Good news for fans of American independent cinema and indeed a wealth of filmmaking talent: Sundance is coming to the O2 in London this April, and the line-up has just been announced. The films concerned previewed at the January festival in Park City, Utah - but this will be the first chance to see them anywhere else.
Fourteen films are showing at the Festival. There's Julie Delpy's directorial effort 2 Days In New York, climate change documentary Chasing Ice, Mexican drama Filly Brown, hunger crisis documentary Finding North, Paul Dano-starrer For Ellen, drug-war documentary The House I Live In, Josh Radnor's Liberal Arts, Baltimore-set drama Luv, NYC / LA drama Nobody Walks, the partially animated An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty, American dream dissection The Queen Of Versailles, oddball time-travel discussion in Safety Not Guaranteed, LCD Soundsystem concert movie Shut Up And Play The Hits and Paul Simon-returning-to-Graceland in Under African Skies.
Says Festival founder Robert Redford, “I welcome the opportunity to see how people in the UK experience these films. While they are American productions they speak to universal experiences and global challenges. Sundance London also is the perfect opportunity to continue our long-time commitment to growing a broader international community around new voices and new perspectives.”
Several of these films were award-winners in Park City earlier this year, so it's good that British audiences will get a chance to see them - even if we'd hoped that all the prize winners would make it over here. Still, the Festival in London will also include performances from T-Bone Burnett and Tricky and an audience with Robert Redford, so it's all good. And there's still more to come in the way of short films, music and special events.
For more on the Festival, head on over to the official Sundance London site.