7 to 10 – Best Director – Hollywoodnorthfilmfestival

7 to 10 – Best Director

On Halloween, Olivia’s mask slips as she uses sex to repress traumatic flashbacks.

Trigger warning: sexual assault

Director Biography - Ana Pio

Ana Pio wrote and directed her debut short film, in 2014, ‘I Welcome You to This House’, financed by the Portuguese Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual.

In 2015, she graduated with the short period drama ‘Eden’ from her Directing Masters at London Met Film School. ‘Eden’ screened in several 2nd tier international film festivals, won the Women in Film Achievement Award at the New Renaissance Film Festival, was broadcasted on RTP 2 TV and distributed by Shorts International.

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 ‘Liaison’ directed by Stephen Hopkins, starring Eva Green and Vincent Cassel.

Ana is currently a BAFTA Connect member, distributing her comedy short film ‘PMS’ which premiered at London Short Film Festival, short dramas ‘Do As I Say’ (Best Performance award at BIFA Qualifying North East International Film Festival for Angela Yeoh, Sales by Gonella Productions) and ‘7 to 10’ whilst developing her debut feature film ‘Mother Nature’ mentored by Rose Glass, the director of ‘Saint Maud’ and ‘Love Lies Bleeding’, through the Directors UK Inspire programme.

Director Statement

When Angelika May brought to me her story of overcoming trauma and proposed to take the leading role on a short film depicting her own struggle, I had my doubts. Was I able to bring a respectful yet truthful depiction of a sexual assault survivor? Could I appeal to a wide audience in a meaningful way with such an important and relevant subject? I reminded myself that those were all good reasons for why making this project and that the realism we have is something really especial.

We wanted to make a dark comedy as a way of reaching wider audiences with such a dark theme and the challenge of making it work attracted me very much. I had done a similar job on my previous short film PMS with raging female hormones.

I also wanted to be respectful of audiences that might be survivors themselves and so my wish was to avoid victim voyeurism, especially in the assault scene, implying the trauma as a respectful use of cinematic gaze.

Adding horror elements from a Halloween thematic to the semiotics of animal kingdom – bringing the idea of irrational animalistic nature when rape is concerned – in addition to a furious rock score, all in a truly compelling character study, brought Olivia’s story to life.

Angelika’s story.