The Raindance Film Festival Gets Underway

9 months ago 02nd Oct 11:29

The 16th Raindance Film Festival’s programme was announced in full yesterday as the festival got underway by it's patron Ken Loach, with the full line-up which includes 75 features and over 100 shorts alongside a host of live events, exclusive Q&As and masterclasses.The Raindance Film Festival will take place from 1-12 October 2008 in London’s West End with some of the film industry’s most exciting filmmakers sitting on this year’s jury including Oscar-winning Peter Capaldi (Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life), Beastie Boys’ filmmaker Adam Yauch (Awesome I F***ing Shot That), Rebecca O’Brien (The Wind that Shakes the Barley) and Nicolas Roeg (Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, Puffball).Book-ending the fortnight long Festival, the UK premiere of breakout new writer-director Clark Gregg and maverick author Chuck Palahniuk’s (Flight Club) Choke, starring Sam Rockwell (Jesse James, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), Anjelica Huston (The Darjeeling Limited, The Royal Tenenbaums) and Kelly MacDonald (No Country for Old Men, Trainspotting), opens the event on Wednesday 1st October, and the Closing Gala on Sunday 12th October brings the festival to an end with the World premiere of Mark Tonderai’s directorial debut Hush, starring William Ash, Christine Bottomley and Guy Burnet. Anjelica Huston is expected to guest appear for the Opening Night Gala as well as screen goddess Faye Dunaway for her new film Flick, directed by David Howard and with expected appearances from co-stars Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman), Liz Smith (The Royle Family) and Mark Benton (Murphy’s Law).80’s superstar Corey Feldman (Stand By Me, The Goonies) will feature at the festival promoting his new film The Birthday, and will participate in a special retrospective event. Cult director Jeremy Podeswa (Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk) will also be in attendance with his new film Fugitive Pieces.Raindance has a strong reputation for it’s interest of music in film and in the past has featured jurors such as Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Marky Ramone and Mick Jones (The Clash) and has previously programmed films such as: Billy Childish Is Dead, The Devil & Daniel Johnston, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, Neil Young: Heart of Gold and documentaries on The Ramones, Lambchop and Johnny Thunders. This year is no different with films dedicated to Patti Smith, The Beatles, The Arctic Monkeys and a documentary by Beastie Boys’ hip-hop legend Adam Yauch.The festival will host a special event with Giles Martin, son of the legendary producer Sir George Martin, in aid of the London Premiere of All Together Now, a new film charting the creation of The Beatles/Cirque du Soleil collaboration Love.