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British Independent Film Awards Nominations 2021

Winners will be announced at the BIFA ceremony on Sunday 5 December

The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) have announced the 2021 nominees. This year’s nominees again highlight the wealth of talent and diversity within the British film industry, with 2021’s list featuring some of the greatest names in British cinema and its brightest new talent side by side.

Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s moving autobiographical tale of life as a young boy in Belfast in 1969 in the midst of the Troubles, receives 11 nominations, with a Best Actress nomination for Caitríona Balfe, Best Supporting Actress for Judi Dench, Best Supporting Actor for Ciarán Hinds and a Breakthrough Performance nomination for newcomer Jude Hill. Belfast also receives seven craft nominations, including Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight, Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks & Kodak, Best Editing, Best Make-Up and Hair Design, Best Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group, Best Production Design and another nomination for BIFA 2020’s Best Costume Design winner Charlotte Walter.

Alongside nominations for Best British Independent Film and Best Director, Philip Barantini’s adrenaline-fuelled, single-take Boiling Point, which follows an up-and-coming chef under extreme pressure, scores a Best Actor nomination for Stephen Graham, Best Supporting Actor for Ray Panthaki, Best Supporting Actress for Vinette Robinson and a Breakthrough Performance nomination for Lauryn Ajufo, as well as a Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood Studio Group nomination for Hester Ruoff. Further nominations include Best Casting sponsored by Spotlight & Casting Society, Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks & Kodak, Best Production Design and Best Sound supported by Halo. The short version of the film was nominated at BIFA in 2019.

Debut feature directors Aleem Khan (After Love) and Prano Bailey-Bond (Censor) go head-to-head with their films with nine nominations apiece.

Aleem Khan is the only debut filmmaker to receive a Best British Independent Film nomination this year for his film After Love. Khan also earns nominations for Best Director,Best Screenplay sponsored by BBC Film, The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director)and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4. In the acting categories, Joanna Scanlon picks up Best Actress, Nathalie Richard Best Supporting Actress and Talid Ariss a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Shaheen Baig is nominated for Best Casting sponsored by Spotlight & Casting Society.

Prano Bailey-Bond is nominated for Best Debut Director and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for Censor, her psychological-horror-mystery set in the world of 1980s video nasties, which also receives a nomination for Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood Studio Group for Helen Jones. BIFA 2020 nominees Annika Summerson (Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks and Kodak), Mark Towns (Best Editing) andPaulina Rzeszowska (Best Production Design) score nominations again, with Best Effects, Best Make-Up & Hair and Best Sound supported by Halo also featuring.

The Souvenir Part II also receives nine nominations: Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay sponsored by BBC Film for Joanna Hogg, Best Supporting Actor for Richard Ayoade and Best Supporting Actress for Tilda Swinton. Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Production Design and Best Make-Up & Hair Design round off its nominations.

Clio Barnard is nominated in the Best Director and Best Screenplay sponsored by BBC Film categories for Ali & Ava, which also received a Best British Independent Film nomination, Best Actor for Adeel Akhtar and Best Actress for Claire Rushbrook. Shaheen Baig receives a second nomination for Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight and 2020 nominee Connie Farr gets a nomination for Best Music Universal Music Publishing Groupalongside Harry Escott.

The Richard Harris Award, introduced in 2002 in honour of Richard Harris, recognises outstanding contribution to British Film by an actor. Previous winners have been Daniel Day Lewis, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Emma Thompson, Judi Dench, Kristin Scott Thomas and Glenda Jackson in 2021. This year’s recipient will be announced in the coming weeks, as will the ceremony host and this year’s juries. Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday 5 December

 

The Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor to British Film

TO BE ANNOUNCED

 

Best British Independent Film

AFTER LOVE Aleem Khan, Matthieu de Braconier

ALI & AVA Clio Barnard, Tracy O’Riordan

BOILING POINT Philip Barantini, James Cummings, Bart Ruspoli, Hester Ruoff

THE NEST Sean Durkin, Ed Guiney, Derrin Schlesinger, Rose Garnett, Amy Jackson, Cristina Piovesan

THE SOUVENIR PART II Joanna Hogg, Ed Guiney, Emma Norton, Andrew Lowe, Luke Schiller

 

Best Director 

PHILIP BARANTINI Boiling Point

CLIO BARNARD Ali & Ava

SEAN DURKIN The Nest

JOANNA HOGG The Souvenir Part II

ALEEM KHAN After Love

 

