The filmmakers behind the HollyShorts world premiere discuss turning a deeply personal experience of baby loss into a story that embraces both grief and laughter, creating a supportive set and why Ophelia Lovibond and Jacob Anderson were essential to the film.

Kate Radcliffe’s STILL LIFE is rooted in one of life’s most devastating experiences, but the film refuses to treat grief as something that can only be represented through silence and sorrow. Inspired by Radcliffe’s own experience of losing her son, Dexter, the short follows a couple navigating the aftermath of stillbirth, finding themselves forced to continue with everyday life while carrying an unimaginable loss.

Directed by Sophie King and produced by Sarah Roy, STILL LIFE uses humour, intimacy and the seemingly insignificant moments of daily life to explore how grief can permeate everything. With performances from Ophelia Lovibond and Jacob Anderson at its centre, the film examines not only loss itself, but the difficulty of talking about it, the ways people respond to those who are grieving and the possibility of finding moments of light within profound pain.

Ahead of its World Premiere at the HollyShorts Film Festival, Radcliffe, King and Roy spoke about transforming lived experience into cinema, the responsibility of telling a deeply personal story, creating a supportive environment on set and why they hope STILL LIFE can encourage audiences to have conversations that are too often avoided.

STILL LIFE finds humour within one of life’s most devastating experiences. What gave you the confidence to embrace comedy alongside grief, and why was that balance so important to telling this story truthfully?

KATE RADCLIFFE: I’ve spent nearly 20 years working in the comedy industry, and I’ve been obsessed with comedy since I was a little girl, so it’s always influenced how I write and the kinds of stories I’m drawn to. With a subject like baby loss, finding the balance between heartbreak and humour is incredibly important. Humour doesn’t take away from the grief. It makes the experience feel more human and, I hope, more relatable. My biggest fear was that if the film was only devastating, people might find it too difficult to engage with and simply shut the door on the conversation.

In reality, when people go through trauma, there are often moments of absurdity, warmth and even laughter alongside the pain. That’s how many people survive the darkest experiences: they find light wherever they can. There’s a Joan Rivers quote I love: “Life is very tough. If you don’t laugh, it’s tough.” That really captures the spirit of the film. Humour isn’t there to diminish grief; it’s there because grief and laughter can exist side by side.

Kate, the film is inspired by your own experience of losing your son, Dexter. At what point did you feel that this deeply personal experience could become a story that might help others, rather than simply process your own grief?

KATE RADCLIFFE: We lost Dexter in 2020, and just a few weeks later we went into the first lockdown. Suddenly, I had no choice but to sit with my grief. At the same time, my husband and I were having these surreal, often absurd experiences that seemed impossible to make sense of, so I started writing them down. I found the process incredibly therapeutic.

When Dexter died, the loneliness was all-consuming. I remember desperately reading books, listening to podcasts and searching for anything about baby loss, simply because I wanted to feel seen. I wanted to know that someone else understood what we were going through. As I looked back over my notes, I realised there was a story there, one that could perhaps help other people going through something similar. That’s when I began writing STILL LIFE.

If STILL LIFE can make even a handful of people feel a little less alone than I did on the day we lost Dexter, then I genuinely feel we’ve achieved something meaningful.

Sophie, directing a film rooted in lived experience comes with a unique responsibility. How did you work with Kate to ensure the emotional authenticity of the story remained at the heart of every creative decision?

SOPHIE KING: Completely coincidentally, when Kate and Sarah approached me to direct the film, they didn’t realise that my own brother, Alex, was stillborn and that I had myself experienced baby loss along with a lot of rounds of IVF.

For me, whilst Kate’s story was always the forefront of the vision, I had my own truths to connect to throughout the process and a responsibility to my parents also to represent their experiences. It was, as a result, an incredibly cathartic experience to work on STILL LIFE, and every creative decision was deeply personal.

Sarah, as producer, how did you help create an environment where such a personal story could be brought to the screen with both sensitivity and creative ambition?

SARAH ROY: A huge part of creating a safe and supportive environment while making this film was due to the wonderful cast and crew that worked on it. We were quite taken aback by how many people had been affected by stillbirth, whether themselves directly or relatives or friends. It really felt like everyone was so invested in making this film and sharing this story.

