Standardisation
2026 · 2m
Directed by Mariama Fofana
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: contemplative, dark, provocative
Kayla, a young Black girl who feels ill at ease in her skin, decides to undergo cosmetic surgery to meet Western beauty standards - but, unbeknown to her, everything does not go as planned.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A two-minute body horror dark comedy about internalized colorism and Western beauty standards that actually *subverts* the expected tearful redemption arc—Fofana's willing to let the premise stay weird and uncomfortable, which is exactly where the real insight lives.
Formally situated within a lineage of provocative Black British cinema (echoes of Nia DaCosta's formal restraint), the film's economy of language and deliberate tonal oscillation between comedy and dread demonstrates remarkable control for the duration.
The singular choice here is the sound design—the clinical precision of it against the absurdist visuals creates cognitive dissonance that does more thematic work than the premise alone, and on a 2-minute runtime with minimal budget, that's the decision that makes it land.