Smartphone Filmmaking Festival SMART Launches in London
The SMART smartphone filmmaking festival is set to take place in London at the Finsbury Park Picturehouse this July. Co-curated by Megha Patel, the one-day event will feature her documentary, Motherboard, which spans 20 years and showcases five generations of smartphones. Shih-Ching Tsou's Left-Handed Girl, co-written with Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker, will also be screened. Notably, Left-Handed Girl was filmed on an iPhone 13 at a Taipei night market. Despite raising £60,000 from Arte for Motherboard, Patel faced funding challenges due to a lack of matching support.
Key facts
- SMART is a one-day smartphone filmmaking festival at Finsbury Park Picturehouse in London this July.
- Megha Patel co-curated the festival and will screen her documentary Motherboard.
- Motherboard was filmed over 20 years on five generations of smartphones.
- Shih-Ching Tsou's Left-Handed Girl (2025) was co-written with Sean Baker.
- Sean Baker won an Oscar for Anora in 2025 and shot Tangerine on an iPhone 5 in 2014.
- Left-Handed Girl was shot on an iPhone 13 in a Taipei night market.
- Only 16% of 718 films released theatrically in 2025 in the UK and Ireland were directed or co-directed by women or non-binary filmmakers.
- Patel raised £60,000 from Arte for Motherboard but lost it due to lack of match funding.
Entities
Artists
- Megha Patel
- Shih-Ching Tsou
- Sean Baker
- Ava DuVernay
- Werner Herzog
- Nina Ye
Institutions
- Finsbury Park Picturehouse
- Arte
- Sundance Film Festival
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- Taipei
- Taiwan
- Ireland