Trailer:
At his wedding reception, the anxious groom can no longer ignore the growing lump in his throat. Buckling under family pressure and the high expectations of his bride, he must dig deep and find the courage to give the speech of his life.
Director Statement
This debut short touches on the universal themes of family and relationships. It's a fast paced satire exploring the consequences of unexpressed feelings in the darkly humorous body-shock genre with a strong nod to noir.
They say every good story has a grain of truth. Well just before writing SPEECH I did find a lump that was growing rapidly, but fortunately it was nothing too serious.
The biggest challenge was finding the large cast. With limited time and money rehearsals would not be an option so it made the quality of cast even more vital. Bold characters need bold actors and I am incredibly grateful to have had this ensemble of talent. I can’t imagine anyone else playing these parts.
The 2.39:1 format was used to compress Michael’s world, heighten the feeling of constraint. The film was always black and white in my mind. It’s a very effective way to immediately bring the audience into the film’s world. And of course it’s paying homage to the noir genre.
The only way to communicate the visceral physical nature of the ‘new’ speech emerging into reality was sound. I was extremely fortunate that the Emmy award-winning team at Wounded Buffalo jumped onboard to create the fantastic foley, sound design and final Dolby Atmos mix for the film. It’s way above what a short film of this scale could hope to achieve.
I challenged the composers Matt Loveridge and Jim Cornick. to create a score without using conventional synths. Instead they recorded sources like breathing and body movements to create organic, primal sounds and stuttering rhythms.
I am fascinated how our physical reality influence our inner world and vice versa. I’m humbled to have found this brilliant and talented group of people who grasped that vision and made this film a reality.
This film was made by humans with love, not AI. Only in-camera practical effects were used. Both of these things are extremely important to me.
SPEECH is a dark and humorous, neo-noir short-film.
I hope you enjoy it.
About the Director.
Nathan Leigh Horrocks says: I grew up in an arts commune, making films with family and friends was always part of my life. In my early years I worked as an assistant projectionist in an arts cinema. Working with a pair of 35mm projectors was the start of my lifelong love of film.
While making corporate films, experimenting more and raising funds for my own projects, I have also worked on several short films that have been officially selected at Sundance, TIFF and BFI London film festivals.
I've taken my time to develop a strong unique voice. And I'm now putting my stories centre stage hoping to connect with bigger audiences.
With SPEECH I won the 2026 Best First Time Director at Big Apple Film Festival. SPEECH is in the middle of a great run and continues to screen at festivals around the world.
DAFFODIL is my second short film. The script won at the New York Picture Start Film Festival. It recently wrapped filming and is currently in post.
My feature script RIDE, won the international Euroscript writing competition, which is now being developed for production. In addition I have several exciting and original projects in the pipeline.
I'm based in Glastonbury, Somerset in the UK. SPEECH is my first film as writer and director.
