DO AS I SAY
Directed by Ana Pio
Written by Nathan Davis | Produced by Andrea Land
A middle-aged piano teacher, mourns her failed career as a concert pianist with a drink always in hand. Grappling with this aching disappointment and unfulfilled legacy, she is pushed to the end of her tether by the rebellious student she once perceived as her younger self.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Ana Pio is a film director who graduated with short period drama 'Eden' from her Directing Masters at London Met Film School in 2015.
From the Sara Putt Associates trainee scheme in 2017, Ana Pio became a freelance Script Supervisor, working on iFeatures 'Perfect 10' and assisting the Script Supervisors on BBC/Amazon TV series 'Good Omens' alongside Douglas MacKinnon and Neil Gaiman as well as Apple TV 'Liaison' directed by Stephen Hopkins, starring Eva Green and Vincent Cassel.
Ana was mentored by Rose Glass, the director of 'Saint Maud' and 'Love Lies Bleeding', through the Directors UK Inspire programme, and has been a BAFTA Crew/ Connect member since 2019.
In recent years, Ana completed short films ‘PMS’ (nominee for best comedy at the 2022 BAFTA Qualifying London Short Film Festival), ‘Do As I Say’ (winner of Best Performance for Angela Yeoh and nominated for Best Director and Best Low Budget Short at BIFA qualifying film festivals) and ‘7 to 10’ (award nominated for Best Performance, Best Editing and winner of Best Director at several international film festivals, including BIFA qualifying) in preparation for the filming of her debut feature film 'Mother Nature'.
In 2024, Ana and producer Andrea Land were selected to pitch 'Mother Nature' to Film4 at Aesthetica Short Film Festival and in 2025 to pitch at the co-production JETS Initiative during the 75th Berlinale. Ana was also selected for the prestigious Reykjavík Talent Lab where she won the Golden Egg Special Mention in 2025.
Ana is represented by Kelly Spearman, Sara Putt Associates.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ANA
Welcome to our Weekly Pick! Let's dive straight in. Do As I Say first caught our eye as an Official Selection at the 2024 edition of our film festival where you were nominated for Best Director.
Can you tell us a bit about your festival journey with this film? The highs, the lows, the in-betweens.
We actually approached the festival circuit with a comprehensive two-year strategy. Because the technical and production quality of the film turned out so high, we intentionally aimed for top-tier festivals. We did receive some rejections from A-list festivals, but they often came with personal notes from programmers stating that under normal circumstances, the film would have likely been selected. However, in the post-COVID landscape, programmers collectively seemed to be looking for lighter, "feel-good" content - which ours isn't. It was a clear reminder that a short film's trajectory isn't solely based on its quality; so much of it comes down to timing and the current global climate. It's a bittersweet feeling, because I truly believe the film could have gone even further had the cultural context been different. That said, we still experienced some incredible highs. The film was BIFA-qualifying and very well received overall, and Angela Yeoh even won Best Actress at the North East International Film Festival. So while it's worth noting that the film could have achieved even greater heights in a different festival climate, we are still incredibly proud of the journey it had.
In 2024, you had two films on the festival circuit - Do As I Say (of course), and 7 to 10. What was it like having two shorts in circulation at the same time? Did you feel you were competing against yourself, or did they work in tandem to bring more attention to your filmmaking?
Because they are so completely different in tone, story, and genre, it never really felt like they were in direct competition with one another. However, managing both did come with some unique logistical challenges. Knowing that most festivals rarely select two films from the same director in a single year, we had to be very strategic. Submission fees pile up quickly, so we often had to make calculated guesses on which film was the right fit for a specific festival to avoid wasting resources. Overall, I think they worked beautifully in tandem. They allowed us to connect with two entirely different audiences on the circuit, which was a fantastic experience. It was also a fascinating learning curve in terms of audience and programmer preferences. Going into it, I personally predicted that Do As I Say would be the bigger festival hit, but 7 to 10 actually ended up performing better in comparison. Seeing how differently the two films were received was a really eye-opening and valuable experience for me as a filmmaker.
Getting the film online has been a long time coming. How have you found the reception of the online release of the film?
We were very intentional about finding the right online home for the film, so it took some time to get the ideal partners on board. Ultimately, CenterFrame, MilkTea Films, and KINO were the perfect communities to reach out to, especially given how closely their values align with our own filmmaking network. The response so far has been good. We’ve seen incredible engagement through our distribution channels, with one of our pages surpassing 100K views so I am excited to continue sharing the film with as wide an audience as possible and see where it takes us. Navigating an online release is a completely new pathway for me, so I’m learning as I go.
What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
First and foremost, take the time to cast your HODs right. Connect with them on a personal level and actually build relationships - collaboration is what makes filmmaking fun. Remember that it’s not all about you; everyone on set loves the craft and wants to feel truly involved in the vision. Secondly, waiting around for public funding can set you back for years because it is insanely competitive. If you’re low on cash, write a script tailored to the resources, locations, and actors you already have access to, and just shoot it over a weekend with friends who support you. It doesn’t need to cost a fortune. That said, don't rush the writing process. Be patient, get honest feedback from your peers, and keep rewriting until the script is absolutely airtight. Lastly, be incredibly strategic about distribution. This is often the hardest part financially because you do need a budget to sustain a run for at least a year. To make your money count, don't waste funds on festivals that aren't accredited or affiliated with recognized bodies. Having a poster covered in laurels from obscure festivals no one has heard of won't advance your career. It's much smarter to submit to fewer, higher-quality festivals that can actually move the needle for you.
Can you chat about about how you went about finding the right actors these roles?
I think the only thing I'd add would be about how special the casting process was. It took my fantastic Casting Director, Mandy Steele, and I about four months to find Angela Yeoh and Julia Haworth because we wanted the piano playing to be real. They both had to be perfect for the roles, have the right chemistry, and possess a high enough level of piano skill to learn the Rachmaninoff piece. Finding this niche was a very exciting process and very rare for a short. I'm very grateful that we were able to find Angela’s intense depth of emotion and rawness and Julia’s dynamic shifts between sweetness and strength.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working with my producer Andrea Land on developing my debut feature film that centres around a mother-daughter relationship, titled Mother Nature. It's a dark comedy with magical realism about female hormones and menstruation, very much in the tone of films like The Favourite. Do As I Say was a proof of concept in the sense that I explore an adult and a teenager generationally clashing about female expectations which has really moved along the financing opportunities for the feature.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
I try to catch as many new releases in the cinema as I possibly can. While some stick with me, I have to admit that a lot of what's coming out lately feels pretty forgettable. That said, a film that completely floored me recently is Kokuho. If you haven't seen it yet, definitely add it to your watchlist. It has the DNA of those grand, full-scale masterpieces we grew up watching - the kind of movies that made us want to become filmmakers in the first place. In an era where so much of what gets financed feels formulaic or repetitive, Kokuho was a massive breath of fresh air. There is a real fear in the industry right now about backing original, challenging material because there's a belief that audiences won't engage with it, but this film completely disproves that. Even though it is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, the story is profoundly relatable on a universal scale. I honestly couldn't recommend it more.
