's multidimensional villain

YDA Gold Screen-winning director Sai Karan Talwar discusses how his short film, I AM THE PRIZE, uses performance and character to explore shame, contradiction and the cost of living by an ideology.

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YDA Winner Clément Lefer gets lost in the post

French director Clément Lefer won Gold in the Documentary - Up to 10 mins category at this YDA. Here he talks shooting his beautiful film The Missing Post Office, working with Katsuhisa Nakata, the 91-year-old former postmaster, and his future filmmaking plans.

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Lisa Mausbach turns an apology into a dark comedy

Director Lisa Mausbach's surreal film, Sorry, produced by SOUP for Fleurop, scooped a YDA Gold. Here, she discusses why tension creates humour and how working with animals helped her stay open-minded on set.

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How Kitalé Wilson found the light

Wilson, who won YDA Gold in the Documentary category for his profound portrait of street photographer Richard Sandler, tells shots about the life flowing through his subject's work and how an analogue artist deals with 'digital dust'.

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How Jesper Ei Karlsson set up shop

Swedish comedy series Kiosken deservedly won a YDA Gold in the First Series category. Here, co-creator Jesper Ei Karlsson shares the importance of characters you care about and how to make authentic quirkiness.

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Souf Kinani's moving story

In the first of our interviews with the directors who picked up a Gold Screen trophy at this year's Young Director Award, PinkRabbit's Souf Kinani discusses ideas, identity, and the weight of telling a personal story.

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Whetstone & Gendron's passion to succeed

Picking up a well-deserved gold in the Passion Project category at this year's Young Director Award for their U-Haul film, The Way to What's Ahead, directors Devin Whetstone and Micah Gendron discuss casting, craft and collaboration.

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Jasper De Maeseneer is focussed on film

HAMLET director Jasper De Maeseneer's short, Shutterspeed, which won gold at this year's YDA in the Film School [Over 10 minutes] category, is an affecting story of vulnerability, power dynamics and infatuation. Here, he talks about ambiguity, emotion and staying focussed.

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Laura Almstrup's doom-scrolling degradation

Young Director Award 2026 winner Laura Almstrup, who bagged Gold trophies in the Passion Project and Changing the World Frame by Frame categories, explains her mission to expose the extent to which hypersexualised online content is harming women, girls and boys too.