News | laykeanderson

Follow Layke Anderson on Twitter and Sweet Brother's page on Instagram and Facebook for regular updates.

December 2023

A lengthly process, and one against all kinds of obstacles, but SWƎƎT BRO†HƎR has completed filming and is nearing the final stages of post-production. New trailer here.

February 2023

SWƎƎT BRO†HƎR will complete filming this year. The film is already in post-production. Thank you again to all our backers, and every member of the cast and crew for your patience, diligence and loyal support in helping to make a small miracle happen.

June 2021

SWƎƎT BRO†HƎR has been successfully crowdfunded and enters production, with filming expected to continue until 2023.

April 2021

New film project SWƎƎT BRO†HƎR is currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo! Contribute what you can and support indie film!

July 2020

Mankind continues to play festivals internationally, with Festival MIX Milano (Italy), Vision Feast Film Festival (New Zealand), All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival of Austin (Texas), and Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival (India), showing the film between now and September.

May 2020

Mankind is released by Peccadillo Pictures, on DVD and On Demand, as part of their Boys on Film 20th anniversary. You can buy the DVD here or stream the film here.

January 2020

Mankind has signed deals with two distributors, Dekkoo and Peccadillo Pictures, and will be released online and DVD in early 2020.

November 2019

Mankind is an official selection of KinoFilm: Manchester Short Film Festival, and Reelout Queer Film Festival. Both festivals take place in February 2020.

September 2019

Mankind is an official selection of the Durban Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in South Africa (Sept 27th-6th Oct), and the Oaxaca Film Festival in Mexico (Oct 4th-10th).

August 2019

Mankind is an official selection of Reeling: Chicago LGBTQ+ Film Festival, (19th-29th Sept), and the BAFTA qualifying Raindance Film Festival (18th-29th Sept).

June 2019

Mankind is announced as the winner of Best Short Film (Male) at FilmOut San Diego, and also Best Director at The Film Club's Pride Edition, in Tel Aviv.

Mankind will be screening throughout the duration of the Antwerp Queer Arts Festival in Belgium this August (5th-18th).

Mankind is featured on Director's Notes.

May 2019

Mankind is an official selection of Shortest Nights Film Festival, which takes place June 30th in Hackney, London. Tickets are available here.

April 2019

Mankind is an official selection of the Korea Queer Film Festival due to be held in June 2019, and will also screen in the US again at OutWest Film Fest on May 19th at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada.

March 2019

Mankind will receive its US premiere at qFLIX, the Philadelphia LGBTQ+ Film Festival on March 30th, followed by Wicked Queer, Boston's LGBT Film Festival on April 3rd. The film will then make its West Coast premiere at FilmOut San Diego on May 15th.

February 2019

Mankind will receive its UK premiere at the 33rd BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival (21-31 March). The screening will take place in NFT1 at the BFI Southbank on Saturday March 30th, in the Hearts programme What Makes a Man, a Man?. Tickets are on sale from February 28th.

Mankind will receive its international premiere at the 22nd Roze Filmdagen, Amsterdam's LGBTQ Film Festival (14-24 March).

London Unplugged continues its theatrical run, with screenings at the ICA and Everyman cinemas.

January 2019

The anthology feature film London Unplugged, featuring Shopping as a segment, has a limited theatrical release from January 18th. Some of the early reviews...

"...the most memorable draw on two of the richest themes of city storytelling: the thin wall between haves and have-nots and the poignancy of chance encounters... Layke Anderson's 'Shopping' has a moving meeting between a young man and a surprisingly reflective assistant in a Soho sex shop... Harsh and humane, familiar and strange." - The Times

"...the best is 'Shopping', where a man drifts into a Soho sex shop... and ends up having a conversational epiphany with a genuinely creepy-or-is-he Bruce Payne" - Time Out

"...the most successful segments are those which take a straight-on, clear-eyed view of the realities of modern life... Layke Anderson's 'Shopping' is a surprisingly astute soliloquy from a sex shop owner that reminds us to be grateful for what we have." - The List

"Layke Anderson's 'Shopping' is a well-played two hander set in a Soho sex shop as Ricky Nixon's punter gets a philosophy lesson from a butt-plug peddler (Bruce Payne)" - Empire

"...an impressive achievement on a next-to-nothing budget. And how refreshing to see London without its makeup on." - The Guardian

September 2018

Layke Anderson is on the jury for this year's Grand OFF World Independent Short Film Awards in Warsaw, Poland.

