Cuckoo Starring Hunter Schafer To Open Raindance Film Festival 2024

The Raindance Film Festival have unveiled their 2024 line up, with horror Cuckoo starring Hunter Schafer set to open the festival.

The London based indie film festival is considered one the circuits top 50 best film festivals. Moving from it’s traditional Autumn setting to a now mid-Summer June setting. Taking place between 19th and 28th June, with host cinemas  Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho,  The Prince Charles Cinema, and Genesis Cinema.

After making it’s World Premiere at February’s Berlinale , via SXSW, Tilman Singer‘s Cuckoo opens the 32nd edition of Raindance with the UK Premiere. his bold twist on the final girl trope stars Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) as a 17-year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her father and his new family as they move to a resort in the German Alps, and Dan Stevens (The Guest) as the resort’s mysterious boss.

The festival will close on 28th June with the European Premiere of Luke Gilford‘s National Anthem. A highlight from Toronto film festival and SXSW, this love story and a western for a new world stars Charlie Plummer (Lean On Pete) as a young construction worker who joins a community of queer rodeo performers in New Mexico, each in search of their own version of the American dream. The debut feature by filmmaker and photographer Luke Gilford follows on from his acclaimed 2020 photography monograph National Anthem, comprising images of America’s queer rodeo subculture.

Some of the other highlights from the festival include Aylin Tezel’s directorial feature debut Falling Into Place. An arthouse rom-com Chris Fulton (Bridgerton, The Witcher) set in Scotland and London over a brief winter weekend. Jason Yu‘s Sleep starring Parasite actor Lee Sun-kyun who sadly died end of 2023. starring alongside Jung Yu-mi (Train to Busan) playing a young expectant wife who must figure out how to stop her husband’s nightmarish sleepwalking habits before he harms himself or his family. This was one of our highlights at Glasgow Film Festival! Ben Petrie stars and directs The Heirloom starring alongside his regular collaborator Grace Glowicki. The simple and quirky tale of a desperate filmmaker, seized by inspiration when he and his girlfriend adopt a traumatized rescue dog.

Manfredi Lucibello‘s Don’t Hang Up is all about a woman who received an unexpected and confusing phone call from an ex-boyfriend. Whom she hasn’t heard from since their breakup, sets off in her car, hoping to reach him in time – without ever hanging up the phone. Endless Summer Syndrome from Kaveh Daneshmand makes it’s UK Premiere. French-set thriller a mother’s sense of duty takes a macabre turn when she learns that her husband may be having an affair with one of their two adopted kids. Anthony Cooks Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound documents the 25 years of the legendary Scottish Post Rock Band. The Man With 1000 Faces is a first-person investigation of a man who goes by different names, who calls himself a surgeon or an engineer, Argentinian or Brazilian, and lives with four different women – adapting his story and even his personality traits to each of his different and fraudulent faces.

This year’s guest of honour strand goes to Germany. This is a significant year for German Films, as they are celebrating their 70th anniversary in 2024. German Films want to use this anniversary to place a special focus on seventy years of German cinema abroad. Including Cuckoo, a selection features and short films celebrating all things German. Including a special screening of Michael Haneke‘s White Ribbon.

“Raindance is known as a festival of discovery,” says Raindance founder Elliot Grove. “Ever since Raindance launched back in 1993, year after year Raindance has developed a reputation as the place to discover and be discovered. With our newly determined and defined focus on first and second-time filmmakers, we continue our campaign of championing new voices and the edgy, under-the-radar films that we at Raindance love so much. Come and join our midsummer celebration of the very best new indie cinema and see what you discover. All we are saying is give film a chance.”

For full listing of 32nd Raindance Film Festival, head over to the festival official website . The festival will take place between 19th and 28th June.