The Red Lion (Short Film)

Aim

Raising money for a short film, 'The Red Lion': secret addictions, a volatile family, old friends, and an unlikely romance.

A volatile young woman with a hidden addiction, pulls an old school friend into an unlikely night of substance-use, family confrontation and improbable romance.

The Cast

Mia Coakham, as Liv

@miacoakham on Instagram                      

Mack Isaac, as Matthew.

@mackisaac on TikTok

@mackisaac on Instagram

Bella Ammar, as Cleo

Max Hedayati, as Liv's Father

TBA, as Liv's Mother

TBA, as Jez

The Crew

Benjamin Linford (Director & Writer)

Tegan Joella (Producer)

Michael Lawson (Director of Photography)

Adele Dro (1st AD)

Joe Culbard (Editor)

Ali Abakhakh (1st AC)

The Story

Some small towns have a way of preserving people long after they have tried to become someone else. In the overfamiliar glare of a local pub, Matthew runs into Liv, a former schoolmate who appears to have returned with a talent for turning every social convention into a provocation. What begins as an uneasy reunion soon becomes a drug-fuelled night through the town they never quite left behind. Drawn into Liv’s impulsive orbit, Matthew follows her from the pub and into encounters that bring old humiliations, family tensions and a more complicated connection between them to the surface.

But the further they drift from the pub, the harder it becomes to treat the night as a fling. Liv’s habit begins to expose itself in fragments: in her restlessness, in the turns her body takes, and in the aftermath of an encounter with the family she has spent years avoiding. Matthew, at once out of his depth and unwilling to leave, is drawn closer to the part of Liv’s life that she has learned to turn into a performance.

Set against the faded familiarity of a small British town, The Red Lion is a darkly comic and volatile story of two former classmates finding themselves in each other’s company at exactly the wrong moment. It is a film about the uneasy intimacy of being let in—not through confession or romance, but through the mess someone can no longer keep hidden.

Film References

We thought it important to show you all the reference films that we're using as inspiration for our film - as well as, explaining why.

Another Round (2020), dir. by Thomas   Vinterberg - use of light in night-time scenes, contrast, skin tone, and colour grade.

Requiem for a Dream (2000), dir. by Darren Aronofsky - drug-use realism and dissociative atmosphere.

Marriage Story (2019), dir. by Noah Baumbach - family drama, character blocking and personal dilemmas.

The Worst Person in The World (2021), dir. by Joachim Trier - individual will & intentions, female independence, unorthodox romances.

The Ask

We are fundraising for the full production budget of 'The Red Lion', including cast, crew, locations and post-production. Every contribution gets us closer to allowing us to create the exact film that we have imagined. 

Distribution Plans

We have a three-stage strategy for letting as many people see 'The Red Lion', as possible:

1. Short Film Festivals

2. Major Film Festivals (Sundance, Cannes, Venice, etc)

3. Streaming Platforms (Short of The Week, Film Shortage, etc)

4. Potential Feature-Length Adaptation

Key Dates

These are the ones for your diary!

Pre-Production: 11th June to 15th November 2026

Production: 16th November to 19th November 2026

Post-Production: 22nd November to 22nd January 2027

Film Festival Tour: Early 2027 to Early 2028

Public Digital Release: In 2027

Rewards & Fundraising Assistance

We are actively looking for assistance with fundraising for this film. As such, we have enabled the ability to create your own fundraiser link, for 'The Red Lion'. Reach out to the project owner (linked at the top and bottom of this page) for more information.

Lastly, we've created some very cool rewards for varying levels of support from our donators - from your name in the credits to joining our crew as an Executive Producer. We look forward to working with you ;)

We can't thank you enough for supporting this film. It's incredibly hard for people to make films and create large-scale art - both in this country and worldwide. 

We're eternally grateful and will be devoting the inevitable storage locker of awards to you.

- Benjamin Linford & the Crew

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 26th October 2026 at 1:13pm