Now in its 24th year Raindance Film Festival founder Elliot Grove, accompanied by Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, have announced the jury and films featured in this year’s celebration of UK and international independent film.
McDaid will be joining the likes of Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Imelda Staunton and Jodie Whittaker amongst others, to form the judging panel – showing the rising popularity of the independent film industry; it’s not all unheard of names and home-grown cinema. In fact Grove announced proudly that Raindance received a record number of submissions for this year’s festival, from over 99 countries, leaving the programmers the difficult task of selecting from that vast range of talent, the 90 feature films and documentaries, and 85 short films, which will be shown at the festival. New for this year the Feature Films In Competition, will not only compete for Best Film, but will vie for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress – giving a more all-round judgement, as at most main stream film festivals. The Women in Film and LGBT competition strands have already been announced, more information on the full line-up can be found here. Excitingly the festival has introduced the Raindance Lab – Future of Film strands, including the Virtual Reality Arcade, providing immersive experiences exploring new advances in storytelling technologies, brought forward by the likes of BBC, the Guardian and the Economist.
The Line-up, including many premieres, is:
IN COMPETITION FEATURE FILMS
A Double Life – Yoshiyuki Kishi – Japan – European Premiere
After Adderall – Stephen Elliott – USA – International Premiere
Between Us – Rafael Palacio Illingworth – USA – UK Premiere
El Pastoro (The Shepherd) – Jonathan Cenzual Burley – Spain
Hortensia – Diego Lublisnky and Álvaro Urtizberea – Argentina – UK Premiere
Hotel Dallas – Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang – Romania/USA – UK Premiere
Jules and Dolores – Caito Ortiz – Brazil – UK Premiere
Panamerican Machinery – Joaquin Del Paso – Mexico – UK Premiere
The Violin Player – Bauddhayan Mukherji – India – UK Premiere
Train Driver’s Diary – Lazar Ristovski – Serbia/Croatia – UK Premiere
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
A Brilliant Genocide – Ebony Butler – Australia – UK Premiere
A Plastic Ocean – Craig Leeson – UK/Hong Kong/USA – UK Premiere
Death by a Thousand Cuts – Juan Mejia Botero and Jake Kheel – USA/Dominican Republic – European Premiere
Growing Up Coy – Eric Juhola – USA – European Premiere
Off the Rails – Adam Irving – USA/Canada – European Premiere
BEST FEATURE DEBUT
Dusky Paradise – Gregory Kirchhoff, Germany – UK Premiere
Her Composition – Stephan Littger, USA/Germany – UK Premiere
Kamper – Łukasz Grzegorzek – Poland – UK Premiere
The Farm – Angel Manuel Soto – Puerto Rico – UK Premiere
The Habit of Beauty – Mirko Pincelli – UK/Italy – UK Premiere
BEST UK FEATURE
AmStarDam – The Lennox brothers – UK Premiere
Five Days on Lesvos – Richard Wyllie – World Premiere
For Grace – Sebastian Armesto – UK Premiere
Gozo – Miranda Bowen – UK/Malta – European Premiere
Long Forgotten Fields – Jon Stanford – World Premiere
BEST SHORT FILM
A l’Arraché (Snatched) – Emmanuelle Nicot – Belgium – International Premiere
Furiant (Peacock) – Ondřej Hudeček – Czech Republic
Moloch – Szymon Kapeniak – Poland/ Ukraine – UK Premiere
Seide – Elnura Osmonalieva – Kyrgyzstan
What a Beautiful World This Will Be – Tyler Walker – USA – UK Premiere
BEST UK SHORT FILM
Balcony – Toby Fell-Holden
Dunroamin – Oliver S. Milburn
Healey’s House – Rob Savage – World Premiere
Pauline – Fred Rowson
You Are Awake – Pedro Martin – Calebro
BEST UK WEB SERIES
Blood, Sweat & Chokes – Sol Rikweda
Ren: The Girl with the Mark – Kate Madison
Rich Keeble Vanity Project – Rich Keeble/Sam LeGassick/ Edd Wright
Shield 5 – Anthony Wilcox
S- Band – Hannah George
BEST INTERNATIONAL WEB SERIES
20 Seconds to Live – Ben Rock – USA
Discocalypse – Dirk Rosenloecher – Germany
Il Sonnambulo – Hannah & Douglas Rath – UK/USA
The Fourth Door – Tony E. Valenzuela – USA
Young Graduate – Shannon Renaudeau/ Florent Sabatier – France
VR ARCADE:
6×9 – A Virtual Experience of Solitary Confinement – Francesca Panetta and Lindsay Poulton – UK – produced by the Guardian
Across the Line – Nonny de la Peña – USA
Ctrl – Nigel Townsend – UK
Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel – Oscar Raby – UK – produced by the BBC
Home – An Immersive Spacewalk Experience – Kate Bartlett and Tom Burton – UK – produced by the BBC
In My Shoes: Dancing with Myself – Jane Gauntlett -UK
Inside the Box of Kurios – Paul Raphael and Félix Lajeunesse – Canada
Invisible – Darren Emerson – UK
Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness – Arnaud Colinart, Amaury La Burthe, Peter Middleton and James Spinney – UK/France
RecoVR: Mosul – Visualise Films – UK – commissioned by the Economist
The Rose & I – Eugene Chung – France
Tomorrow – Future Lighthouse – Spain
The Turning Forest – Oscar Raby – UK – produced by the BBC
Witness 360: 7/7 – Darren Emerson – UK
The Edge’s Hot Picks:
- After Adderall – Stephen Elliott – USA – International Premiere
A look behind the scenes of the making of Stephen Elliott’s memoir, ‘The Adderall Diaries’, adapted by James Franco in 2015, starring himself and Ed Harris – this self-reflexive, funny and sometimes dangerous film explores filmmaker/novelist Stephen Elliott’s journey to discover what is the difference between memoir and life.
2. AmStarDam – The Lennox brothers – UK Premiere
An Amsterdam adventure with a fairytale twist. Jack arrives to Amsterdam to find his father and, through a momentary magical encounter, finds the secret weapon that could turn around his father’s ailing marijuana coffee shop.
3. RecoVR: Mosul – Visualise Films – UK – commissioned by the Economist
A virtual reality experience which takes the viewer on a visit to a museum in Iraq which was destroyed by ISIS.
Held in the heart of London’s West End, this wittily named film festival (Grove, sarcastically referred to the unpredictability of British weather in the 27ᴼ London heat, as free Raindance umbrellas were handed out) will be held from Wednesday 21st September to Sunday 2nd October 2016. Event passes are already on sale, but tickets, (an absolute steal at £6-10 for concessions) will be on sale from 12 noon on Thursday September 1st, available here.
The 24th annual Raindance Film Festival will run from 21st September to 2nd October 2016.
