Sundance Film Festival: London Unveils 2016 Line Up

After an year in hiatus Sundance Film Festival: London returns bringing the best of America’s premiere Independent Film Festival across the pond.Taking place 2-5 June at the new host venue, Picturehouse Central, in the heart of the West End, showcasing feature films, short films and panel discussions.

The festival will present 11 UK and International feature film premieres direct from this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A., selected by the Sundance Institute programming team in collaboration with Picturehouse. Continuing the focus of the three previous London editions on presenting new work by emerging and established independent filmmakers, the 2016 festival will also include a short film programme with 15 shorts, including a strand dedicated to UK shorts screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The films collectively received 10 awards when they premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

In addition to celebrating the best new independent films, the feature film line-up includes Sundance Film Festival: Road to Stardom, a programme showcasing notable films discovered by the Sundance Film Festival over the course of its three-decade history and whose stars and filmmakers have since achieved global recognition. Rounding off the programme are four special events, all offering an exclusive insight into the filmmaking process: Oscar-winning producer and Industry veteran James Schamus, whose feature directorial debut Indignation screens in the main film programme, will discuss the changing face of independent film; the Sundance Film Festival partners with the BFI to discuss Diversity as an Ethos with panellists including Sundance alumnus Effie Brown (Producer of Dear White People); and two further events, the Short Film Masterclass and Cutting Through the Festival Bullshit panel will offer frank advice to budding filmmakers.

Robert Redford, President & Founder of Sundance Institute, said, “I have long believed that the quality and originality of the independent films we show would be of interest to global audiences. Our Sundance Film Festival: London allows us to further help these new independent films get out into the world, starting with engaged audiences in the UK.”

This year we’re hoping to attend the film festival, The People’s Movies and Cinehouse, so fingers crossed we’ll keep you posted.

For Sundance Festival:London, you can pick up tickets from May 5 at www.sundance.org/london.

Author: The JT LeRoy Story (Director / screenwriter: Jeff Feuerzeig) International premiere

The definitive look inside the mysterious case of 16-year-old literary sensation JT LeRoy – a creature so perfect for his time that if he didn’t exist, someone would have had to invent him. Perhaps someone did? The strangest story about story ever told. (Documentary)

The Greasy Strangler (Director: Jim Hosking) International premiere

When Big Ronnie and his son Brayden meet lone female tourist Janet on Big Ronnie’s Disco Walking Tour—the best and only disco walking tour in the city—a fight for Janet’s heart erupts between father and son, and the infamous Greasy Strangler is unleashed.

Principal Cast: Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo, Gil Gex, Jesse Keen, Joe David Walters

Goat (Director: Andrew Neel) UK premiere

Reeling from a terrifying assault, a 19-yearold boy pledges his brother’s fraternity in an attempt to prove his manhood. What happens there, in the name of “brotherhood,” tests both the boys and their relationship in brutal ways.

Principal Cast: Nick Jonas, Ben Schnetzer, Virginia Gardner, Danny Flaherty, Austin Lyon

Indignation (Director / screenwriter: James Schamus) UK premiere

It’s 1951, and among the new arrivals at Winesburg College in Ohio are the son of a kosher butcher from New Jersey and the beautiful, brilliant daughter of a prominent alum. For a brief moment, their lives converge in this emotionally soaring film based on the novel by Philip Roth. UK premiere

Principal Cast: Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts, Linda Emond, Danny Burstein, Ben Rosenfield

The Intervention (Director / screenwriter: Clea DuVall) International premiere

A weekend getaway for four couples takes a sharp turn when one of the couples discovers the entire trip was orchestrated to host an intervention on their marriage.

Principal Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Cobie Smulders, Alia Shawkat, Clea DuVall, Natasha Lyonne, Ben Schwartz
Winner of the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Individual Performance (Melanie Lynskey)

Life, Animated (Director / screenwriter: Roger Ross Williams) – UK premiere

Owen Suskind, an autistic boy who could not speak for years, slowly emerged from his isolation by immersing himself in Disney animated movies. Using these films as a roadmap, he reconnects with his loving family and the wider world in this emotional coming-of-age story. (Documentary)

Winner of the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary

Morris from America (Director / screenwriter: Chad Hartigan)

Thirteen-year-old Morris, a hip-hop loving American, moves to Heidelberg, Germany, with his father. In this completely foreign land, he falls in love with a local girl, befriends his German tutor-turned- confidant, and attempts to navigate the unique trials and tribulations of adolescence.