We were very conscious of creating a supportive environment where anyone could come and talk to us or take a break if they felt overwhelmed at any point. I was the most concerned about Kate, but she was really the first one offering love and support throughout the whole shoot.

The film explores not only grief, but the practical realities that follow stillbirth, subjects that are rarely portrayed on screen. Why was it important to include those everyday moments alongside the emotional ones?

KATE RADCLIFFE: One of the things I love most about STILL LIFE is that it doesn’t focus on the moment of the stillbirth itself. Instead, it follows a couple in the aftermath, as they’re expected to carry on with everyday life while living with an unimaginable loss. The world keeps moving, but for them, everything has changed.

It was really important to highlight the everyday triggers that people experience after losing a baby. It can be something as small as a yoga pose, walking past the alcohol aisle in a supermarket, seeing Mother’s Day cards or bumping into someone who has no idea what’s happened. These are ordinary moments, but after baby loss everything becomes heightened.

I think Sophie has portrayed those emotional triggers so beautifully and subtly throughout the film. They quietly build until Jess reaches a point where she simply can’t hold everything in anymore. By then, I hope the audience feels that her breakdown is completely earned, because they’ve experienced those cumulative moments alongside her.

More than anything, I hope the film helps people understand that after losing a baby, life is never the same again. You don’t “get over” that kind of loss. You learn to live around it. That’s a very different thing.

With performances from Ophelia Lovibond and Jacob Anderson at its centre, how did you approach casting actors who could navigate both the emotional weight and the moments of humour with equal authenticity?

SOPHIE KING: There’s only a finite pool of actors who can nail both comedy and drama with equal excellence in both areas. We were incredibly lucky that Ophelia and Jacob had demonstrated an exceptional track record of work across both genres.

We then spent time with each actor in advance to make sure they understood the tone we were going for, and we were so lucky with how deeply they poured themselves into the roles. I’m hugely grateful for their work on this film, as it absolutely elevates it to new heights.

SARAH ROY: We worked with a fantastic casting director, Simon Higgins, who has been such a champion of this project for a long time. We were putting together our wish list of actors and knew Ophelia and Jacob’s previous work and were huge fans. So it was a wonderful surprise when they both said they wanted to be a part of the film. We couldn’t quite believe it!

Similarly with Felicity, we all loved her work and were so happy she said yes. We really have to credit Simon with putting together the rest of the cast. They are all absolutely brilliant and so integral to the film.

Despite affecting thousands of families every year, stillbirth remains a subject many people struggle to talk about openly. What conversations do you hope STILL LIFE will encourage, both within the film industry and beyond?

KATE RADCLIFFE: More than anything, I hope people come away from STILL LIFE feeling less afraid to start those conversations. Even if they’ve never experienced baby loss themselves, I hope the film helps them realise just how many families are affected by it, and that people often want to talk about their babies more than others realise.

I love talking about Dexter. I could talk about him all day if people let me. Even something as simple as someone remembering his name or his birthday means the world to me. So if you have a friend or loved one who’s experienced this kind of loss, don’t be afraid to check in with them. Saying nothing can often feel more painful than saying the wrong thing.

Ultimately, the film isn’t just about baby loss. It’s about remembering that we never truly know what someone else is carrying. I hope it encourages people to approach others with a little more understanding and a little more kindness.

STILL LIFE will make its World Premiere at HollyShorts Film Festival. What does sharing this film with audiences for the first time mean to each of you, and what do you hope viewers take away from the experience after the credits roll?

KATE RADCLIFFE: I couldn’t be more excited to premiere STILL LIFE at HollyShorts. After living with this story for so long, it feels incredibly special to finally share it with an audience. I’m really looking forward to sitting in that screening and experiencing people’s reactions together.

More than anything, I hope the film stays with people long after the credits roll. I hope it sparks conversations that might not otherwise happen and gives people the confidence to ask questions rather than avoid the subject.

Baby loss touches far more families than most people realise. Almost everyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone, who has experienced it. It’s a universal human experience that deserves to be represented more on screen. If STILL LIFE can help open that dialogue and make even one person feel less alone, then that’s the greatest outcome we could hope for.

SOPHIE KING: I premiered one of my first shorts at HollyShorts exactly 10 years ago, so it’s wonderful to be returning to the festival with a piece that I feel shows significant evolution for myself both as a filmmaker and as a person. I’m so proud of what we’ve created and it means a lot to be sharing it with the world.