Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
(Picture: Nick Wall)The London Sundance Film Festival line-up for 2022 has been unveiled this morning, with two anticipated British films opening and closing the event.
Taking place at Picturehouse Central in London’s Soho, as well as cinemas across the UK, the festival will be bookended by the UK premieres of Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, directed by Sundance 2022 Best Director winner Sophie Hyde, and Brian and Charles from British filmmaker Jim Archer.
And fans look out – Good Luck To You, Leo Grande lead actors Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack will be attending the film’s premiere on June 9.
The festival, which will take place from June 9 to 12 has a packed programme which includes 12 feature-length films, short films and special events.
All twelve films feature-length films have been selected from America’s Sundance Film Festival selection in Utah, which took place this January. The feature films will all have their UK premiere at London’s Sundance Film Festival.
The feature-length selection includes Adamma Ebo‘s directorial debut, the dark comedy horror Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul, starring Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown and Nicole Beharie, Andrew Seamans’ psychological thriller Resurrection, and Hatching, a mother-daughter relationship tale from director Hanna Bergholm.
Lena Dunham will also be showing her second feature film Sharp Stick. The hotly awaited follow up to Tiny Furniture tells the story of a naive 26-year-old who begins an affair with her older employer.
There are some fascinating documentaries on the roster: We Met In Virtual Reality by director Joe Hunting was filmed entirely inside the world of VR; Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love is a National Geographic Documentary about intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, and Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s Free Sol Choo Lee is about Asian Americans uniting to fight for the freedom of the wrongly convicted Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee.
There will also be a Short Film Programme where two wide-ranging collections of short films from around the world are shared as part of either the Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour or the UK Shorts Program.
The Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour is a 95-minute programme of seven films, including three festival award winners. The short film tour has been running for almost 40 years and is considered a launchpad for independent filmmakers. The UK Shorts Program is a Sundance collection of some of its favourite short films from UK-based films or filmmakers.
For shorts you can expect to enjoy Warsha, Dania Bdeir’s film about a Syrian migrant working on a dangerous crane in Lebanon, You Go Girl! from Shariffa Ali, about a New York City comedian in Oregon, and Training Wheels from Alison Rich, about a woman who rents a man.
Other shorts include Mika Watkins’s Don’t Forget, John Ogunmuyiwa’s Precious Hair and Beauty, Seemab Gul’s Sandstorm / Mulaqat and Renee Zhan’s Soft Animals.
Across the UK, film fans can also take part in the festival: Good Luck To You, Leo Grande will also be playing at upwards of 30 cinemas across the country between June 9 - 12 .
The festival’s programme includes an international lineup of British, Finnish, French, Australian, Emirati, Indonesian, Canadian, Lebanese and American filmmakers.
Festival Producer ââWendy Mitchell said: “Sundance Film Festival: London is shaping up to be a banner edition. I’m so excited for the film programme the team has curated, which really does have something for everyone.”
“We’re excited to be back in London to present a great selection of work from our Utah Festival program to the wonderful audiences at Picturehouse Central,” said Tabitha Jackson, Sundance Film Festival Director.
“Alongside some truly original voices and perspectives on the screen, we’re looking forward to joining filmmakers and an array of industry players for some illuminating conversations about the present and future possibilities of independent cinema. And there’ll be fun of course. And cocktails.”
Festival passes are on sale now and festival tickets for general admission are on sale from Tuesday 3 May.