Best Actress

CAITRÍONA BALFE Belfast

CARRIE COON The Nest

CLAIRE RUSHBROOK Ali & Ava

JOANNA SCANLAN After Love

RUTH WILSON True Things

 

Best Supporting Actress

JUDI DENCH Belfast

JO HARTLEY Sweetheart

NATHALIE RICHARD After Love

VINETTE ROBINSON Boiling Point

TILDA SWINTON The Souvenir Part II

 

The Douglas Hickox Award
(Best Debut Director) 

PRANO BAILEY-BOND Censor

CELESTE BELL Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché [also directed by Paul Sng]

CATHY BRADY Wildfire

ALEEM KHAN After Love

MARLEY MORRISON Sweetheart

 

 

Breakthrough Performance

LAURYN AJUFO Boiling Point

NELL BARLOW Sweetheart

MAX HARWOOD Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

JUDE HILL Belfast

ELLORA TORCHIA In the Earth

 

Best Documentary sponsored by Intermission

COW Andrea Arnold, Kat Mansoor

DYING TO DIVORCE Chloë Fairweather, Sinead Kirwan

I AM BELMAYA Sue Carpenter, Christopher Hird

KEYBOARD FANTASIES Posy Dixon, Liv Proctor

POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ Paul Sng, Celeste Bell, Zoë Howe, Rebecca Mark-Lawson, Matthew Silverman, Daria Nitsche

 

Best Screenplay sponsored by BBC Film 

CLIO BARNARD Ali & Ava

TERENCE DAVIES Benediction

SEAN DURKIN The Nest

JOANNA HOGG The Souvenir Part II

ALEEM KHAN After Love

 

Best Actor

RIZ AHMED Encounter

ADEEL AKHTAR Ali & Ava

STEPHEN GRAHAM Boiling Point

JUDE LAW The Nest

JAMES NORTON Nowhere Special

 

Best Supporting Actor

TALID ARISS After Love

RICHARD AYOADE The Souvenir Part II

LUCIAN-RIVER CHAUHAN Encounter

CIARÁN HINDS Belfast

RAY PANTHAKI Boiling Point

 

Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood Studio Group

MICHELLE ANTONIADES Sweetheart

HELEN JONES Censor

JESSICA MALIK She Will [also produced by Bob Last]

HESTER RUOFF Boiling Point [also produced by Bart Ruspoli]

ROB WATSON The Power [also produced by Matthew James Wilkinson]

 

Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4

PRANO BAILEY-BOND Censor [also written by Anthony Fletcher]

CATHY BRADY Wildfire

ALEEM KHAN After Love

MARLEY MORRISON Sweetheart

REGGIE YATES Pirates

 

The Raindance Discovery Award

BANK JOB Daniel Edelstyn, Hilary Powell, Christopher Hird

THE BIKE THIEF Matt Chambers, PK Fellowes, Sophia Gibber, Lene Bausager

I AM BELMAYA Sue Carpenter, Christopher Hird

POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ Paul Sng, Celeste Bell, Zoë Howe, Rebecca Mark-Lawson, Matthew Silverman, Daria Nitsche

REBEL DYKES Harri Shanahan, Siân A. Williams, Siobhan Fahey

 

 

Best British Short Film supported by BFI Network

EGÚNGÚN (MASQUERADE) Olive Nwosu, Alex Polunin

FEMME Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping, Sam Riztenberg, Hayley Williams, Rienjke Attoh

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DREAD Ida Melum, Laura Jayne Tunbridge, Hannah Kelso, Danielle Goff

PLAY IT SAFE Mitch Kalisa, Chris Toumazou

PRECIOUS HAIR & BEAUTY John Ogunmuyiwa, Sophia Gibber, Tony Longe, Lene Bausager

 

Best International Independent Film sponsored by Champagne Taittinger

COMPARTMENT NO. 6 Juho Kuosmanen, Livia Ulman, Andris Feldmanis, Jussi Rantamäki, Emilia Haukka

FIRST COW Kelly Reichardt, Jon Raymond, Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani

FLEE Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Amin Nawabi, Monica Hellstrøm, Signe Byrge Sørensen

PETITE MAMAN Céline Sciamma, Bénédicte Couvreur

PLEASURE Ninja Thyberg, Peter Modestij, Erik Hemmendorff, Eliza Jones, Markus Waltå

 

 

