James R | On 29, Oct 2020

Today sees the Raindance Film Festival kick off proper, with 10 days dedicated to showcasing the brightest of new indie film from around the world. With 50 film premieres playing in cinemas and online until 7th November, there are some star-studded titles on offer, from Jude Law and Rafferty Law’s new short, The Hat, and Here Are the Young Men, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, both playing in person at the festival.

But there’s a diverse line-up worth watching online too, from a tense drama starring George MacKay to recent winners at the Venice Film Festival and Locarno, not to mention a documentary profiling Belgian health workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic in Belgium and a follow-up to Lost in La Mancha. And there’s also a chance, on the final day of the fest, to catch unofficial David Bowie biopic Stardust online.

All films are geo-blocked to the UK and are available to stream for free, with pay-what-you-can donations encouraged throughout. For more information on the festival, including the full feature film line-up and how it works, click here.

Not sure where to start? We’ve picked out 19 films to check out at this year’s Raindance Film Festival:

Nuclear

George MacKay stars in the feature debut from Cannes Un Certain Regard and Welsh BAFTA award-winning short filmmaker Catherine Linstrum.

Streaming: 30th October, 6.30pm

Thou Shalt Not Hate

A double winner at Venice Film Festival, Alessandro Gassmann plays the son of a Holocaust survivor working as a surgeon in Trieste, who begins to doubt his actions after refusing to help the victim of a traffic accident that he encounters on his way home from work.

Streaming: 6th November, 6pm

My Thoughts Are Silent

A champion at festivals including Karlovy Vary, this oddball drama follows an over-tall sound engineer and his diminutive mother, as they head to the mountains to record the sound of a very rare bird.

Streaming: 1st November, 12pm / 1st November, 6.45pm

Madame

Using private archive footage, this family saga challenges the taboos of gender and sexuality as a flamboyant 90-year old and her gay grandson explore the development and transmission of gender identity in a patriarchal environment.

Streaming: 31st October, 5.30pm / 1st November, 1pm

He Dreams of Giants

Following their 2002 documentary Lost In La Mancha, filmmakers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe return to follow Terry Gilliam’s new (successful) attempt at filming The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

Streaming: 31st October, 7pm / 2nd November, 2pm

I Am Not a Hero

Timely and often harrowing portrayal of Belgian health workers combating COVID-19.

Streaming: 28th October – 7th November

The Ties

A marriage-in-crisis drama set in Naples and Rome, with a cast including Alba Rohrwacher (Venice Best Actress award winner for Hungry Hearts) and Luigi Lo Cascio.

Streaming: 28th October – 7th November

Nafi’s Fatther

A double-winner at Locarno Film Festival (Best First Feature & Golden Leopard: Filmmakers of the Present), it’s the story of an Imam and his powerful extremist brother as they fight over a family marriage, illustrating how a small village community can drift towards extremism.

Streaming: 3rd November, 5pm / 5th November, 12pm

Willow

This Academy Award nominated and Venice Golden Lion winning director portrays three women from medieval times and the present as they struggle by various means to become mothers.

Streaming: 5th to 7th November

Stardust

Starring Johnny Flynn (Emma, Beast) as a young David Bowie embarking on his first trip to America, Stardust is far from an authorised biopic of the music icon – and doesn’t even feature any Bowie songs. But with Flynn repeatedly impressing on screen, there’s more than enough curiosity surrounding this oddity to put it on our watchlist.

Streaming: 6th November, 5.30pm

In The Shadow It Waits: Special Live Film

Especially for Halloween night, a Raindance version of Michael Beets critically acclaimed psychological horror: performed, shot and edited live with actors performing in real-time in their homes in Australia – a rare experience, tailor-made for these unprecedented times.

Streaming: 31st October, 6pm

The Dilemma of Desire

Executive produced by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple, it follows four women artists/activists who aim to shatter myths by celebrating the clitoris and female sexual pleasure.

Streaming: 1st November, 5.30pm

April 7, 1980

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Nadav Schirman (The Green Prince) directs this tense hostage drama set in a Kibbutz nursery.

Streaming: 28th October – 7th November

The Woman with Leopard Shoes

Pared-back Hitchcock-style thriller about a burglar who is hired by a mysterious woman to steal a box from a house, but the sudden arrival of party guests forces him to hide.

Streaming: 28th October – 7th November

The Great Green Wall

Executive produced by Oscar-nominee Fernando Meirelles (City of God), it follows Malian musician, actress and UN Ambassador, Inna Modja on an epic journey along Africa’s ambitious Great Green Wall.

Streaming: 28th October – 7th November

True North

A young boy must learn to survive when his father disappears and the rest of his family is sent to a notorious political prison camp in North Korea. This powerful animation is the first feature by manga producer and Zen master Eiji Han Shimizu.

Streaming: 28th October – 7th November

The State of Texas vs Melissa

Documenting a life plagued by poverty and prejudice, this is the story of the first Hispanic woman to be sentenced to death in Texas as she faces her last appeal.

Streaming: 28th October – 7th November

Ella Es Cristina

Executive produced by Salma Hayek, the first feature as director by Oscar-winning screenwriter Gonzalo Maza (co-writer of 2018’s Best Foreign Language Film A Fantastic Woman) is the tale of two women in their 30s who are still living like they did in their teenage years.

Streaming: 28th October – 7th November

VR highlights

Raindance has long been a supporter of virtual reality and 360-degree filmmaking, and this year’s festival is no exception, with a VR line-up that includes Sundance theatre piece Scarecrow, docuseries Virtually Speaking and animation Baba Yaga, featuring the voice of Daisy Ridley.

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