Principal Cast: Markees Christmas, Craig Robinson, Carla Juri, Lina Keller, Jakub Gierszał, Levin Henning
Won: Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic; U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Individual Performance (Craig Robinson)

Other People (Director / screenwriter: Chris Kelly) – International premiere

A struggling comedy writer, fresh from breaking up with his boyfriend, moves to Sacramento to help his sick mother. Living with his conservative father and younger sisters, David feels like a stranger in his childhood home. As his mother worsens, he tries to convince everyone (including himself) he’s “doing okay.”
Principal Cast: Jesse Plemons, Molly Shannon, Bradley Whitford, Maude Apatow, Zach Woods, June Squibb

Tallulah (Director / screenwriter: Sian Heder) – International premiere TBC

A rootless young woman takes a toddler from a wealthy, negligent mother and passes the baby off as her own in an effort to protect her. This decision connects and transforms the lives of three very different women.
Principal Cast: Ellen Page, Allison Janney, Tammy Blanchard, Evan Jonigkeit, Uzo Aduba

Weiner (Directors / screenwriters: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg) – European premiere

With unrestricted access to Anthony Weiner’s New York City mayoral campaign, this film reveals the human story behind the scenes of a high-profile political scandal as it unfolds, and it offers an unfiltered look at how much today’s politics are driven by an appetite for spectacle. (Documentary) Winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

Wiener-Dog (Director / screenwriter: Todd Solondz) –International premiere

This film tells several stories featuring people who find their life inspired or changed by one particular dachshund, who seems to be spreading comfort and joy.
Principal Cast: Greta Gerwig, Kieran Culkin, Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn, Julie Delpy, Zosia Mamet
Presented in association with Time Out.

SHORT FILM PROGRAMME — Two wide-ranging collections of short films that screened in January at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.2016 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour – a 95-minute theatrical program of eight short films selected from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, showcasing a wide variety of story and style

2016 Sundance Film Festival UK Shorts – a showcase of 7 UK shorts that screened at Sundance Film Festival 2016
Manoman (Director: Simon Cartwright) – When Glen attends primal scream class, he releases something from deep within that knows no limits.

Mining Poems or Odes (Director: Callum Rice) – Robert, an ex-shipyard welder from Govan, Glasgow, reflects on how his life experiences have influenced his newfound compulsion to write.

Pombo Loves You (Director: Steve Warne) – A distant father is forced to confront a heroic but troubled past life as ’80s TV character Pombo.

Over (Director: Jörn Threlfall) – What has happened in this quiet suburban neighbourhood? Has there been a murder, a hit-and-run, an accident? The reality is both profound and deeply unexpected.

Territory (Director: Eleanor Mortimer) – This warm and lyrical film follows a group of unruly monkeys in Gibraltar and the people employed to control them with peashooters.

Rate Me (Director: Fyzal Boulifa) – A portrait of a teenage escort named Coco.

Saturday (Director: Mike Forshaw) – April 15, 1989: A soccer match changes Liam’s life and the city of Liverpool forever… This fictional account relates how the Hillsborough Stadium disaster — which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters – unfolded for a family in Merseyside, England.

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: ROAD TO STARDOM – A programme dedicated to showcasing notable films discovered by the Sundance Film Festival that feature stars and filmmakers who have since achieved global recognition. Presented in association with Empire Magazine. A set of films that need no introduction, The Coen Brothers with this darkly funny thriller Blood Simple their introduction to indie film. Who is Keyser Soze? The height of tricksy 90s thrillers, Bryan Singer’s supremely stylish debut The Usual Suspects. Winter’s Bone Jennifer Lawrence in the Oscar-nominated role that catapulted her to stardom.