Best Casting sponsored by Spotlight & Casting Society 

SHAHEEN BAIG After Love

SHAHEEN BAIG Ali & Ava

SHAHEEN BAIG Pirates

LUCY BEVAN, EMILY BROCKMANN Belfast

CAROLYN MCLEOD Boiling Point

 

Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks & Kodak 

MÁTYÁS ERDÉLY The Nest

MAGDALENA KOWALCZYK Cow

MATTHEW LEWIS Boiling Point

ANNIKA SUMMERSON Censor

HARIS ZAMBARLOUKOS Belfast

 

Best Costume Design 

MICHAEL O’CONNOR The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

GRACE SNELL The Souvenir Part II

GUY SPERANZA Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

ANNIE SYMONS Benediction

CHARLOTTE WALTER Belfast

 

Best Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing

IAIN COOKE Pirates

CONNIE FARR, HARRY ESCOTT Ali & Ava

JED KURZEL Encounter

CLINT MANSELL In the Earth

VAN MORRISON Belfast

 

Best Effects

STEVEN BRAY, MIKE KNIGHTS Dashcam

GARY BROWN, ISTVÁN MOLNÁR, DAN MARTIN Censor

RUPERT DAVIES The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

 

Best Editing 

HELLE LE FEVRE The Souvenir Part II

REBECCA LLOYD, JACOB SCHULSINGER, NICOLAS CHAUDEURGE Cow

ÚNA NÍ DHONGHAÍLE Belfast

MARK TOWNS Censor

BEN WHEATLEY In the Earth

 

Best Make-Up & Hair

SIOBHAN HARPER-RYAN The Souvenir Part II

VICKIE LANG, KRISTYAN MALLETT, DONALD MCINNES The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

RUTH PEASE Censor

NADIA STACEY Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

WAKANA YOSHIHARA Belfast

 

Best Production Design

JIM CLAY Belfast

STÉPHANE COLLONGE The Souvenir Part II

SUZIE DAVIES The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

AIMEE MEEK Boiling Point

PAULINA RZESZOWSKA Censor

 

Best Sound supported by Halo 

NICOLAS BECKER, CYRIL HOLTZ, LINDA FORSEN Cow

JAMES DRAKE Boiling Point

TIM HARRISON, JAMIE RODEN, ADELE FLETCHER Censor

MARTIN PAVEY In the Earth

ANDREW STIRK, PAUL DAVIES, MORGAN MUSE, BERNARD O’REILLY, JULIAN HOWARTH Encounter

 

BIFA 2021 Craft Winners

To be announced on 19th November 2021

More info:  www.bifa.film

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London

Best Film Award at the 66th BFI London Film Festival

Best Film Award At The 66th BFI London Film Festival

The contenders for the Best Film Award at the 66th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express have been announced. The eight nominated films celebrate passionate and inspired global filmmaking. This year’s Official Competition selection is presented in association with Sight and Sound.

 

Established in 2009 and first won by Jacques Audiard for A Prophet, recent winners of the Best Film Award include Sudabeh Mortezai’s Joy, Alejandro Landes’ Monos and, in 2021, Panah Panahi’s Hit the Road.

The judges will be mulling over the course of the Festival, and all will be revealed at the LFF Awards Ceremony on Sun 16 Oct on BFI YouTube and Facebook.

Argentina, 1985
Dir-Scr. Santiago Mitre
Ricardo Darín stars in this uncompromising political drama, thrillingly recreating one of Argentina’s most legendary trials, which sought to bring the country’s military dictatorship to justice.

Brother
Dir-Scr. Clement Virgo
Clement Virgo’s film is a bold and breathtaking story of brotherly love, set over three separate time periods, in Toronto’s West Indian community.

Corsage
Dir-Scr. Marie Kreutzer
Sissi the Empress gets an irreverent make-over in Austrian director Marie Kreutzer’s exhilarating period drama.

Les Damnés ne pleurent pas
Dir-Scr. Fyzal Boulifa
Fyzal Boulifa follows his arresting debut Lynn + Lucy (LFF 2019) with another striking film about the perils of falling foul of community and social expectations.

Enys Men
Dir-Scr. Mark Jenkin
Bait director Mark Jenkin follows up his acclaimed debut with this chilling, endlessly mysterious folk horror tale, beautifully shot on grainy 16mm.

Godland
Dir-Scr. Hlynur Pálmason
With his third feature, Hlynur Pálmason (A White, White Day) delivers a breathtakingly inventive and ambitious historical epic, set in mid-19th-century Iceland.