Epilogue will be screening in Zagreb, Croatia next month at the One Take Film Festival.

April 2018

Epilogue will be returning to the festival circuit this Spring at the East End Film Festival (25th April) and the BAFTA Cymru qualifying Carmarthen Bay Film Festival (14th - 17th May).

Shopping is included in the portmanteau feature film 'London Unplugged', which will have its world premiere at the East End Film Festival (April 28th).

January 2018

Production begins on a new short film project, Mankind, the story of a man forced to confront his own existence after discovering his partner's ambition to leave the Earth. The film has been part-funded from the sales of Dylan's Room, Happy Thoughts and Shopping, and will be released next year.

December 2017

Epilogue is screening at Weihnachtsfilmfestival (Christmas Film Festival) in Berlin, Dec 22nd-24th.

November 2017

Epilogue is screening at the Crystal Palace International Film Festival on November 11th, and again at the Making Waves International Film Festival on November 20th.

October 2017

Epilogue (a new experimental film in one unbroken take) is among the ten finalists in the One Shot Movie Competition taking place Friday 13th in London at the Covent Garden Hotel, before screening again at London's Cinema Museum with the Misty Moon International Film Festival on October 28th.

Shopping is an official selection of the Chaktomuk Short Film Festival in Cambodia, Oct 25th-30th.

Happy Thoughts screens October 1st on the Shorts TV channel, broadcast in the US, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia.

August 2017

Shopping will be screening at Hackney Attic Film Festival in London on August 1st.

July 2017

Dylan's Room will be available from July 15th on the Shorts TV channel, broadcast in the US, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia.

June 2017

Shopping is screening the Solaris International Film Festival in Nice, June 3rd.

April 2017

Shopping and Happy Thoughts have both been picked up for distribution with Shorts International and will be screening on Shorts TV later this year. These films join Dylan's Room in making up the unofficial Burned Youth trilogy.

March 2017

Shopping has won the Shepherd Neame Glass Anchor Award for 'Best Short' at the first annual Ramsgate International Film & TV Festival, which took place March 24th-26th.

Shopping is an official selection of the Oxford International Film Festival, taking place May 5th-7th.

December 2016

Shopping is screening in at the London Short Film Festival on Saturday, January 7th, 12pm, Hackney Picturehouse. Book tickets here.

Shopping is screening at Weihnachtsfilmfestival in Berlin this month.

November 2016

Shopping is selected for the London Lift-Off Film Festival. Screening Dec 3rd.

Shopping is selected for the Liverpool International Film Festival.

October 2016

Shopping is selected for the BAFTA qualifying London Short Film Festival, taking place in January.

Shopping is selected for the OFFLine Film Festival in Ireland, 12th-16th October.

Shopping is selected for the second annual Pori Film Festival in Finland, 23rd-27th November.

Happy Thoughts is the winner of 'Best Costume Design' at the Hot Shorts Film Festival in London. There was no costume designer for the film.

September 2016

Shopping is selected for the 17th International Izmir Short Film Festival this November.

Shopping is the winner of 'Best Short Film' at the East Coast Film Festival.

Happy Thoughts has been selected for Shorts on Tap's screening events Big in Japan on September 7th at Cafe 1001 in London, UK, and London Calling on September 8th at Good Heavens in Tokyo, Japan. These are 2 mirror events aiming at bridging British and Japanese cultures via short filmmaking.

Shopping screens on September 7th at the Portobello Film Festival where it is also nominated for a Golden Trellick Award.

August 2016

Shopping has been selected for the European Competition of the 31st European Short Film Festival of Brest (8-13 November 2016). The festival assembles a selection of artworks that preview the new narrative and aesthetic trends in tomorrow’s film making.

Happy Thoughts will be screening 26th-28th at the Norwich Radical Film Festival.

July 2016

Dylan's Room is now available to buy on iTunes.

