Amy Leonard’s short film Notice Me arrived at BFI Flare 2026 in London with the gentle insistence of something people had been waiting for. Drawn from memories and a long-felt absence on screen, the film was Leonard’s direct answer to the roles and stories she didn’t see when she was young. She told audiences she wanted to make “something I felt I needed” — a small, honest recognition she wished had been there for her.
The film’s strength is its restraint. Leonard skips spectacle in favor of close framing, quiet rituals and the kind of stillness that lets tiny gestures register. Faces, hands, the breath between lines — these are the film’s language. Sparse sound design and a deliberate editing rhythm keep viewers with the moment, so a glance or a soft acceptance can carry the weight of an entire scene. Costumes and sets are lived-in rather than theatrical, which makes the characters feel like people you might know.
That intimacy landed with critics and audiences. Early reviews praised the film’s emotional precision and its refusal to wrap everything in neat explanation. Viewers called screenings intimate and necessary. Educators and youth workers have found those pared-back scenes especially useful: a 10- or 15-minute short that becomes a doorway for classroom conversations about belonging, identity and recognition.
Industry figures took notice, too. Programmers and distributors highlighted the film’s specificity — paradoxically what makes it more universal, since detailed, honest depiction invites a wider range of people to find themselves in it. The BFI Flare screening raised the film’s profile on the festival circuit and helped open conversations about bookings and distribution opportunities.
Leonard sees Notice Me as part creative project, part cultural argument. She’s not chasing quick headlines or trophies; she’s trying to shift how stories are commissioned and who gets center stage. The film models small, actionable moments of recognition — the kind that can make young people feel seen — and quietly asks storytellers and decision-makers to pay closer attention.
She’s already moving forward with the same curiosity that shaped Notice Me: developing new shorts, sketching feature ideas and lining up collaborations that continue to focus on underrepresented interior lives. Each project feeds the next, Leonard says — the urgency that began Notice Me now shapes a broader commitment to representation on screen.
Notice Me remains on the BFI Flare slate and continues to draw interest from both audiences and the industry. More than a single festival appearance, the film is acting as a catalyst — prompting panels, community screenings and conversations that stay with people after the lights come up.