Nezough
Dir-Scr. Soudade Kaadan
Soudade Kaadan (The Day I Lost My Shadow, LFF 2018) turns to her Syrian roots for this wry, poignant look at a family forced from their home in Damascus.

Saint Omer
Dir. Alice Diop
Alice Diop reinvents the courtroom drama in this concentrated, gripping study of a writer and the young African woman whose fate comes to fascinate her.

For more information about the film festival, please go to: www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-london-film-festival

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London

BFI London Film Festival 2022 announces complete ‘LFF Expanded’ Immersive Art & Extended Realities line-up

APPARATUS LUDENS – WORLD PREMIERE 2022, UK Sweden, Lead Artist Untold Garden

20 Projects from 17 Countries, a new LFF Commission, 5 World Premieres and 8 UK Premieres presented across multiple venues on London’s South Bank

LONDON, Wednesday 24 August 2022, 11:00 GMT: The 66th BFI London Film Festival, in partnership with American Express, today announces the complete line-up for LFF Expanded, the Festival’s Immersive Art and Extended Realities strand, which runs from 5-16 October 2022.

Programmed by Ulrich Schrauth, the BFI’s Immersive Art and XR Curator, this year’s programme showcases a rich selection of works from creators working at the forefront of emerging technologies, including interactive virtual reality, screen-based installations, augmented reality, mixed reality, immersive audio experience and live performance. The programme is presented in partnership with the National Theatre, and takes place across multiple venues on London’s South Bank; 17 projects will be showcased at LFF Expanded @ 26 Leake Street, the award-winning venue located in the Leake Street graffiti tunnel, while additional projects will be presented at the National Theatre and at BFI Southbank.

The BFI London Film Festival is delighted to announce the World Premiere, commissioned by the LFF, of Guy Maddin’s Haunted Hotel: A Melodrama in Augmented Reality. Presented at BFI Southbank, this evocative, immersive exhibition transports the audience into a surreal paper world, created from an eclectic selection of clippings drawn from Maddin’s own personal archive, set to an intricate soundscape by acclaimed composer Magnus Fiennes.

Ulrich Schrauth, BFI London Film Festival’s Immersive Art and XR Curator, said: “We are thrilled to present this year’s LFF Expanded programme, featuring projects by creators from all over the world and a strong presence of excellent UK talent. LFF Expanded highlights the enormous diversity and vibrancy of the ever-growing international immersive and expanded realities scene, from high-profile international filmmakers who are experimenting with new technologies, to new works from some of the most exciting emerging talent in the field. This year’s programme considers pertinent issues of our time from a hugely diverse range of perspectives and art forms. Furthermore, we are delighted to have worked with legendary filmmaker Guy Maddin to present our first very own BFI London Film Festival commission — Haunted Hotel — a new Augmented Reality work that invites audiences to explore a vibrant tableau of desire, deception and death.”

Guy Maddin, Filmmaker, said: “I’ve long told myself that collage-making is good for keeping my eye sharp for film shoots. After all, the snipper and gluer of papery things arranges those things in a frame, just like a director — pure mise-en-scène! But making collages in Augmented Reality truly is a brain-breaker, another experience completely, with its multiple layers of interest aspiring to draw the viewer ever inward, free-floating non-sequiturs that suggest causal connections and conceal vile secrets, the whole creating an atmosphere thick with uninhibited urges — lustful, homicidal, stupid! In short, collage-making in AR simply is filmmaking, and I’m so delighted to have worked with the BFI London Film Festival to bring this new work to life.”

Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: “We’re electrified by the quality of the work being made for immersive and expanded reality platforms. This is a space where the film industry meets the creative storytelling worlds of art, dance, music, performance and digital design, a space that encourages experimentation, cross-pollination and collaboration. There is a particularly lively and vibrant scene for immersive art in the UK, and we are really excited to give audiences a chance to follow artists and filmmakers on these journeys.”

This year marks the third year of LFF Expanded at the BFI London Film Festival. Launched in 2020 as part of the Festival’s plans for development, this new showcase of Immersive and XR works sits alongside the 66 year-old Festival’s established film programme. It is also joined by a curated selection of new series and television, a refreshed industry programme and greater UK-wide and free access for audiences.

