{"id":114136,"date":"2025-05-19T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T10:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/114136\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T10:52:09","slug":"boxing-drama-heavyweight-to-open-raindance-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/114136\/","title":{"rendered":"Boxing Drama ‘Heavyweight’ to Open Raindance Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLondon\u2019s Raindance Film Festival<\/a> will kick off its 33rd edition with the world premiere of Christopher M. Anthony\u2019s boxing drama \u201cHeavyweight<\/a>,\u201d starring Nicholas Pinnock, Jason Isaacs, and Jordan Bolger. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival will close with the international premiere of Camilla Guttner\u2019s art school drama \u201cThe Academy<\/a>,\u201d featuring Maja Bons as a student navigating the ruthless terrain of the art world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRaindance is always one to punch above its weight, so it\u2019s appropriate that the festival\u2019s 33rd edition should open with the world premiere of a British debut feature about a wildcard boxer,\u201d said Raindance founder Elliot Grove.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival, running June 18-27 at Vue Piccadilly, marks a significant comeback with 70 narrative and documentary features \u2014 a 90% increase from last year and the first time since 2019 the festival will present so many films.<\/p>\n

\n\tInternational competition highlights include \u201cDream!\u201d (Paul Spurrier, Thailand)<\/a>, a Christmas-set musical following a young girl\u2019s magical journey across Thailand; \u201cGranny Must Die\u201d (Yi Jung Chen, Taiwan), a dark absurdist comedy about three generations living in a tiny Taipei apartment; \u201cLove Song from Hiroshima\u201d (Hideyuki Tokigawa, Japan), a call to peace featuring a benevolent alien wandering present-day Hiroshima; \u201cNawi: Dear Future Me\u201d (Vallentine Chelluget, Apuu Mourine, Kevin Schmutzler, Kenya), focusing on child brides in Africa; and \u201cNo Beast. So Fierce.\u201d (Burhan Qurbani, Poland\/France\/Germany), an adaptation of Richard III with actress Kenda Hmeidan as the daughter of an Arab clan plotting to become boss of the Berlin underworld; <\/p>\n

\n\tCompetition titles also include \u201cPaternal Leave\u201d (Alissa Jung, Germany\/Italy), following a teenage girl\u2019s journey to Italy\u2019s northern coast seeking her unknown biological father; \u201cShakespeare\u2019s The Tempest\u201d (Garret Replogle, U.S\/), where \u201cStar Trek\u201d meets Shakespeare; \u201cSrishti\u201d (Paul Antar, India), about a photographer haunted by childhood guilt; \u201cTape\u201d (Bizhan Tong, U.K.\/Hong Kong), a reimagining of Richard Linklater\u2019s cult classic; \u201cThe Party\u2019s Over\u201d (Elena Manrique, Spain\/Belgium), featuring an award-winning performance by Beatriz Arjona; and \u201cWet Monday\u201d (Justyna Mytnik, Poland), about a teenage girl confronting trauma from sexual assault.<\/p>\n

\n\tDocumentary selections include \u201cBeam Me Up, Sulu\u201d (Timour Gregory, Sasha Schneider, U.S.), exploring the life of \u201cStar Trek\u201d actor George Takei; \u201cChildren in the Fire\u201d (Evgeny Afineevsky, Ukraine), featuring war-wounded Ukrainian children sharing their stories; \u201cGod As My Witness\u201d (Lindsay Q. Pitre, U.S.), exposing secrets within the Archdiocese of New Orleans; \u201cI Hope This Helps!\u201d (Daniel M. Freed, U.S.), exploring AI through Google\u2019s first chatbot; \u201cSaint Damian\u201d (Gregorio Sassoli, Alejandro Cifuentes, Italy), an uncompromising look at homelessness and mental illness; and \u201cThe Social Trap: 5 Women vs The Big 5\u201d (Elisa Jadot, France), examining social media\u2019s impact on mental health.<\/p>\n

\n\tU.K. selections feature \u201cBreakwater\u201d (Max Morgan), a romance between a young Oxford student and a retired angler; \u201cDali\u201d (Mickey Angelov), about a Bulgarian-born American-raised rapper; \u201cEmma: One Last Dance\u201d (Maya Amin-Smith), documenting Emma Hayes\u2019 final months at Chelsea Football Club; \u201cIn Symbiosis\u201d (Helena Berndl, Francesco Maria Gallo), examining the food system; \u201cPoised\u201d (Toby Robson), following MMA in northeast England; \u201cRow\u201d (Matthew Losasso), a thriller about a failed trans-Atlantic rowing record attempt; and \u201cThe Rendlesham UFO: The British Roswell\u201d (Roderick Godman, Mark Christopher Lee), an investigation into the 1980 UFO incident.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe horror strand includes \u201cDeformelody: An American Nightmare\u201d (Joshua Rivera, U.S.), \u201cDirty Boy\u201d (Doug Rao, U.K.) starring Graham McTavish, \u201cDui Shaw\u201d (Nuhash Humayun, Bangladesh), \u201cThe Run\u201d (Paul Raschid, U.S.\/Italy), an interactive film where audiences vote on choices, \u201cWhite Guilt\u201d (Marcus Flemmings, U.K.), and \u201cZhaza\u201d (Darkhan Tulegenov, Kazakhstan).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival also celebrates a decade of XR innovation with the 10th edition of Raindance Immersive, featuring 32 projects. Canon Europe joins as main sponsor, establishing the Canon Lounge industry hub at One Ninetyfour Piccadilly.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival\u2019s jury includes industry figures such as Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Ashley Walters, Cristo Fern\u00e1ndez, Emily Beecham, Iain Glen, and Jason Flemyng.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs an Oscar-qualifying festival, winners of Raindance\u2019s short film categories are eligible for Academy Award consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London\u2019s Raindance Film Festival will kick off its 33rd edition with the world premiere of Christopher M. Anthony\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,20439,3943,51486,38264,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-114136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-heavyweight","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-raindance-film-festival","12":"tag-the-academy","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114534124265154199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}