Recommended for fans of: Promising Young Woman , Shithouse , Kajillionaire . Content warning: Discussion of non-consensual contact, mild language, emotional distress. Streaming on MUBI starting March 8, 2025. Trailer available at NubileFilms.co.uk/ImTakingCharge.
In an independent film landscape often saturated with nihilism and irony, a quiet revolution is unfolding. The 2024 Nubile English short film, I’m Taking Charge , arrives as a bracing antidote. Clocking in at just under 22 minutes, this tightly wound coming-of-age drama does more than tell a story—it makes a statement. Directed by emerging British filmmaker and produced under the avant-garde label Nubile Films (known for their raw, intimate portraiture of youth, not to be confused with adult content), the short has been making waves on the festival circuit, from Sundance London to the Hollywood Shorts Festival .
For anyone who has ever felt their voice shrink in a room, who has laughed at a joke that stung, or who has typed a message and deleted it ten times—watch this film. Bring a friend. And when the credits roll, ask yourself: Where in my life do I need to take charge? Im Taking Charge 2024 Nubile English Short Film...
The inciting incident is deceptively simple: After a party, a male friend kisses her without asking. Maya doesn't scream or slap him. Instead, she freezes. The film spends its first ten minutes in suffocating silence, using extreme close-ups of Arden’s trembling hands and darting eyes. Then, the turning point. Maya finds a discarded self-help cassette tape (a brilliant anachronistic choice by Vane) titled “Assertiveness for the Modern Woman.” The tape’s crackling voice utters the title line: “I am taking charge.”
By Ananya S. | Film & Culture
As of November 2024, I’m Taking Charge has secured distribution with and BFI Player , with a planned release on International Women’s Day 2025 . A 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, “Learning to Say It,” is already available on Nubile Films’ YouTube channel. Final Verdict: Why You Should Watch I’m Taking Charge 2024 is not a perfect film. Its runtime feels rushed in the third act, and the male characters remain somewhat underwritten. But perfection is not the point. This is a film about practice —the awkward, repetitive, brave act of practicing agency until it becomes muscle memory.
Here is everything you need to know about the film that is sparking conversations about consent, confidence, and the power of the female gaze. The film follows Maya (played by newcomer Celine Arden) , a 19-year-old university student living in a chaotic London house-share. On the surface, Maya is the archetypal "people-pleaser"—she laughs at her landlord’s misogynistic jokes, lets her boyfriend track her location, and apologizes for existing in lecture halls. Recommended for fans of: Promising Young Woman ,
What follows is not a revenge thriller, but a psychological metamorphosis. Maya begins to reclaim small things: her morning coffee order, the seat on the bus, her own bedroom door lock. The climax involves no violence—just Maya calmly telling her boyfriend, “You don’t get to decide what my ‘fine’ means.” The word “nubile” traditionally carries baggage—often used to describe young women solely in terms of marriageability or sexual availability. Director Sorcha Vane deliberately reclaims it. In her director’s statement, Vane writes: “Nubile, for me, means ‘ripe with potential.’ My protagonist is not innocent or seductive. She is unfinished. She is learning to inhabit her own skin without asking for permission. The title ‘I’m Taking Charge’ is her first full sentence.” The film’s visual language supports this. Cinematographer Rajiv Odedra shoots Maya from slightly below eye level, making her dominant in the frame. There are no gratuitous body shots. Instead, the camera lingers on her hands typing a text message, erasing it, and typing again—finally pressing send. That text reads: “Don’t touch me without asking. Ever.” Performance as Manifesto Celine Arden , a 21-year-old graduate of RADA, delivers a career-launching performance. Her Maya is not a superheroine. She stumbles, backslides, and cries in a Tesco bathroom after asserting herself. In one devastating two-minute monologue—delivered to a mirror, not another character—Arden whispers: “Why is saying ‘no’ so much harder than saying ‘I’m fine’?”