LFF Expanded 2022 brings together 20 projects from 17 countries across the world (Canada, China, Czechia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, Ukraine and USA). 12 works are from the UK (including co-productions), and 13 projects have lead artists that identify as women or with mixed gender production teams. This year’s programme also shines a light on some of the most urgent social and political issues of our time, with works exploring vital topics such as women’s reproductive rights, the climate emergency, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the nuclear threat and the opioid crisis.

The BFI is also proud to have supported two of the projects presented at LFF Expanded through the BFI Film Fund (awarding National Lottery funding), in line with the BFI’s ongoing commitment and ambition to engage with new forms of immersive storytelling. Presented in the Wolfson Gallery at the National Theatre, In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats is a multi-sensory, interactive virtual reality experience by award-winning filmmaker Darren Emerson, which places audiences inside the heart of the Acid House movement. On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World) is a powerful virtual reality documentary that combines innovative storytelling and virtual production techniques to recreate the lived experiences of the people of Hawai’i, who were forced to make impossible decisions in the face of impending nuclear violence.

Also presented at the National Theatre is the World Premiere of the fully immersive version of Intravene, a project that is the result of a groundbreaking partnership between Darkfield, Brenda Longfellow and Crackdown immersive and documentary artists and those working on the frontline of the drugs crisis. Set inside a shipping container on Theatre Square in front of the National Theatre, Intravene uses binaural 360 degree sound to plunge listeners into the heart of the overdose crisis in Vancouver, giving voice to the people most affected by it: users and frontline workers.

A dedicated Immersive Art and XR Award will also be announced at a special virtual LFF Awards Ceremony event on Sunday 16 October on BFI YouTube and on social media. A selection of works will be featured on the Oculus TV app as part of a LFF Expanded spotlight, available for users with Oculus headsets at home to watch for free from 5-23 October.

Guy Maddin’s Haunted Hotel will also remain at BFI Southbank until 30 October 2022, accompanied by special screenings of three of his best-loved works in late October.

LFF EXPANDED 2022 IMMERSIVE ART AND XR PROGRAM:

ALL UNSAVED PROGRESS WILL BE LOST – UK PREMIERE

2022, France, Lead artist: Mélanie Courtinat

Acclaimed French visual artist Mélanie Courtinat’s striking work deals with the terrifying events that have led to the evacuation of a whole town in an undisclosed country. The narrator virtually present through the narration of her poem within the experience tells her own story of loss and abandonment, set against the backdrop of a gradually changing landscape whose abstract visual references keep the territory anonymous. An urgent and unidentified threat permeates the experience, allowing the viewer to meditate on and project their own fears through the work.

All unsaved progress will be lost – uk premiere 2022, france, lead artist mélanie courtinat

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 10 minutes

APPARATUS LUDENS – WORLD PREMIERE

2022, UK-Sweden, Lead Artist: Untold Garden

This groundbreaking digital adventure from Max Čelar and Jakob Skote, the team behind Untold Garden, invites visitors to enter into a conversation with an artificial intelligence. By harvesting the vast amount of data we leave online, the anonymous interlocutor gradually unfolds a virtual landscape on the screen before us. By asking seemingly random questions, the project uses the latest technical developments (such as text-to-image creation and text-to-voice generation) to craft a unique and lyrical personal narrative. Čelar and Skote’s work raises questions about who owns individual virtual footprints and how we want to be perceived by an ever-changing labyrinth of personal data.

Apparatus ludens – world premiere 2022, uk sweden, lead artist untold garden

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 15 minutes

A MIGHTY MASS EMERGES – UK PREMIERE

2022, Switzerland-France-Italy, Lead Artist: Wu Tsang

Following on from her acclaimed Moby Dick series, filmmaker and artist Wu Tsang delivers her first VR work, journeying into the depths of our oceans. As part of Venice Biennale 2022, Tsang presented the generative digital art installation Of Whales, which engages with the themes and narrative of Herman Melville’s seafaring classic. Her follow-up work, the artist’s first VR experience, invites audiences to observe the vast wonders of the marine world, all from the perspective of a whale. Becoming part of an environment, rather than a detached outsider, A Mighty Mass Emerges asks us to engage in new ways with an expanse that makes up the majority of our planet’s surface.

