FLINT
A 17-minute gut punch about going home — and finding violence waiting
FLINT is a 2026 short film about a man returning to his childhood home to heal, only to discover he never actually left the violence behind. Seventeen minutes. That's all writer-director Naqqash Khalid needs. Rory Fleck Byrne plays the title character — and the film trusts him to carry almost the entire emotional weight through restraint, through the quiet way he settles back into familiar routines that aren't quite as peaceful as they first appear. By the time the inevitable happens, you're already caught in it.
The film premiered at the London Short Film Festival on 27 January 2026, which is one of the more respected platforms for British short-form work. It's already pulled one award win — solid momentum for a debut that hasn't yet accumulated the kind of review volume that pushes a score onto Rotten Tomatoes. Those numbers simply don't exist yet for FLINT, which is worth saying plainly rather than pretending there's a critical consensus when there isn't one yet.
What makes FLINT different — and why the craft matters
What's striking is how much Khalid achieves in this compressed runtime through atmosphere alone. Early viewer responses on Letterboxd — the kind that show up before a film has been widely seen — already point to something specific: one viewer praised the film's "beautiful, surreal visuals" and "immersive sound." That's not the language people use when they're being polite. That's someone who got pulled somewhere unexpected.
The opening feels almost mundane. Flint walks through familiar spaces. He settles into domestic rhythms. And that's precisely when the dread starts building underneath — the tension between surface calm and subsurface violence is the film's entire subject. Khalid doesn't rush toward the inevitable. The surreal visual register isn't decorative; it's doing the work of externalizing an interior state that Flint himself can't or won't articulate. Same with the sound design. Deliberately constructed to unsettle.
Eileen Walsh appears in the supporting cast, and honestly, that casting choice matters. Her screen presence carries a particular kind of lived-in weight — you don't need much screen time with Walsh to understand a character's history. That's rare. Khalid uses it well. Theodore Boulton and Finbar Lynch round out the ensemble, which is quietly impressive for a 17-minute piece (most shorts don't assemble this much talent). The casting signals that Khalid wasn't making a calling-card short. He was making something he actually believed in.
Where to find FLINT right now — and how to track it
FLINT is available on major OTT streaming services. Given its BBC Film pedigree — produced in collaboration with Rope Ladder Fiction, ProdCo, and Intermission Film — it's likely on platforms with strong UK content libraries. The fastest way to find exactly where it's streaming in your region is to check Movie OTT's real-time where-to-watch tracker, which updates as availability shifts across services.
Short films can bounce between platforms more quietly than features do. A 17-minute film might already be live on a service you subscribe to — but a Google search won't surface it the way the aggregator does. Worth the 30-second check before you go hunting manually.
Key details — runtime, rating, cast, release date
- Director/Writer: Naqqash Khalid
- Star: Rory Fleck Byrne (as Flint)
- Supporting cast: Eileen Walsh, Finbar Lynch, Theodore Boulton
- Runtime: 17 minutes
- Premiere: London Short Film Festival, 27 January 2026
- Production: BBC Film, Rope Ladder Fiction, ProdCo, Intermission Film
- Awards: 1 win (as of early 2026)
- MPAA rating: Not officially confirmed — though the subject matter (violence, psychological unraveling) suggests content warnings are warranted
The film hasn't yet received a formal rating, so if you're watching with younger viewers, go in knowing it deals with darkness and violence.
Who should watch FLINT
If you're drawn to short-form work that trusts silence and image over exposition — or if you've already got Naqqash Khalid on your radar — this is worth your 17 minutes. It's the kind of film that stays with you longer than its runtime has any right to suggest. Think of it as the opposite of comfort viewing. A slow collapse back into something the character probably never fully left.
Not sure if it's for you? Start here: If you liked Uncut Gems (the feeling of dread building beneath an ordinary surface) or Under the Skin (visual language doing the heavy lifting), you'll recognize what Khalid's doing. FLINT isn't quite either of those — it's shorter, tighter, more contained — but it operates in that same register. Atmosphere over plot. Image over explanation.
Movie OTT will keep tracking FLINT's availability as it moves between platforms and starts picking up festival circuit recognition. Bookmark the page if you want updates as the film finds its wider audience in 2026.