Sundance Film Festival is heading to London again this summer and the programme is full of cinematic goodies. More below.
The days are getting lighter, the sun is shining ever so slightly more now and we’ve packed away our thickest wool jumpers, although we still need some thick socks. That must mean one thing and one thing only.
Sundance Film Festival: London is almost upon us.
Some might say summer is coming too, but we’re mostly excited for Sundance London, which has just revealed their full programme for this year’s festival. The festival brings a fine selection of films which originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, in Park City, Utah. The crème de la crème, so to speak.
The festival will open on 6 June with a screening of Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt’s Irish-language film and draw to a close on 9 June with Sean Wang’s Dìdi (弟弟).
Other highlights include Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Rob Peace and Lucy Lawless’ directorial debut Never Look Away. There’s also a dedicated UK short film programme.
Sundance is also celebrating 40 years of film festivals, so there will be some screenings dedicated to that. The Surprise Film also returns with previous hits including Bart Layton’s American Animals and Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies.
Priority ticket booking opens today for Sundance Film Festival: London passholders and Picturehouse members and tickets will go on general sale on 30 April. The event will take place at Picturehouse Central. You can find all ticket information right here.
FICTION FEATURE FILMS:
Dìdi (弟弟) / United States
(Director: Sean Wang, Screenwriter: Sean Wang, Producers: Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters, Valerie Bush, Sean Wang)
Dìdi (弟弟) is written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sean Wang. The film, set in 2008 in California’s Bay Area, is a funny, irreverent, and affecting ode to first-generation teenagers navigating the joy and chaos of adolescence as seen through the lens of a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy, played by Izaac Wang (Good Boys, Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon).
Cast: Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen, Chang Li Hua
Girls Will Be Girls / India, France, Norway
(Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Shuchi Talati, Producers: Richa Chadha, Claire Chassagne)
In a strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas, 16-year-old Mira discovers desire and romance. But her sexual, rebellious awakening is disrupted by her mother who never got to come of age herself.
Cast: Preeti Panigrahi, Kani Kusruti, Kesav Binoy Kiron
Handling the Undead / Norway
(Director and Screenwriter: Thea Hvistendahl, Screenwriter: John Ajvide Lindqvist, Producers: Kristin Emblem, Guri Neby)
On an abnormally hot summer day in Oslo, a strange electric field surrounds the city as a collective migraine spreads across town. TVs, lightbulbs, and electronics go haywire, the chaos reaching a debilitating crescendo when suddenly, it’s over. But the strange event has awoken the newly deceased from death. HANDLING THE UNDEAD weaves together three families through their loss: Mahler (72) and his daughter, Anna, mourn the too early passing of his grandson; Tora (86) says her final goodbye to her wife at the funeral home; and a family of four face a life without a wife and mother.
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars
I Saw the TV Glow / United States
(Director and Screenwriter: Jane Schoenbrun, Producers: Emma Stone, Dave McCary, Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Sarah Winshall)
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
Cast: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, Fred Durst, Danielle Deadwyler
Kneecap / Ireland
(Director: Rich Peppiatt, Screenwriter: Rich Peppiatt, Producers: Trevor Birney, Jack Tarling, Co-Producers: Patrick O’Neill)
Of the 80,000 native Irish speakers, 6,000 live in the North of Ireland and three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This is the real life story of how this anarchic Belfast trio became the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save and reinvigorate their mother tongue.
Cast: Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, , Naoise Ó Cairealláin, JJ Ó Dochartaigh, Michael Fassbender, Josie Walker, Simone Kirby
My Old Ass / United States
(Director: Megan Park, Screenwriter: Megan Park, Producers: Tom Ackerley, Margot Robbie, Josey McNamara, Steven Rales)
In this fresh coming-of-age story, an 18th birthday mushroom trip brings free-spirited Elliott (Maisy Stella) face-to-face with her wisecracking 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza). But when Elliott’s “old ass” starts handing out warnings about what her younger self should and shouldn’t do, Elliott realises she has to rethink everything about family, love, and what’s becoming a transformative summer.
Cast: Maisy Stella, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks, Aubrey Plaza
Rob Peace / United States
(Director and Screenwriter: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Producers: Andrea Calderwood, Antoine Fuqua, Kat Samick, Rebecca Hobbs, Jeffrey Soros, Alex Kurtzman)
Based on Jeff Hobbs’ bestselling and critically acclaimed work of non-fiction – Robert Peace grew up in an impoverished section of Newark and later graduated from Yale on scholarship. Peace led a dual life in academia earning degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry while also selling marijuana to aid his father who he believed was unjustly imprisoned for murder.