A mighty mass emerges – uk premiere 2022, switzerland france italy, lead artist wu tsang

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 13 minutes

AS MINE EXACTLY

2022, UK, Lead Artist: Charlie Shackleton

In this Virtual Reality live performance, Charlie Shackleton (Beyond Clueless, The Afterlight) takes audiences on a journey into his late childhood and the upsetting events that defined it. Blending Virtual Reality and performance film, documentary filmmaker Charlie Shackleton literally invents a new film genre in the way he shares this deeply personal story with one visitor at a time. He uses fragments of original footage and pictures from his youth to revisit events that shaped his young teenage life centering on the medical condition of his mother streaming them live into a VR Headset to immerse the viewer fully into the story. Shackleton narrates the story live, even ‘conversing’ with his mother, who is present as a voice through a speaker in the room. The result is a thrilling creative journey that exists between conventional filmmaking and virtual live performance.

As mine exactly 2022, uk, lead artist charlie shackleton

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 30 minutes

THE CHOICE – UK PREMIERE

2021, Canada-Poland, Lead Artist: Joanne Popinska

A powerful and provocative VR documentary, focusing on questionable decisions and lawmaking around reproductive rights and abortion in the US, based on a true story. The ongoing debate surrounding the controversial response to Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Court earlier this year reveals a country deeply divided over the abortion debate. In this extraordinary VR-documentary, Kristen, a young First Nation woman from Texas, discusses her pregnancy and the painful process she underwent due to provocative legislation, the severe danger to her health notwithstanding. The Choice intelligently employs documentary techniques with cutting-edge digital animation to convey Kristen’s troubling story and to engage with the wider debate regarding women’s rights.

The choice – uk premiere 2021, canada poland, lead artist joanne popinska

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 25 minutes

BLACK MOVEMENT LIBRARY – MOVEMENT PORTRAITS – INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

2022, USA, Lead Artist: LaJuné McMillian

The Black Movement Library is a repository for activists, performers and artists to create diverse XR projects, as well as a space to research how and why we move, and an archive of Black existence. What happens when we ritualise the archival process of data collection and invite the community as a witness? This is the question LaJuné McMillan, a young Black creator from New York, has explored in her first fully developed XR project. She embedded interviews with five performers into immersive environments that feature richly textured soundscapes, through which the artists move in their own style. It enables audience to explore the artists’ respective practices and to see how Black movement has been used as a tool for the preservation of Black culture, as well as a vehicle of self-development.

Black movement library – movement portraits – international premiere 2022, usa, lead artist lajuné mcmillian

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 22 minutes

DIGITAL MOTIONS – UK PREMIERE

2022, Germany, Lead Artists: Helge Letonja, Marcel Karnapke, Björn Lengers, Anke Euler

German artist collective Cyberräuber invites audiences to shape and transform a virtual space through dance and movement. This collaboration between German artist collective Cyberräuber and the visionary dance ensemble Of Curios Nature has led to an exciting interrogation of the connection between the body, virtual space and interactive design. Digital Motions invites the audience to playfully interact with the virtual dancers perceived as avatars and their movement across various scenes. Each visitor creates his or her own experience in virtual reality, defining the boundaries between viewer and dancing avatar. The VR world, with its potentially unlimited technology, enables the formation of new perspectives on space, body and movement, and conveys to audiences how dancers and performers perceive them.

Digital motions – uk premiere 2022, germany, lead artists helge letonja, marcel karnapke, björn lengers, anke euler

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 8-25 mins

 

FRAMERATE: PULSE OF EARTH – UK PREMIERE

2022, UK, Lead Artists: Matthew Shaw, William Trossell, ScanLAB Projects

London-based studio ScanLab’s poetic screen-based installation, derived from thousands of 3D-Scans of British landscapes, reveals a country in flux. ScanLab projects (Adult Children and Eternal Return, LFF 2021) have built their reputation through digitally replicating our world real-life objects, landscapes and events seen through the perspective of 3D-scanning. Framerate: Pulse of Earth invites audiences to bear witness to a changing environment caused by the friction between human-centred industry and the immense forces of nature. Destruction, extraction, habitation, construction, harvests, growth and erosion are presented as a shared immersive experience. Created from thousands of daily 3D time-lapse scans of British landscapes, the work observes change on a scale impossible to see with traditional filmmaking techniques. Stories are brought to life across a series of screens, accompanied by the captivating sound design of Pascal Wyse.

