The horror-thriller Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer, directed by Tilman Singer, will open the 32nd Raindance Film Festival in the UK on June 19–28. The festival is moving from its traditional autumnal date to midsummer.
Ninety percent of the foreign films that are competing this year are first-time features.
Producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng are on the jury, together with performers Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris, and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.
Cuckoo, the Berlin-SXSW opening night film, is a co-production between the US and Germany. Schafer portrays a seventeen-year-old who, after her father and his new family relocate to a resort in the German Alps, is compelled to leave her American home. Dan Stevens is a star as well.
The Toronto film National Anthem, the first feature from US director Luke Gilford, will have its European premiere on June 28 to mark the festival’s conclusion. A young construction worker named Charlie Plummer joins a group of gay rodeo performers in New Mexico, all of whom are chasing their own unique interpretation of the American dream.
As part of the festival’s special focus on Germany, Cuckoo is being screened. Eternal You, Falling Into Place, It’s Burning, What You See Of Me, and a special screening of Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon are further important German titles.
Raindance creator Elliot Grove stated, “We continue our campaign of championing new voices and the edgy, under-the-radar films that we at Raindance love so much with our newly determined and defined focus on first and second-time filmmakers.”
“In our second year as artistic directors, we continue with the mission that we began last year: to confirm Raindance as the leading UK platform for emerging filmmakers,” Martyna Szmytkowska and Malaika Bova said.
Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, The Prince Charles Cinema, and Genesis Cinema are the host theatres located in central and east London, respectively. Wonderville on Haymarket will once again serve as the home of the Raindance Immersive Summit (June 18–19) and the House of Raindance industry hub.
Highlights of the immersive lineup include the documentary-style VR film Fly To Me from Songmoo Le, and the cartoons The Elephant I Found Under My Skin by Shaool Levy and Dee Dee Harvey, supported by the BFI Network and Northern Ireland Screen.
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Raindance lineup for 2024
*signifies a world premiere.
Discovery (award for best first director)
Arni is the director. Dorka Vermes, a Hun
Cat Call directories. Szelenczk, Rozália (Hun)
Into Their Place director. Aylin Tezel (Hun-Ger) directing It’s Burning. Afsin Erol (Ger)
The National Anthem, directed. Luke Gilford, American
Satu – Rabbit Year in Direct Film. Josh Trigg, a UK resident
Sisterhood director. El Hourch, Nora (Fr)
Put yourself to sleep. Jason Yu, S Kor
The Heritage director. Ben Petrie, Canadian
The Silent Maid director. Miguel Faus (Spanish)
worldwide (award for best international feature)
Animal dir. Grecian Sofia Exarchou
Body Odyssey dir. Thank you, Tricarico (It-Switz)
Cuckoo dir. Singer Tilman (Germany-USA)
Keep talking, dir. Lucibello Manfredi (It)
The Endless Summer Syndrome director. Daneshmand Kaveh (in Czech)
Director: Kathleen Is Here. Birthistle, Eva (Ire)*
My Killer Buddy in director’s cut. It is Gianluca Santoni.
The director of Strangers’ Case. Major Brandt Anderson
The film What You See Of Me. Caps-Kuhn, Isabelle (Ger)*
Documentary (award for best documentary feature)
Forward Motion! director. Greek: Fil Ieropoulos
Eternal You directors. Block and Rieseviek, Hans
From the film My Cold Dead Hands. Spanish* Javier Horcajada Fontecha
If the stars could talk, Mogwai would. UK’s Antony Crook
Looking for Amani directors. Nicole Gormley and Debra Aroko (Geo)
Georgia director grinning. Luka Beradze (Geo)
Dir. Sting Like A Bee. Leone (It)
The Click Trap dir. Peter Porta (Spanish-French)
The Contestant dir. UK’s Clair Titley
The Man in 1000 Faces, directed by. Fr-Pol Sonia Kronlund
The founders’ strand (awarded the Spirit of Raindance)
Dog War director. American Andrew Abrahams
Double Exposure dir. US actor Howard Goldberg*
Humane dir. US-born Caitlin Cronenberg
I remain here, dears. Francisco Vissers and Elizabeth Healey (UK)
The director of Peaky Blinders. UK’s Benoit-Swan Pouffer
Chop Shari and Lamb dir. Lisa D’Apolito, American
There Is More Than One Thing in the dir. * Jay Alvarez (US)
