London’s Raindance Film Festival will present its most expansive program since the pandemic, screening 70 narrative and documentary features June 18–27 at Vue Piccadilly. That marks a 90 percent increase over last year’s roster. The event opens with Christopher M. Anthony’s boxing drama Heavyweight and concludes with Camilla Guttner’s student-focused drama The Academy.
Festival founder Elliot Grove celebrated the broad selection: “Raindance has built a reputation for championing films that might be overlooked elsewhere. Launching with a British debut about a wildcard boxer feels entirely fitting.”
Opening Night: Heavyweight
Heavyweight follows a rising fighter (Nicholas Pinnock) whose chance in the ring coincides with personal struggles outside it. Co-starring Jason Isaacs and Jordon Bolger, the film had its world premiere at Raindance. Anthony penned the screenplay to explore ambition and sacrifice, shooting on location in UK gyms and community centres.
Closing Night: The Academy
Camilla Guttner’s The Academy tracks an art student (Maja Bons) navigating competition, creativity and self-doubt at a prestigious London art school. The international premiere promises a portrait of ambition within the city’s vibrant art scene.
International Competition Highlights
A nine-film slate offers world, international and European premieres:
DREAM! (Paul Spurrier, Thailand) World Premiere
A lavish musical set at Christmas, it charts a girl’s journey across Thailand to find a new family.GRANNY MUST DIE (Yi Jung Chen, Taiwan) International Premiere
A dark comedy about three generations squashed into a Taipei flat.LOVE SONG FROM HIROSHIMA (Hideyuki Tokigawa, Japan) European Premiere
A benevolent alien arrives in modern Hiroshima to promote peace.NAWI: DEAR FUTURE ME (Vallentine Chelluget et al., Kenya) UK Premiere
Kenya’s Oscar entry examines child marriage through a teen’s quest to reclaim her schooling dream.NO BEAST. SO FIERCE. (Burhan Qurbani, Poland/France/Germany) UK Premiere
An update of Richard III set in Berlin’s underworld, led by Kenda Hmeidan’s scheming heroine.PATERNAL LEAVE (Alissa Jung, Germany/Italy) UK Premiere
A teen’s search for her unknown father takes her to Italy’s northern coast.SHAKESPEARE’S THE TEMPEST (Garret Replogle, USA) European Premiere
A marooned captain on a desert planet enacts revenge on a mutinous crew.SRISHTI (Paul Antar, India) World Premiere
A photographer investigates a childhood guilt narrative amid Himalayan rubbish-heap communities.TAPE (Bizhan Tong, UK/Hong Kong) UK Premiere
A Cantonese update of Linklater’s cult thriller reunites friends who must confront buried secrets.
Additional Fiction Strands
Black comedy The Party’s Over (Elena Manrique, Spain/Belgium) explores class and hospitality when a Senegalese immigrant upends a divorcée’s life. Trauma drama Wet Monday (Justyna Mytnik, Poland) follows a teen’s struggle with water anxiety after assault.
Documentary Program
Raindance will unveil six Netflix Documentary Talent Fund shorts alongside features such as Beam Me Up, Sulu, profiling George Takei; Children in the Fire, sharing voices of wounded Ukrainian youth; I Hope This Helps!, charting early AI chatbots; and The Social Trap: 5 Women vs The Big 5, which examines social-media impacts on mental health.
UK-Focused Features
Local interest titles include Breakwater (Max Morgan), a cross-generational fishing romance; The Rendlesham UFO: The British Roswell (Roderick Godman), investigating the 1980 forest sighting; and Row (Matthew Losasso), a thriller about a failed trans-Atlantic rowing attempt.
Horror Showcase
The genre lineup spans US slasher Deformelody: An American Nightmare; UK thriller Dirty Boy (Doug Rao); interactive audience-choice film The Run (Paul Raschid); and international entries such as Bangladesh’s Dui Shaw and Kazakhstan’s Zhaza.
Raindance Immersive
Canon Europe returns as main sponsor for Raindance Immersive, marking a decade of XR storytelling with 32 projects on display at the Canon Lounge in One Ninetyfour Piccadilly.
Jury Assembly
A 20-member jury features actors Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Ashley Walters, Cristo Fernández, Emily Beecham, Iain Glen and Jason Flemyng; directors Ng Choon Ping and Waad Al-Kateab; writer-director Sam Crane; producer Kemal Akhtar; and others from production design, film criticism and festival programming.
As an Academy-qualifying event, winners of Raindance’s short-film categories become eligible for Oscar consideration.