Framerate pulse of earth – uk premiere 2022, uk, lead artists matthew shaw, william trossell, scanlab projects

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 24 minutes

HAUNTED HOTEL – A MELODRAMA IN AUGMENTED REALITY – WORLD PREMIERE

2022, Germany, Lead Artist: Guy Maddin

A hauntingly immersive exhibition by acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin that ruminates on the manifold permutations of desire, deception and death. Unravelling across eight three-dimensional collages and true to his avant-garde style, Guy Maddin delicately enfolds his audience in surreal paper worlds and in the process exploring the hidden layers that comprise human nature. Embracing an eclectic selection of clippings from his personal archive, the director of My Winnipeg and The Saddest Music in the World includes familiar pop-culture figures alongside ecstatic 1960s nudists and frightened film noir characters. Find out what’s stirring behind closed doors via virtual peep holes and leaf through rooms filled with longing, hysteria and madness, all set to an intricate soundscape by acclaimed composer Magnus Fiennes.

Haunted hotel – a melodrama in augmented reality – world premiere 2022, germany, lead artist guy maddinPresentation Location: BFI Southbank / Duration: 20 minutes

 

THE INFINITE LIBRARY – UK PREMIERE

2022, India-Germany-Czech Republic, Lead Artist: Mika Johnson

Commissioned by the Goethe Institute, The Infinite Library is a traveling installation that imagines the future of libraries as interactive spaces, engaging visitors through multi-sensory forms of storytelling. It seeks to embed human stories within a grander narrative, one that includes the birth of our planet and the evolution of all life forms. The ‘Library’ element of the installation is conceived as a living organism an embodiment of knowledge that introduces itself to visitors personally, before inviting them to explore its environs and wealth of information. The installation includes a QR code game, holograms, 3D-printed models in jars and the overall project’s central work: a vast VR library located in a cave.

The infinite library – uk premiere 2022, india germany czech republic, lead artist mika johnson

Presentation Location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 25 minutes

IN PURSUIT OF REPETITIVE BEATS

2022, UK, Lead Artist: Darren Emerson

Award-winning filmmaker Darren Emerson’s project invites audiences to search for an illegal rave, over one night in Coventry in 1989. From poster-strewn bedrooms and pirate-radio stations to a police headquarters and empty warehouse events, you take the place of rave-culture pioneers as you go in search of a party. Combining Acid House tracks with interactivity and multi-sensory simulation, In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats brings to life the stories of the ravers, promoters and police officers, whose rivalries and relationships drove a revolution in music and society. The development of this project was supported by the National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio.

Jointly presented by BFI London Film Festival and IDFA DocLab. The work will be showcased from 5-16 October in London and then presented in Amsterdam until 20 November.

In pursuit of repetitive beats 2022, uk, lead artist darren emerson

Presentation location: The Wolfson Gallery, the National Theatre / Duration: 35 minutes

 

INTRAVENE – WORLD PREMIERE

2022, UK-Canada, Lead Artists: Darkfield, Crackdown, Brenda Longfellow

Sound artist collective Darkfield return to the LFF with an immersive audio experience that grapples with the overdose crisis in Vancouver. Intravene uses binaural 360-degree sound to plunge listeners into the heart of an urgent issue. This project is the result of a groundbreaking partnership between Darkfield, Brenda Longfellow and Crackdown – immersive and documentary artists and those working on the frontline of the drugs crisis. The voices within Intravene are taken from interviews by Crackdown, amplifying the testimonies of drug users, telling the story of the Vancouver drug crisis from the perspective of those most severely impacted by it. After its audio-only premiere at Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, Darkfield presents the World Premiere of the fully immersive version.

Intravene – world premiere 2022, uk canada, lead artists darkfield, crackdown, brenda longfellowPresentation location: Theatre Square, National Theatre / Duration: 30 minutes

 

THE LAST TIME I SAW SNOW

2022, UK, Lead Artists: Isobel Mascarenhas-Whitman, Alex Tennyson

In this mixed reality installation, digital projections and augmented reality join forces to convey a powerful story of human destruction and global climate change. Employing AI, augmented reality, projection mapping and a bespoke software system that trigger practical effects within a given space, The Last Time I Saw Snow allows the audience to become explorers, wandering a depopulated future. This mind-bending installation by London-based artists Isobel Mascarenhas-Whitman and Alex Tennyson creates a dystopian future, where destabilized climate conditions have led to uncontrollable sea levels, driving humanity to the fringes of an ecosystem they had previously sought to control. This cutting-edge digital installation plays with our perception of the world and invites us to revisit our thoughts and beliefs about our immediate future.

