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Blake Simons

Identity, Transformation, and Achievement: Sundance London Returns For Its 2024 Edition



Sundance London
I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun, 2024); image courtesy of Sundance Film Festival: London

Ahead of its arrival at Central London screens in early June, Blake Simons dispatches this year's Sundance line-up and what we should expect from it, from the hotly anticipated to the hidden gems.


From the 6th to the 9th of June at Picturehouse Central, Sundance London presents 11 feature films that played this January’s Sundance Film Festival in Utah and an exciting lineup of shorts, talks, and classics.


The festival opens with the UK premiere of Sean Wang’s Dìdi, a spirited Taiwanese-American coming-of-age dramedy where boys will be boys.


Girls Will Be Girls also, in Shuchi Talati’s tender and emotive feature debut refreshes in giving a voice to young Indian diaspora at Sundance.


One of the most talked-about films of the year online, Jane Schoenbrun’s hotly-anticipated gender dysphoria sci-fi I Saw The TV Glow graces the Picturehouse screens to shine a flickering light and hold a mirror up to spectators brave enough to confront themselves.


A young woman confronts herself more literally in Megan Park’s My Old Ass when an eighteenth birthday shrooms celebration brings her face-to-face with her 39-year-old self.


Thea Hvistendahl’s Handling the Undead reteams The Worst Person in the World stars Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie for an idiosyncratic take on the zombie genre from the novelist behind Let The Right One In.


Sundance London
Girls Will Be Girls (Shuchi Talati, 2024); image courtesy of Sundance Film Festival: London

There’s a duo of unusually hairy creature features in the form of Caroline Lindy’s abnormal romance Your Monster and David and Nathan Zellner’s ensemble bigfoot escapade Sasquatch Sunset.


Also being screened are past Sundance hits (500) Days of Summer (2009), preceded by an introduction from director Marc Webb, British film Under the Skin (1997), screening from 35mm and followed by a Q&A with director Carine Adler, actors Samantha Morton & Rita Tushingham and producer Kate Ogborn, and Kinky Boots (2005), preceded by an introduction from star Chiwetel Ejiofor.


Ejiofor also brings his directorial debut, Rob Peace, a biographical drama about a young man trapped between academic achievement and drug dealing to support his imprisoned father.


Saltburn fans should note that the 40th Anniversary Shorts Programme offers a rare chance to see Emerald Fennell’s debut short Careful How You Go, starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, with the director herself in attendance to introduce the programme.


There’s also the Surprise Film…


Sundance London’s documentaries take us beyond the reaches of our own bravery. Lucy Lawless’ Never Look Away chronicles the warzone reportage of journalist Margaret Moth. Skywalkers: A Love Story follows a couple’s attempt to scale the world’s second-highest skyscraper and perform a death-defying stunt at its peak.


Closing out the festival is the UK premiere of Rich Peppiatt’s offbeat Irish hip-hop comedy Kneecap, starring the titular band as themselves.


For more information and to book tickets go to the Picturehouse website.


 

Edited by Oisín McGilloway, Co-Film & TV Editor


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