June 2016

Shopping will screen at the East End Film Festival in the short film strand In Passing on Thursday June 30th, 6.30pm at the Genesis Cinema. Tickets available here.

Shopping will screen at the Shortest Nights in the programme 'This is Urban' on June 19th.

Ricky Nixon has been nominated for Best Actor in Shopping at the Ouchy Film Awards in Switzerland.

April 2016

Dylan's Room is now available to buy on Amazon.

February 2016

Dylan's Room is now screening on Virgin Atlantic flights, and will be available to view at 30,000 feet until the end of April.

January 2016

New short film Shopping is nearing completion and will begin its festival journey this summer. Trailer.

December 2015

Happy Thoughts is the winner of Best Editing at the Grand OFF World Independent Film Awards.

November 2015

Completing editing work on the music video for Japanese electronic artist Coppé's track Shadow Brain, from the new album 20RPM.

Happy Thoughts is in competition at In the Palace International Film Festival in Bulgaria, taking place from December 8th in Sofia.

October 2015

Happy Thoughts has its Swedish premiere at Västerås Film Festival next month.

Happy Thoughts is nominated for Best Film Editing at the Grand OFF World Independent Film Awards taking place in Warsaw this December.

August 2015

Dylan's Room screens with Shorts on Tap's 'All in the Family' - 7 Short Films on August 27th at Cafe 1001, Brick Lane, London E1 from 8pm. £4.50 Entry (online tickets) or £5 on door. Screening will be followed by Q&A. The film has also signed with Shorts International.

Filming begins on Shopping, a new short film for 2016. Ricky Nixon (BBC's Doctor Foster) stars opposite Bruce Payne (90's classic Passenger 57). Production will continue until Christmas.

April 2015

Happy Thoughts screens with Short Sighted Cinema on April 7th at the COG Artspace in East London as part of the programme Fantasma.

Happy Thoughts is selected from over 1700 entries for the Southeastern Film Festival in Dahlonega, Georgia from April 10th - 12th and Nashville, Tennessee from November 19th - 22nd.

January 2015

Happy Thoughts is the winner of Best Drama, Best Fantasy and Best Female Character at the Euro Film Festival in Marbella, Spain.

November 2014

Happy Thoughts screens at Underwire Film Festival this month where first time sound designer Iris Jenkins was nominated for the Sonic Siren award for her work on the film.

Happy Thoughts screens in competition in the Experimental category of the Tirana International Film Festival in Albania. It was also included in the lineup of the first Strasberg Alumni Film Festival in New York.

Happy Thoughts screens in competition at the San Francisco International Festival of Short Films.

August 2014

Happy Thoughts has its world premiere at the Open Cinema Short Film and Animation Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, where it is the only narrative film from the UK in competition.

It is also nominated for Best Experimental film at Bornshorts Film Festival taking place on the island of Bornholm in Denmark, and is screening at the Portobello Film Festival in London.

May 2014

Dylan’s Room is now available to stream worldwide on IndieFlix, and is featured with an interview on the Aesthetica Magazine blog.

After a long hibernation, Happy Thoughts is finally nearing the end of post-production. The cast features Henry Garrett (soon to be seen in Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos opposite Kate Winslet), Gintare Parulyte and Maya Markelle.

November 2013

Dylan's Room is among the five films nominated for Best British Short at the British Independent Film Awards. The nominations were announced by Ewan McGregor at the St. Martin’s Lane hotel.

Dylan's Room receives its Icelandic premiere at the The Northern Wave Film Festival in Grundarfjörður on November 17th.

Dylan’s Room receives its Spanish premiere at the Filmets Badalona Film Festival, just outside Barcelona on November 13th.

Dylan's Room returns to the UnderWire Film Festival for 'Calm Down Dear', a short film night on Sunday November 3rd, 7.30pm at Camden People's Theatre.

October 2013

Returning in front of the camera to film a cameo in Danny Boyle’s Babylon, which will air on Channel 4 in early 2014. Special thanks to Gail Stevens and Lucy Chester.

September 2013

Dylan’s Room is awarded Best Drama at The Van d'Or Awards and is runner-up for Best Screenplay. The film also receives nominations for Best Actress (Joanna Scanlan) and Best Director.

