The Sundance Film Festival: terrible sidekick for a cowboy, excellent platform for emerging film-makers.
The festival is staged annually in Salt Lake City, championing independent cinema and often catapulting its featured participants to worldwide fame. American Psycho, Reservoir Dogs and Four Weddings & A Funeral all made their debut there. And now, for the 11th year, a little sliver of the festival is making its way over to our shores too, with dozens of films hand-picked by the programmers for a run at the Picturehouse Central cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue.
Taking place from 6th to the 9th of June, it’s a tightly packed programme of some of the most highly commended flicks from the 2024 listings. The line-up is a blend of feature length films, shorts and documentaries, a few highlights of which include…
- Dìdi (弟弟) – written & directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sean Wang, this is a look at how a young Tawianese-American boy navigates the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. You know, about the time of the tech boom.
- Handling the Undead – a good ol’ Norwegian zombie movie in which, during an abnormally hot summer day in Oslo, a strange electric field surrounds the city as a collective migraine spreads across town…
- I Saw the TV Glow – Owen is apparently just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show – the kind that produces visions of a supernatural world beneath their own.
- My Old Ass – a girl taking mushrooms on her 18th birthday experience a vision of her 39-year-old self, played by the sublimely wisecracking Aubrey Plaza.
- Your Monster – after her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds a terrifying, yet weirdly charming, monster living in her closet.
- Never Look Away – a biography of the fearless CNN combat camerawoman Margaret Moth.
There’ll be a whole bunch of short films, and there’s also going to be a surprise film too (previous years have included the likes of Bodies Bodies Bodies and American Animals). You can book tickets to individual screenings now, but, since it’s a festival, there’s also the option to go for passes that give you access to multiple films. There’s also set to be a whole programme of industry talks, discussions and masterclasses hosted by some of the most interesting names in the biz, all of which will be announced shortly…
…if you want to hear from some reel professionals.
NOTE: Sundance Film Festival: London 2024 has now taken place. Don’t miss the next Nudge Member perk – take membership for a spin with a free trial.
PREVIOUS PERK: Nudge Members got 50% off tickets to Sundance Film Festival: London 2024.
Sundance Film Festival: London 2024 | Picturehouse Central, Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7DH
Love film? Peruse our guide to London’s best cinemas