“At its core, Dungeon Masterhood is a documentary about adolescence, centred around an ongoing game of Dungeons & Dragons spanning multiple years,” UK producer Steven Lake (Phantom Parrot, 2023) tells Business Doc Europe on the eve of the 32nd Sheffield DocFest. “The appeal of the story lies in its youth-centred nature. Watching these kids grow into fully fledged adults over the course of 90 minutes – witnessing all the highs and lows that come with that journey—makes for a really compelling narrative.”
In the documentary, currently in post-production ahead of a mooted completion in early 2026, director and older sister Carina NicHaouchine has captured the coming-of-age journey of brothers Thomas and Sam, who bond over their weekly Dungeons & Dragons sessions with their friends. The group inevitably begins to drift apart with age, but Thomas – the steadfast Dungeon Master – struggles to let go.”
Screen Scotland is a partner on the project, which also receive Kickstart support. “Screen Scotland have been fantastic to work with because they saw [its] potential right away. We really want to provide the audience with a jovial, meaningful and touching story,” Lake underlines.
NicHaouchine is an award-winning Scottish-Algerian filmmaker who has screened at festivals including Edinburgh International Film Festival and Glasgow Short Film Festival. She directed her first short documentary Ululation in 2018 with the Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI), winning a John Byrne Award.
“Carina is an amazing and empathetic director. Her work on this film over several years, in close collaboration with her brothers, is a testament to her approach,” says Lake. “She handles the subject matter of neurodiversity, mental health and adolescence with care and insight. It’s rare to see this level of intimacy among teenagers on screen. Pairing that with the magical world-building of Dungeons & Dragons—brought to life through animation—makes for a truly special film.”
The documentary promises much visually, with its diverse range of approaches. “The film has been shot in a close-up, intimate verité style. At its core, it’s a personal observational documentary, but it also carries a sense of nostalgia and playfulness inspired by classic coming-of-age films like The Goonies and Stand By Me,” the producer stresses. “Musically, the soundtrack reflects this balance, blending 80s synth with contemporary sounds. The animation also straddles nostalgia and modernity, referencing the original Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and the 1970s Lord of the Rings animated feature.”
The film has a “unique opportunity” to tap into a huge, pre-existing Dungeons & Dragons fan base,” Lake argues. “This is a community that truly dedicates itself to content that resonates, and I don’t think anything like Dungeon Masterhood currently exists in the marketplace to reach them in this way. We got evidence of how engaged this fandom is by the response to the films Kickstarter campaign which received 320 individual donations, most of which came from the D&D fandom.”
“The beauty of the film is that, although Dungeons & Dragons sits at its centre, it’s really a traditional coming-of-age story. That gives us a route into a broader, non-D&D audience – people for whom the themes of adolescence and growing up will be just as resonant. Comparable titles include HBO’s We Met in Virtual Reality and Netflix’s The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.”
In Sheffield, the Dungeon Masterhood is team looking for partners who can see “the full potential” of this film in terms of distribution. Lake is also keen to speak with people interested in youth-centred stories, and in “finding a route to both the pre-baked audience of Dungeons & Dragons fans and the broader audience we’re aiming to reach.”
“It doesn’t take long to see who this kind of project resonates with,” he continues. “More often than not, the person we’re pitching either plays D&D themselves or knows someone close to them—kids, friends—who really loves it. That makes for a great jumping-off point. You don’t need to know a thing about D&D to grasp the meaningful impact the game has on the lives of those who play it—and that’s the point we want to communicate most clearly in the film.”
