Phantom Carousel by British Filmmaker Efosa Osaghae at HollyShorts
Phantom Carousel
Hollywood, CA (August 12, 2025). Dark satire “Phantom Carousel” is the new short film from London based writer-director Efosa Osaghae. It stars Babirye Bukilwa (BBC/A24’s “Dreaming Whilst Black”) and Alec Christie (“Great Expectations” & “The Children of Green Knowe”). The film, which was produced by Lab Hugo, and follows hot on the heels of Efosa’s debut, “Locusts Beyond a Phantasia”. Which is set to screen at the Oscar-Qualifying Hollyshorts on August 14th at the historic TCL Chinese Theatres in Los Angeles.
Synopsis: Bento Moura (Christie) is a man out of options. Broke, exhausted and under pressure from his estranged family, he takes covert work for a shadowy compliance firm spying on London’s remote workforce. Armed with a Prius and a long lens, Bento hunts for “productivity crimes”: an ad creative skipping agency calls, a project manager dancing in his underwear and a coder choosing the gym over a client status meeting.
But as he sinks deeper into the absurdity of corporate surveillance, a routine audit pushes him from casual stalking to breaking into the home of worker Olara Adeyemi (bukilwa) and forces him to decide how far he is willing to go to remain employable.
Efosa Osaghae is a London-based writer-director. Whose work blends satire, speculative fiction and dark comedy to explore work, technology and contemporary culture. Drawing on his experience producing campaigns for Facebook, Amazon and Google, to create films about surveillance, performance and the attention economy.
His debut short, “Locusts Beyond a Phantasia”, was acquired by ShortsTV. The 6-minute film followed a blind photographer who gets his sight back. But, looking at the world causes strange and wild visions. The film was a semi-finalist selection for the BAFTA & Oscar-Qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival. It was covered by the likes of No Budge.
He also executive produced Millicent Hailes’ “Perfect”, which screened as part of SXSW in 2026, and received coverage from the likes of Deadline and DIVA Magazine, starred Julia Fox.
He also acted as producer on the theatrical sci-fi feature “Sensation”. He is currently developing his debut feature as a director. Lab Hugo is a London-based independent production company focused on original films that blend satire, speculative fiction and dark comedy.
