The Raindance Film Festival Gets Underway
02 October 2008
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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.The Arctic Monkeys will attend the London Premiere of their new film Arctic Monkeys At The Apollo with director Richard Ayoade (The Mighty Boosh, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace).Adam Yauch from old school hip-hop megagroup the Beastie Boys features on this year’s Raindance jury with the European Premiere of his basketball directed documentary Gunnin For That #1 Spot.
Les Claypool (Primus, Fearless Frog Brigade) will also be doing a guest Q&A at the screening of Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo, a mockumentary film he directed.
Strongly anticipated UK features for this year’s festival include Matthew Thompson’s directorial debut Dummy, David Howard’s Flick starring Faye Dunaway, Michelle Ryan, Liz Smith and Mark Benton, as well as Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching, starring Martin Freeman, Emily Holmes and Eva Birthistle.
Acclaimed director and Raindance patron, Mike Figgis will be in attendance presenting a new short film for Sony Ericsson entitled 'Life Captured'.
The international competition gives participants the chance to take part in the creation of this pioneering new film made entirely out of still mobile phone images. Mike will nominate five Outstanding Achievers who will win a VIP trip for them and a friend to attend the film’s red carpet premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London on Thursday, 2nd October 2008.
Feature films, documentaries and shorts from around the globe will transport cinema-goers to: Australia, Canada, Palestine, USA, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Brazil, Italy, Serbia, Japan, Kenya, France, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Sovenia, Czech Republic, Austria, Mexico, Columbia, Uraguay, Spain and Argentina.
New to this year’s Festival Awards is the Audience Award, which will be given to the best feature film at the 16th Raindance Film Festival as selected by you. Also new is the Dailymotion Short Circuit Award created with Raindance.tv to search for budding new talent.
60 second short films will be considered by a judging panel led by director Michael Winterbottom. Visit www.dailymotion.com for more details. In addition is the Best UK Short Film Award sponsored by Delta Airlines with a prize of 2 return tickets to anywhere in the US and designed to give UK filmmakers the opportunity to attend screenings of their film in US festivals.
All award winners will be announced before the screening of the Closing Night Film Hush at the Cineworld Trocadero on Sunday 12 October at 7:30PM.
Festival patron Ken Loach commented on The 16th Raindance Film Festival line-up: 'It’s good news that Raindance looks set for another lovely festival. Let’s hope you make some mischief.'
Elliot Grove, Director of The Raindance Film Festival said: 'We are especially pleased to welcome Ken Loach as festival patron for our 16th Anniversary of The Raindance Film Festival. We are excited to present a fantastic line-up of international films which represent the true nature of the festival and excellence within independent filmmaking.'
Raindance runs between 1-12 October
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