Cast: Jay Will, Mary J. Blige, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Camila Cabello, Michael Kelly, Mare Winningham
Sasquatch Sunset / United States
(Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: David Zellner, Director and Producer: Nathan Zellner, Producers: Lars Knudsen, Tyler Campellone, George Rush, Jesse Eisenberg)
In the misty forests of North America, a family of Sasquatches—possibly the last of their enigmatic kind— embark on an absurdist, epic, hilarious, and ultimately poignant journey over the course of one year. These shaggy and noble giants fight for survival as they find themselves on a collision course with the ever-changing world around them. Starring Riley Keough (Mad Max: Fury Road, American Honey) and Academy Award-Nominee Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland, The Social Network), acclaimed directors David and Nathan Zellner (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter) bring you the greatest Bigfoot story ever told.
Cast: Riley Keough, Jesse Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denek, Nathan Zellner
Your Monster / United States
(Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Caroline Lindy, Producers: Kayla Foster, Shannon Reilly, Melanie Donkers, Kira Carstensen)
After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming, monster living in her closet.
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Meghann Fahy, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILMS:
Skywalkers: A Love Story / United States
(Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Jeff Zimbalist, Producers: Maria Bukhonina, Tamir Ardon, Chris Smith, Nick Spicer)
To save their career and their relationship, a daredevil couple journey across the globe to illegally climb the world’s last super skyscraper and perform a life-or-death acrobatic stunt on the spire.
Never Look Away / New Zealand
(Director: Lucy Lawless, Producers: Matthew Metcalfe, Tom Blackwell, Lucy Lawless)
A swashbuckling CNN combat camerawoman and trailblazing female icon; the unbelievable, yet entirely true, story of award-winning journalist, Margaret Moth, is brought to vivid light by acclaimed actress and activist, Lucy Lawless, in her directorial debut.
An inspirational and unflinching biography, which includes both testimonials from the people who knew and worked with Moth, and dramatic footage from the war zones she covered, Never Look Away delves into the life and work of an incredible woman, a true pioneer known for her tireless work to capture catastrophic events and atrocities on film, no matter the risk.
UK SHORTS PROGRAMME:
Alo / United Kingdom
(Director: Xenia Glen, Producers: Amy George, Xenia Glen)
Alo, an undocumented Filipino worker, lives in an overcrowded house share in London. When he is struck by an unexpected seizure, and becomes trapped internally in the throes of his symptoms, the residents feel pressured to call an ambulance, which catapults Alo into the UK health and immigration system.
Cast: Iverson Yabut , Antosh Wojcik, Ericka Posadas
Essex Girls / United Kingdom
(Director: Yero Timi-Biu, Screenwriter: Busayo Ige, Producers: Angela Moneke, Simon Hatton)
After an incident at her high school shunts her into the orbit of the only other Black girl in her year, “Essex Girl” Bisola is plunged into a journey of discovering a whole new side of herself.
Cast: Busayo Ige, Corinna Brown, Maisie Smith, Adrianna Bertola, Krysstina Frempong, Rebecca Dike
Good Boy / United Kingdom
(Director: Tom Stuart, Producers: Kay Loxley, Max Marlow, Elettra Pizzi, Tom Stuart)
Danny attempts to rob a bank with his overbearing mum but is scuppered by the appearance of figures from his past. With his mum in the back of his van, and a dead pigeon on the passenger seat, Danny has a growing sense of desperation.
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Marion Bailey, Dino Fetscher, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Paul Chahidi, Mark Monero, Wendy Nottingham, Bettrys Jones, Ephraim Sampson, Tommy Belshaw
Mamu / United Kingdom, Taiwan
(Director and Screenwriter: Aephie Chen, Producers: Aephie Chen, Emily Beynon, Ingvar Haukur Guðmundsson, Ado Kaliting Pacidal
Indigenous Taiwanese Mayaw brought up his biracial British daughter Rina on his own in London. As ageing Mayaw’s mind begins to fade, and he hears the call of his indigenous Taiwanese homeland and its magical guardians – very far from the grey London he now inhabits in which he and his daughter dream of each other in languages that they can’t understand anymore. They reconnect in their dreams and the lullaby leads the way.
Cast: Aki Rupi, Suming Rupi, Kirsten Forster, Olivia Simmons, Osay Okesan Ciwidian
[S] / United Kingdom, Poland, Bulgaria
(Director, Screenwriter, Producer: Mario Radev)
[S] is an artwork that exposes the lifespan of infinity. The film delves into an immersive loop of organic forms, reflecting on the entangled nature of life and art.
Cast: Mario Radev
Salone Love / United Kingdom, USA
(Director: Tajana Tokyo, Producers: Tabs Breese, India Wadsworth)
A scrapbook of opinions and advice about love in Sierra Leone.
Shé (Snake) / United Kingdom, USA
(Director and Screenwriter: Renee Zhan, Producer: Jesse Romain)
Fei is the top violinist in her elite youth orchestra. When another Chinese violinist arrives to challenge her place, Fei’s internalized racism grows to take monstrous physical form. They whisper to her, urging her to be the best, no matter the cost.
Cast: Xiaonan Wang, Alina Lew, Simon Paisley Day, Elizabeth Chan, Leslie Ching, Grace Fan
