Sundance Film Festival London has finally arrived: the four day festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, opens at the Picturehouse Central cinema today (July 6).
The line-up includes feature-length films, shorts and documentaries, and there will be a retrospective of the works of radical filmmaker Gregg Araki, who is closely associated with the New Queer Cinema movement, and who is set to attend some of the special screenings and Q&A sessions.
This year’s films are loosely tied together by the theme of modern love and identity, and have been specially selected for London audiences from the films that were shown at the American Sundance Film Festival. This year’s short films are all dedicated to UK productions: they have either been made in the UK, or are from filmmakers based in the UK.
“These films are provocative, moving, and entertaining, and created by some truly visionary storytellers,” said Joana Vicente, the CEO of Sundance Institute. “We know that alongside a compelling series of conversations and industry programme, it will be an outstanding 10th edition of the Festival.”
“We look forward to celebrating with the London film community... for an exciting 4 days filled with bold and thrilling UK premieres on the big screen, inspiring talks and special guest appearances,” said Clare Binns, the Managing Director of Picturehouse Cinemas.
Here is our pick of some of this year’s highly anticipated films. A full programme can be found here.
Scrapper
The festival will open with Scrapper from London director Charlotte Regan, who cut her teeth making low-budget music videos for rappers. The latest project from Regan, a Sundance Ignite Fellow, is something rather different. The story follows Georgie, an imaginative 12-year-old girl, whose life is turned upside down when her estranged father reappears. Triangle of Sadness‘ Harris Dickinson stars alongside newcomers Lola Campbell and Alin Uzun. Michael Fassbender is one of the film’s executive producers.
Passages
US filmmaker Ira Sachs’s first film since 2019 is a French romance drama starring Ben Whishaw as Martin, Blue Is The Warmest Colour’s Adèle Exarchopoulos as Agathe and Franz Rogowski as Tomas. The story explores the fallout of what happens when Tomas, who has been married to Martin for 15 years, begins a love affair with Agathe. Set in Paris, Sachs dissects physical and emotional attraction as Martin takes his own lover, Tomas becomes jealous, and all their relationships are tested.
Fantastic Machine
This fantastic documentary from filmmakers Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck explores the role that cameras have played in society throughout history. Which admittedly sounds quite boring, until you think about just how rapidly technology has changed, and the fact that cameras go just about everywhere with humans today – they’re in bedrooms, they’re in the wild, they capture seismic political events as well as hilarious private moments. Suddenly the film, which Sundance describes as a “meticulous dissection of image-making” is a study of humans in all their strangeness. Given that Fantastic Machine won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Creative Vision at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and has Ruben Östlund listed as one of its executive producers, it’s guaranteed to be a blast.
Mutt
Mutt, the debut feature of Chilean-Serbian filmmaker Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, tells the story of Feña (Lio Mehiel), a trans man living in New York. The film follows Feña over a chaotic 24 hours. Mehiel won the 2023 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for their astonishing performance.
Past Lives
This A24 film, starring Greta Lee (from Russian Doll) as Nora and Teo Yoo (Decision to Leave) as Hae Sung, is about a woman who reconnects with a childhood friend over a decade after her family emigrated to Canada from South Korea. Nora is a playwriting student in New York and sees that Teo Yoo has been searching for her on social media. They connect and speak, but it’s still years before they are finally reunited when Teo Yoo visits the Big Apple. Even though their lives are extremely disconnected, there is still a lingering romance between the two long lost friends.
You Hurt My Feelings
You Hurt My Feelings, from Friends with Money director Nicole Holofcener, will close the festival. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies star as married couple Beth and Don, whose already strained relationship starts to unravel when Beth, a novelist, overhears her husband honestly reacting to her latest book. Michaela Watkins (Wanderlust), Owen Teague (Gone In The Night), Arian Moayed (Succession) and Jeannie Berlin (Succession) also star.
Rye Lane
This sweet love story from Raine Allen-Miller follows strangers Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) who end up spending a day together after a chance encounter. The story was a hit with the critics, partly because writers Tom Melia and Nathan Bryon did a marvellous job of presenting fleshed out, believable characters, and partly because the film worked as a love letter to Peckham.
“For decades, Richard Curtis has been king of the British rom-com; this film points to a change in the air,” said The Standard. Not one to miss, the screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Raine Allen-Miller, as well as the film’s creative team.
How to buy tickets
Tickets are available for single screenings and events, and entire festival passes can also be purchased. Tickets are now on sale for both and can be bought online here, on the Picturehouse App, by phone on 0871 902 5747, and in person at the Box Office at Picturehouse Central.
Single ticket prices are £17.90 (except Opening / Closing Night Premieres: £19.90) and there are several different concessions available.
There are three festival pass options: the festival pass lite, which is £75 and includes 5 tickets for the festival. The festival pass, which is £130 and includes 10 tickets for the festival, and VIP pass, which is £500 and includes 1 ticket to every film + invite to opening party + special events.
