A Messy Guide to LOCO 😈
+ OUR MAY MESSY PARTY!
Good evening Messies <3
We have news of our HIGHLY ANTICIPATED MAY MESSY PARTY!
We are very happy to announce our partnership with LOCO (London Comedy Film Festival), which is running at the beautiful Ritzy cinema in Brixton from the 8th - 11th May! It’s the largest comedy festival in the world and we’re so so excited to be teaming up with them for their closing night party!
The party is on Sunday 11th May from 6:45pm - 9:30pm, upstairs at the Ritzy!
As always, this is a night for people who hate networking events, intended for filmmakers and film-lovers to meet, to connect, to vent, or to celebrate with – and maybe even to meet some future collaborators.
Stick around for LOCO’s annual awards ceremony, where they will announce the award winning short films in the following categories:
LOCO Award for Best Short (up to 20 mins)
LOCO Award for Best Short Short (up to 4 mins)
LOCO Award for Best Short Short Short Short (up to 2 mins)
LOCO Award for Best Script
LOCO Award for Best Performance
LOCO Award for Best Speedy Film (for the one-week filmmaking competition)
We’ve also put together a list of films we are particularly excited for, some of which even come from the Messy community! LOCO programs films with all sorts of different perspectives, topics and budgets, which you can especially see in their fab short film screenings. Here are some of our recs:
FEATURES YOU SHOULDN’T MISS
Two Big Feet (Writer/Director: Noah Stratton-Twine)
An exquisitely shot comedy about a down-on-his-luck monster-hunter and the best friend who’ll do anything for him. Largely improvised by its magnificent cast, Two Big Feet is one of the comedy highlights of 2025 and an astonishing example of microbudget filmmaking.
This film is a brilliant example of not waiting for film funds or investors to allow you to make what you love and instead just going and making it yourself. Big inspiration, this one!
Hostages (Writer/Director: Jim Owen)
After a terrifying explosion in a London hotel, three strangers escape together and hide out in a room, with chaotic, surprising, and very funny results.
(I will simply watch anything with Charlotte Ritchie at this point)
SHORTS FROM THE WILD SIDE - these films are dedicated to the weird, the wacky, and the wonderful.
The Secret Lives of Lesbians’ Cats (Writer/Director: Kate Jessop)
What do cats talk about when their owners aren’t around? What do they really think of their lesbian owners? The Secret Lives of Lesbians Cats is the new episode of Planet Pussy Willow, the feminist sci-fi development of the multi award winning comedy adult animation series Tales From Pussy Willow.
We met Kate at BFI’s Woman With a Movie Camera Summit in January where she was doing a talk on ‘A Guide to Sex through the Female Lens in Animation’ which we obviously loved x
I Said Maybe (Writers: Nayonica Ghosh & John D. Foley, Director: Nayonica Ghosh)
A stylised folk retelling of the epic rise, fall and reunion of a northern poet and his vagabond brother.
This film was part of the LOCO one week filmmaking challenge and even received an honourable mention for it! Nayonica is a Messy as well and she found the cast the night before shooting on our Messy Actors WhatsApp group <3
MEOW! (Writers/Directors: Michal Vojtěch, Ariel de la Garza Davidoff)
An intriguing, quirky and amusing run through the Gothic shadows of the city of Prague, as a toilet attendant searches for her lost cat, trying to avoid hunchbacks who are hopelessly enamoured of her.
Czech isn’t really explored in film often, which is why I’m SO chuffed to have filmmaker Michal Vojtěch screen this really cool short at LOCO!
Egyptian Geese (Writer/Director: Sarah L Morgan)
”Do you ever worry about how much violence you have inside you?" On her daily lockdown walks, a woman becomes fascinated by a glamorous yet aggressive breed of waterfowl.
Egyptian Geese is Sarah Morgan’s microbudget love letter to ornithology, female rage, and going for a little f*cking walk. Made only for £300 by another Messy woman! We love budget filmmaking!
SHORTS FROM THE NEAR SIDE - these intimate comedy shorts are all about romance, family, friendship, and sex.
HOT Neighbour (Writer/Director: Alexandra Boulton)
A young woman attempts to email her hot neighbour asking him to turn the music down - but things quickly get out of hand.
Elephant (Writers: Matthew Hopper & Ali Woods, Director: Matthew Hopper)
When a guileless young man meets his girlfriend’s stoic father to ask for her hand in marriage, his attempt to honour cultural traditions goes awry.
SHORTS FROM THE OTHER SIDE - these are worlds of fantasy, and daydreaming, and the supernatural.
Book Club (Writer: Ishbel McLachlan, Director, Barbara Wiltshire)
The first meeting of a new community book club is thrown off-track when an overly-zealous attendee tries to convince the group to read his favourite book: the sci-fi epic 'Lady Dalamide and the Crusade of the Cosmos’
Dragon Slayers United (Writer: Adam Pearson, Director: Tom Levinge)
Holding a painful secret, Nic joins a dungeons and dragons group for people with disabilities. Through it, she enters a fantasy world that will forever change her self-view.
Pushing Daisy (Writers: Joe Moloney, Leah Revivo & Christian Russell-Pollock, Director: Leah Revivo)
A short comedy film following over-zealous, business student Daisy and her first foray into the working world at a local funeral parlour.
SHORTS FROM THE DARK SIDE - these short films revel in transforming the disturbing into the amusing.
Whistle (Writer/Director: Ainsley James Cannon)
It tells the story of house mates Ray and Lisa who, until now, have cohabited with minimal conflict. Set in their vibrant but increasingly claustrophobic houseshare, Lisa’s neurosis begins to spiral out of control when she notices an ungodly torment, a plaguing horror... Ray has one whistling nostril. The walls close in. This is an episode to end all episodes. The mother of all icks…
The Nun Slayer (Writer/Director: Ben Bovington-Key)
After new evidence proves his innocence, the wife of a notorious serial killer must come to terms with the fact that her husband is not the murderer she fell in love with.
Come watch some fantastic shorts and stay for our CLOSING NIGHT PARTY!
See you then,
The Messy Women xx