Event - 23rd Raindance Film Festival

Ren Zelen was there for us to wave her hanky at the Raindance Film Festival press launch...

The 23rd Raindance Film Festival will open on 23rd September at the Vue Cinema Leicester Square with the world premiere of spy thriller Newcomer, starring James Floyd and Anthony LaPaglia. The film sees rookie spy, Alex, become the victim of an international manhunt following an error that costs the lives of his entire team. On the run, Alex must piece together the truth by recreating the events of the ill-fated mission.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with the director Kai Barry and actress Noemie Merlant.

Raindance is Europe’s leading Independent Film Festival showcasing feature films, shorts and documentaries from around the world. This year it will play host to 90 features and 200 shorts from 48 countries.

Based in London, Raindance hosts a Film Festival, talks, Q&A panels with film-makers and directors, training courses and the British Independent Film Awards. This year it will be staging 30 industry events. It has a legacy of showing alternative and edgy films and supporting directorial debuts. It has premiered movie triumphs such as Pulp Fiction, Memento, The Blair Witch Project and Ghost World.

This year’s themes include ‘The Digital Age’ - highlights will include Alex Winter’s Deep Web, narrated by his Bill and Ted comrade, Keanu Reeves, and the documentary Digital Dissidents which looks at the notoriety gained by Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

Another theme is ‘Fragility’ with a Shorts programme including films such as Absence, directed by BIFA winning Rob Savage and starring Paul McGann as a man dealing with grief.

Raindance will also feature the world premiere of Rickie Lee Jones: The Other Side of Desire an intimate portrait of the poet-musician, and the Mexican film Alice in Marialand, starring Stephanie Sigman. The festival also intends to celebrate 50 years of Super 8 (the trailer for the festival, directed by Douglas Hart, has been shot entirely on Super 8).

The Festival will culminate in the annual Raindance Awards Ceremony on October 2nd with a jury comprising of influential industry figures including Sol Needham, Founder and CEO of IMDb, actor Martin Freeman, International Director Variety magazine, Alberto Lopez, Director and DJ Don Letts and actress Sheridan Smith, amongst others.

Full details of the programme and tickets to the festival can be found at www.raindancefestival.org

Tickets for the Festival go on general release at 12pm on Wednesday September 9th at www.myvue.com/Raindance

Image - Raindance