Eyeliner (2026)
Craft can carry a film a surprisingly long way, and Aisha Boudjillouli's Eyeliner is a good test of exactly how far. This NFTS stop-motion short is, on a technical level, genuinely lovely, beautifully animated and well voiced, and it is tackling a tender subject with obvious sincerity. If the storytelling were as sharp as the puppetry, it would be a real standout. As it is, it is a well-made, well-meant piece that plays its hand a little too plainly. Three stars.
The premise is simple and relatable. Two schoolfriends, Nina and Lily, pinch an eyeliner, convinced it is the secret key to looking cool and grown-up, and try it out at school. The reception they get could hardly be more different: Lily is swept up by the popular crowd and told she looks amazing, while Nina, a trans girl, is jeered at by the boys and quietly left on the outside of the group Lily is being welcomed into. A trip to the girls' toilets, all silly, giddy adolescent fun for Lily, becomes something far more fraught for Nina, and the film builds to a small, painful moment of exclusion that lands its point with a lump in the throat.
Where Eyeliner really shines is in its making. The stop-motion is expressive and characterful, the puppets full of life, and there is a tactile charm to the whole thing that only handmade animation delivers. The voice acting is strong too, grounding the young characters and selling the shifting moods, from playground bravado to real hurt. On those terms it is a properly accomplished piece of student filmmaking, and you can see why it has travelled to festivals like Annecy.
The trouble, for me, is the writing. The story is basic, and its emotional beats are telegraphed well before they arrive, so that for all its sincerity it ends up feeling a touch reductive, a familiar coming-of-age shape sketched in broad strokes rather than explored with much nuance. The subject deserves subtlety, and the film reaches for feeling more than complexity, landing its final blow squarely but a little obviously. I could absolutely see what Boudjillouli was going for, and the intent is heartfelt, I just wanted the script to trust its audience a little more.
Three stars. Eyeliner is a tenderly made, technically impressive short with its heart firmly in the right place, held back only by a story that states its theme more than it inhabits it. For the animation and the voice work alone it is worth a look, and it marks Boudjillouli as a maker with real craft, even if the writing has not quite caught up to the filmmaking yet.
Eyeliner screens at the BFI London Film Festival.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Country United Kingdom: The Red Shoes (1948), The Driver (1978), Interstellar (2014)
More from the 2020s: All That's Left of You (2025), The Whale (2022), Look Back (2024)
More animation: Jabberwocky (1971), Dance of the Spirits (2026), Hey, You (1976)