August 2013

Dylan's Room takes part in the main competition category of the IX International Short & Animation Film Festival Open Cinema. Screenings are held in St. Petersburg, Russia, from August 2nd-8th, and are followed with a director Q&A.

June 2013

Dylan's Room screens June 19th at the Palm Springs International Film Festival & ShortFest.

Dylan's Room has been nominated for the International Young Audience Short Film Competition at Internationales Filmfest Emden|Norderney. The festival takes place from June 6th - June 8th in Lower Saxony, Germany.

May 2013

Girls on Film - a panel discussion at the ICA in London on May 29th with Philip Ilson - Director of the London Short Film Festival, Layke Anderson - Director of Dylan's Room, Gabriella Apicella - Screenwriter, board member of Euroscript, Underwire Co-Founder, and Lucinda Syson - Casting Director, credits including Cloud Atlas, Batman Begins, Syriana.

March 2013

Dylan's Room has been invited to screen at the 23rd Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the festival of film and art, held in Schwerin, Northern Germany. The festival runs from April 30th until May 5th.

The Netherlands premiere of Dylan's Room will be on Friday 15th March at 10pm, and screening again on Saturday 16th at 1pm, in the European Competition Block 7 at Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen.

January 2013

Dylan's Room is screening at the Glasgow Short Film Festival where it is nominated for the Bill Douglas Short Film Award.

Dylan's Room has been selected for the fourth edition of the Insight Film Festival, taking place from 15th - 17th March in Manchester, England.

The film will be screening at the ICA on Saturday January 5th at 4pm as part of the London Short Film Festival.

Dylan's Room has been long-listed for a BAFTA award in the Best Short Film category. The official nominations will be announced in January.

December 2012

Dylan's Room has won the Media Award at the Tirana Film Festival in Albania.

November 2012

Dylan's Room receives a Special Mention at the Leeds International Film Festival.

Dylan's Room screened at the Underwire Film Festival in London:

"It was Layke Anderson’s Dylan’s Room that shone the brightest... uncomfortably realistic... poignantly honest". - Art Wednesday

Dylan's Room has won its fourth award, this time for Best Drama at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York.

"...directed in a heartfelt manner, and beautifully filmed with exquisite acting..." - HardZine

It's a busy month of screenings in the UK, with festivals in Cornwall, York and Leeds. The film returns to the US tomorrow, screening in the Loft Film Festival's International Short Film Showcase in Tucson, Arizona.

October 2012

Dylan's Room film has picked up its third award. It is Highly Commended in the Long Drama category of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.

Dylan's Room is in competition at the Festival International du Court Métrage de Lille, screening on October 18th and 19th.

September 2012

Dylan's Room is the winner of the Crystal Punt (Audience Award) for Best Short Film at the Cambridge Film Festival. Many thanks to all who came along to the screening.

Dylan's Room is screening with the Shnit International Shortfilmfestival, a transnational event where short films from around the world are shown at the same time in Berne, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Cape Town, Cologne, Lagos, San Francisco, San José, Singapore and Vienna.

Berne (Switzerland) - 4th, 5th, 6th October
Buenos Aires (Argentina) - 5th October
Cairo (Egypt) - 6th October
Cape Town (South Africa) - 5th October
Cologne (Germany) - 5th October
Lagos (Nigeria) - 6th October
San Francisco (USA) - 6th October
San José (Costa Rica) - 6th October
Singapore (Republic of Singapore) - 5th October
Vienna (Austria) - 6th October

London Premiere of Dylan's Room on Thursday 27th September, 6.15pm at the Raindance Film Festival, screening at the Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus.

Dylan's Room is an Official Selection of the 32nd Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The screening date is set for September 20th.

Dylan's Room has won Best Short Drama at the Isle of Wight Film Festival.

Dylan's Room screens in San Francisco at the Roxie Theatre, September 6th at 9pm as part of the San Francisco International Festival of Short Films.

Dylan's Room is an Official Selection of the Salento International Film Festival in Italy.

July 2012

Dylan's Room received it's Bulgarian premiere at the In the Palace International Film Festival.

Dylan's Room is screening at the closing night of the Edinburgh Short Film Festival.

April 2012

World Premiere of Dylan's Room at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California.