Raindance Film Festival

Europe’s leading independent film festival, Raindance returns to Piccadily Circus, London, this September. Running 25 September until 6 October the event aims to nurture, support and promote independent films and filmmakers from the UK and around the world. Over the 21 years Raindance has been running, the festival has hosted such guests and filmmakers as Christopher Nolan, Shane Meadows, Ken Loach, Marky Ramone, Iggy Pop, Anton Corbijn, Quentin Tarantino, Faye Dunaway and Lou Reed. Over the last few years our international Jury has included Lemmy, Charles Saatchi, Armando Iannucci and Tom Waits.

This year the event will play host to over 300 films and 40 events and Britain’s first Web Fest will take place on 28 and 29 September. Web Fest will feature a packed schedule of panel discussions, with subjects covering audience development, lessons from YouTubers, product placement and branding, and future of web tv. There will also be world premiere screenings, including Producing Juliet, the latest from Tina Cesa Ward, whose previous series Anyone But Me captured over 35 million views.

The line-up of films at Raindance span across the genres, from rom-coms to black comedies, psychological thrillers and sci-fi, to dance and art focused films. Raindance will also exclusively screen the highly anticipated Wayland’s Song, a gritty thriller about an ex-soldier dealing with physical and mental scars on returning from Afghanistan, starring Rob James-Collier and Orla Brady and directed by Richard Jobson, and the award winning Earthbound starring Rafe Spall as a man who believes he is an alien from another planet hiding from intergalactic bounty hunters.

Within the Documentary and Raindance Symphony Orchestra strands there will be some of the newest and most exciting factual and music films. The variety of films selected for this strand cover everything from the aftermath of the nuclear meltdown in Fukushuma to the rise and fall of 1980s rock band Skum Rocks, to the tale of a six year old skateboarding prodigy and YouTube sensation. The festival will close with The Machine, a sci-fi thriller starring Toby Stephens and written and directed by Caradog W. James.

Raindance, 25 September – 6 October, Vue, Piccadilly Circus, London.

Credits
1. Film courtesy of YouTube and Raindance.

Posted on 16 September 2013

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