Creative Scotland Crowdmatch has provided £1,685 of match funding
CRUSHED - Short Film
Glasgow, Glasgow City, United Kingdom
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Aim
I'm raising money to make my first short film, CRUSHED. It's an unromantic comedy about mental health that shows a different side of dating.
What is CRUSHED?
CRUSHED is a short film set in Glasgow. Think Bridget Jones meets Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, with a dash of Shrinking and a splash of Starstruck.
Meg, 26, is highly anxious, semi-put-together, prone to maladaptive daydreaming (and hopelessly in love with Dev Patel).
After a breakup, she finds herself haunted by her ex. He appears in coffee shops, morphs the faces of strangers, replays himself in vivid hallucinations she can't switch off. Seeking relief, Meg turns to therapy. Her therapist suggests something unconventional: instead of suppressing the obsessive thoughts, lean into them.
So Meg does the logical thing. She replaces her ex with someone much more glamorous: her celebrity crush.
It does not go as planned.
Why this story? Why now?
Romcoms love heartbreak. But they rarely show the messy, circular, ridiculous way our minds actually process it.
CRUSHED is drawn from my own experiences with anxiety, OCD, and depression. It uses humour to explore how these conditions warp our perception of love, loss, and ourselves. It's for the overthinkers. The hopeless romantics. The people who are trying to be better but keep stumbling along the way.
And it's needed. In Scotland alone:
• 22% of adults show signs of a possible psychiatric disorder — rising to 25% among women and 31% in deprived areas
• 44% of adults keep their anxiety secret
• Women are 1.6x more likely to experience OCD than men
Who are we?
Zoë Swann - Director & Writer
That's me! Hi! I'm a writer and director from Glasgow with an MA in Screenwriting for TV. My work finds the real in the ridiculous and the heartwarming in the hilarious. CRUSHED is my debut short as director-writer, and it's drawn directly from my own life.
Rachel-Anne Clarke - Producer
Rachel-Anne is an RTS-nominated short form producer and founder of Pure Leo, formerly at BBC Studios. A 2023 Producer Accelerator alumna and member of the 2026 NFTS Sean Connery Talent Lab cohort, she trained as a script consultant via Screen Scotland. Her recent credits include the award-winning short Here Comes The Nun.
Urvi Kohli - Producer
Urvi is an engineer-turned-producer, founder of Two Sugars Productions, and based across the US and UK. She makes films that amplify women's voices and stories about people who don't often see themselves on screen.
Jayme Bartlett - DoP
Originally from Washington DC, Jayme is a graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's BA Filmmaking course. She's the co-founder and DoP of Blade & Bow Films, a Scotland based, female-led independent film house.
Where will your money go?
We want to pay our cast and crew properly, so most of the money we raise will be going to our amazing team.
What's the timeframe?
The film will shoot in Glasgow over a maximum of four days, at the end of July 2026. We hope to have the final edit done by September 2026, and from then we'll be submitting it to as many festivals as we can!
A final note from the team
We're using crowdfunding and personal funds to make this, which means your support is key. This is a small, indie project which means every pound makes a difference, and every donation brings CRUSHED one step closer to being made!
By supporting this project, you're supporting a female led filmmaking team AND showing that there's an audience for this kind of story - a messy, funny short that tackles themes the media often shies away from.
Thank you for your support!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 15th July 2026 at 9:39am