Welcome back, Film Friends!

Vidhya Iyer wrote and directed the short film, “Giving Mom the Talk,” which was a SOFF 2025 Official Selection and earned the Grand Jury Award – Best Short Film – Comedy AND the Filmmakers Award – Outstanding Director – Short Film – Comedy.

Vidya wasn’t able to attend the festival because she was traveling in India so I was very excited to get to know her a little bit with this great chat we had.

If you want to know more, please follow her at

@heyiyer  or @tingifilms

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Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Podcast Website – DIF Instagram – DIF BlueSky
Discover Indie Film Foundation (nonprofit for the arts) Website
Sherman Oaks Film Festival
Film Invasion Los Angeles

Source: Discover Film

What are the 4Qs? (1) Three favorite films. (2) An underrated film. (3) An overrated film. (4) A lesser-known film people should seek out.

Chad Andrews is the writer, director, and lead actor of “The Butchers”,  a fantastic SOFF 2025 Official Selection that took home the Filmmakers Award – Outstanding Cast Performance – Short Film – Action-Thriller.

Meeting someone at the festival is never enough so I was so glad Chad could zoom from Toronto so we could have a long chat and this follow up 4 Questions!

Follow Chad on IG @thisischadandrews and

@heybaphouse 

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Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Podcast Website – DIF Instagram – DIF BlueSky
Discover Indie Film Foundation (nonprofit for the arts) Website
Sherman Oaks Film Festival
Film Invasion Los Angeles

Source: Discover Film

Welcome back on this fine Wednesday!

Chad Andrews is the writer, director, and lead actor of “The Butchers”,  a fantastic SOFF 2025 Official Selection that took home the Filmmakers Award – Outstanding Cast Performance – Short Film – Action-Thriller.

Chad lives in Toronto but was able to zoom so we could dive deeper on his life and artistic career.

Follow Chad on IG @thisischadandrews and
@heybaphouse 

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Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Podcast Website – DIF Instagram – DIF BlueSky
Discover Indie Film Foundation (nonprofit for the arts) Website
Sherman Oaks Film Festival
Film Invasion Los Angeles

Source: Discover Film

What are the 4Qs? (1) Three favorite films. (2) An underrated film. (3) An overrated film. (4) A lesser-known film people should seek out.

Ahmed Zayani wrote and directed “Hope,” a horror short that was an Official Selection at both Sherman Oaks Film Festival 2025 (where he took home the Programmers Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking) and Film Invasion Lima 2026 (where he snagged the Filmmakers Award for Outstanding Short – Horror at FI-Lima 2026)!

Ahmed was not able to travel to either festival from his home in Bahrain but that’s one reason to be thankful for modern technology- we were able to have our chat and this follow up 4 Questions over Zoom.

Follow Ahmed on Instagram at @theahmedzayani

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Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Podcast Website – DIF Instagram – DIF BlueSky
Discover Indie Film Foundation (nonprofit for the arts) Website
Sherman Oaks Film Festival
Film Invasion Los Angeles

Source: Discover Film

Happy Friday, Film Folks!

Ahmed Zayani wrote and directed “Hope,” a horror short that was an Official Selection at both Sherman Oaks Film Festival 2025 and Film Invasion Lima 2026! In fact, Ahmed took home the Programmers Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking at SOFF 2025 and the Filmmakers Award for Outstanding Short – Horror at FI-Lima 2026!                                                                                                                                                                    As I type this, I realize that even Ahmed’s title gives away the depth of his film. Yes, it is a horror film, but the title “Hope” certainly does suggest there is more to to this film than jump scares.

Ahmed was not able to travel to either festival from his home in Bahrain.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I was delighted that the DIF podcast gave me the opportunity to have a quality conversation with this talented filmmaker!

Follow Ahmed on Instagram at @theahmedzayani

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Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Podcast Website – DIF Instagram – DIF BlueSky
Discover Indie Film Foundation (nonprofit for the arts) Website
Sherman Oaks Film Festival
Film Invasion Los Angeles

Source: Discover Film