{"id":473875,"date":"2026-05-07T23:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T23:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473875\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T23:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T23:56:18","slug":"heated-rivalry-star-connor-storrie-to-open-raindance-with-april-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473875\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Heated Rivalry’ Star Connor Storrie to Open Raindance With ‘April X’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe 34th Raindance Film Festival<\/a> will open with the U.K. premiere of Michel K. Parandi\u2019s sci-fi thriller \u201cApril X\u201d and close with the European premiere of Kirsty Bell\u2019s documentary \u201cEddie Cochran<\/a>: Don\u2019t Forget Me.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cApril X,\u201d a multi-award winner on the international festival circuit, stars Connor Storrie<\/a> (\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d) and Lilly Krug (\u201cShattered,\u201d \u201cPlane\u201d) as twins Bax and April. When April vanishes, her brother combs a post-Soviet cityscape in search of her, a journey that drives him toward psychological breakdown. Vertigo Releasing is set to distribute the film across the U.K. and Ireland in September.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re honored for \u2018April X\u2019 to open Raindance,\u201d producer Lavinia Postolache said. \u201cIt\u2019s a festival that champions bold, independent voices, and it feels like the perfect home for a story rooted in identity, guilt, and the complexity of human connection.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe June 17 opening night at Vue West End in Leicester Square will also include the first and exclusive festival screening of the Gorillaz<\/a> animated short \u201cThe Mountain, the Moon Cave and the Sad God,\u201d directed by Jamie Hewlett, Timothy McCourt, and Jonathan Djob Nkondo. The film accompanies the English virtual band\u2019s most recent album, \u201cThe Mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBell\u2019s closing gala documentary is the first official biography of rock and roll icon Eddie Cochran, produced with the blessing of the Cochran family estate. The film comes from the Academy Award-winning producers behind \u201cQuant\u201d and \u201cRonnie\u2019s,\u201d and traces Cochran\u2019s trajectory from country music roots to rock and roll pioneer whose influence extended to artists including the Beatles, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, and Yungblud. Cochran died at 21.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018I\u2019m incredibly honoured to bring \u2018Don\u2019t Forget Me\u2019 to Raindance,\u2019 Bell said. \u201cThis film was made with enormous love and respect for Eddie, his family and the generations of artists he inspired \u2013 so sharing it with a festival that truly champions independent voices means a great deal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCochran will also receive a posthumous Raindance Icon Award, destined to join his other trophies on display at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\n\tBell\u2019s feature debut, \u201cA Bird Flew In,\u201d had its world premiere at Raindance in 2021. \u201cAs a festival that champions emerging filmmakers, Raindance is thrilled to open the 34th edition with \u2018April X,\u2019 a bold and brilliant indie sci-fi from debut director Michel K. Parandi,\u201d said Raindance founder Elliot Grove.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditional program highlights are scheduled to be revealed at the festival\u2019s Cannes event on May 17, with the full lineup announced the following day.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival runs June 17\u201326 in London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 34th Raindance Film Festival will open with the U.K. premiere of Michel K. Parandi\u2019s sci-fi thriller \u201cApril…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,141452,207716,18,117,42283,19,17,207717],"class_list":{"0":"post-473875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-connor-storrie","10":"tag-eddie-cochran","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-gorillaz","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-raindance-film-festival"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116536003013738170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}