Oscar-qualified short film UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE is an intimate drama about a mother who, while trying to protect her nine-year-old neurodivergent daughter, is pushed to breaking point when the institutions she turns to for support not only fail to recognise the reality of her child’s distress, but instead proceed to punish her with fines.
Developed and produced by Natalie Lauren, written by Jo Clayton and directed by Georgia Parris, the 15-minute film asks: What happens when asking for help results in punishment?
As her daughter Thea struggles with severe school distress, Anna is forced into an impossible position between protecting her child and meeting attendance demands she cannot manage.
Rather than approaching the story through statistics or policy, Unauthorised Absence places audiences directly inside Anna and Thea’s world. Fragmented storytelling, intimate handheld camerawork and immersive sound design reveal their experience through gesture, silence and tone.
Everyday sounds, from fluorescent lights and traffic signals to overlapping voices, are thrust into the foreground, allowing audiences to experience something of Thea’s sensory world and Anna’s mounting emotional strain.
Two-time BAFTA winner Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, Line of Duty, Ludwig) makes her executive producing debut and also voices a role. The team includes BAFTA winner and Golden Globe nominee Cathy Tyson, BAFTA-nominated Alix Wilton Regan and 2026 BAFTA winner Jennifer English.
Born from lived experience and shaped by the testimonies of hundreds of families, authenticity runs throughout the production, from its performances and locations right through to the filmmakers behind the lens.
Now Oscar-qualified, UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE enters awards season as an intimate, performance-led film about motherhood, a child in distress and the complicated human reality hidden behind two administrative words: “unauthorised absence.”
Thank you. This is an important film. Really hope this could be the UK Post Office "Mr Bates" moment to expose the Special Educational Needs & Disabilities SCANDAL in the UK. It is so important that the lived experience of vulnerable voices – routinely failed and abused by the system – are heard in such a way that they are understood by the whole population. Only then will this outrageous treatment stop. Only then will children and young people be properly believed and supported and treated repectfully. The UN Rights of the child and family are not respected in the UK and despite damning reports over some years, the UK continues to put £cost to the fore, ignoring needs and rationing support. Many young people have lost their lives. The timing of this film is also very important – proposed UK gov SEND reforms will do nothing to make things better and indeed propose to remove over 20 current legal rights and entitlements meaning that children and their families will be even less able to challenge systemic Local Authority/NHS/School failures and breaches of legal duties.
This film needed to be made and how captivating and moving. Well done I look forward to seeing the end film. Sam Writer and Film Director.
This film is so desperately needed. The so-called school attendance crisis is causing untold harm to children and families. It's time to blow this scandal wide open.
At Long Covid Kids & Friends, the words “unauthorised absence” will be painfully familiar to many of the families we support.
The circumstances may be different, but the central question resonates deeply: what happens when a child cannot access education as expected, a family asks for help, and the system responds to the absence rather than the needs of the child?
For children living with Long Covid and other prolonged, fluctuating and energy-limiting illnesses, flexible support can enable participation. Others may be too unwell to attend, even with adjustments, and need to prioritise their health. Attendance codes, in their current form, cannot capture that complexity, the consequences of pushing beyond a child’s limits, or the work families are doing behind the scenes to seek support.
This is why Unauthorised Absence feels like such important representation. It takes us behind an administrative label and makes visible the child, family and circumstances that fragmented systems can hide.
Not all absence means the same thing. Difficulty attending does not necessarily mean disengagement.
Imagine if we stopped asking, “How do we get this child back into school?” long enough to ask, “What does this child need from us right now?”
Systems and policies need to look beyond absence and see the child and their support network.
Cannot wait to be able to see this film and feel validated as a parent in the same position!
Can’t wait to be able to see this film and feel validated as a parent in this position
Really applaud this release, the trailer was very emotional to watch and reflects my family’s lived experiences.
We are thankfully starting to see the light after a very tough and damaging few years but there are so many families struggling and in need of support. I look forward to seeing the whole thing and hope it helps to foster connections and understanding.
The trailer is enough to send me right back to when this was me and my children. It’s raw, honest and for those who have been there, hits hard. I hope this film gets the recognition it deserves but also much needed recognition from the DofE, schools, their leaders, teachers and local authorities.
Change is needed so desperately and I hope that this will help that happen.
So incredibly emotive and powerful and that’s just the trailer. An important story that needs to be seen.
This film touches at the very heart of the SEND crisis, shows the gaslighting and blame from schools and local authorities and show the exhausting emotional toll it takes on children and their families. Such an incredibly important film.
As a parent and a provider of services hard has the privilege of support young people and their families, this film is long overdue.
The trailer is wonderful and shows a mother being pulled from traditional schooling and teachers who have no understanding of these issues.
I've seen parents die through this situation and it horrendous. Feeling their own way out was taking their own life because it was unbearable for her.
This is a public health emergency and should be treated as such.
My son has been out of school for three years and now has an official diagnosis of PTSD, OCD and Autism, he's been in crisis.
Lost all his friends in this process.
Thank you to the film makers for highlighting and issue I have felt completely alone with.
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About time… This needs to be seen in every school in the land.
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I'm really looking forward to seeing this film. This was our experience, some years ago now, and it feels such a relief to see it validated this way through story on screen. I can't think of a better way to bring this issue to those who need to see the devastating consequences caused by rigid policies on school attendance. Hopefully it sends out ripples that turn into the waves of change that so many children and families need. Thank you and well done to all involved.
Such an important film – too many families have lived this!!!
A important focus, when your going through this parents can feel so alone, this shows it happens to others, it is a very powerful trailer.