The last time i saw snow 2022, uk, lead artists isobel mascarenhas whitman, alex tennyson

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 15 minutes

LINE OF CONTACT – WORLD PREMIERE

2022, Netherlands-UK-Ukraine, Lead Artist: Dani Ploeger

Visual artist Dani Ploeger takes us virtually to the frontline of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict to highlight our alarmingly vague perception of war and armed confrontations. Over the last eight years, the work of Dutch artist and activist Dani Ploeger has been pre-occupied with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the early days of fighting, he travelled to Mariupol, accompanying a group of Ukrainian soldiers and recording the seemingly endless waiting they had to endure. This footage has now been transformed into a powerful VR experience, presented on a custom-made headset. The device tracks the visitors’ eye movement, triggering an accompanying soundscape, resulting in a thought-provoking confrontation with the perfidious methodology of war.

Line of contact – world premiere 2022, netherlands uk ukraine, lead artist dani ploeger

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: Continuous loop

MONOLITHS

2022, UK, Lead Artists: Lucy Hammond, Hannah Davies, Asma Elbadawi, Carmen Marcus

An insightful exploration of three very different personal stories from women living in the north, filmmaker and producer Lucy Hammond embellishes upon them through footage shot in the region. Central to it are three monoliths – standing stones, whose symbolic power becomes increasingly important as the women talk. Moreover, the narratives and the landscapes – where the women grew up – become inseparable as Hammond’s work progresses. The artist produces images of striking beauty, which only adds to the emotional power of the piece – a rumination on how landscapes can be radical spaces for expression and reflection.

Monoliths 2022, uk, lead artists lucy hammond, hannah davies, asma elbadawi, carmen marcus

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 11 minutes

MISSING PICTURES EP. 3: CATHERINE HARDWICKE: THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG – UK PREMIERE

2022, France-UK-Taiwan-Luxembourg-South Korea, Lead Artists: Clément Deneux

This is the third of five VR documentaries, directed by Clement Deneux, focusing on an acclaimed and singular filmmaker and the project that got away from them. Following on from the presentation of episode one, featuring Abel Ferrara, at LFF 2020, and episode two, with Tsai Ming-Liang, at LFF 2021, this latest episode focuses on Catherine Hardwicke, director of Thirteen and Twilight. Following the success of Twilight in 2008, the filmmaker attempted to adapt Edward Abbey’s cult 1970’s environmental activist thriller The Monkey Wrench Gang. In this immersive film, Hardwicke revisits this personal project, which studios were eventually too reluctant to support. In her discussion, she highlights the challenge women have faced as filmmakers in Hollywood and the challenges that still lie ahead, while outlining what her dream film would have looked like.

Missing pictures ep 3 catherine hardwicke the monkey wrench gang – uk premiere lead artists clément deneux

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 11 minutes

 

ON THE MORNING YOU WAKE (TO THE END OF THE WORLD)

2022, UK-France-USA, Lead Artists: Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Arnaud Colinart, Pierre Zandrowicz

Based on a true story, this immersive documentary details how the occupants of Hawai’i faced the devastating reality of an imminent nuclear attack. This powerful, award-winning VR experience, produced by Archers Mark (Mike Brett and Steve Jamison), combines unsettling witness testimonials and texts by world-renown Hawaiian poet Jamaica H. Osorio to explore the shadow of the nuclear threat and terrors of war in an increasingly instable political world.

On the morning you wake (to the end of the world) 2022, uk france usa, lead artists jamaica heolimeleikalani osorio, mike brett, steve jamison, arnaud colinart, pierre zandrowicz

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 38 minutes

PAN + TILT – WORLD PREMIERE

2022, UK, Lead Artists Ruth Gibson, Bruno Martelli

Choreographer Ruth Gibson and VR artist Bruno Martelli have joined forces with composer Nic Nell to invent a holographic universe, inspired by the extraordinary legacy of Joan Skinner (1924-2021), an American choreographer, teacher and former dancer with the Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham companies. In this exciting world-premiere, Gibson/Martelli (Dazzle: Solo, LFF 2020) create an experience for two visitors at a time, placing them into a visual landscape that triggers imagination and exploration through motion, by means of Motion Capture technique and Machine Learning processes. The experience is unique to each participant, as panoramic gaze transforms into somatic sensation.

Pan + tilt – world premiere 2022, uk, lead artists ruth gibson, bruno martelli

Presentation Location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 25 minutes

PLANET CITY – UK PREMIERE

2022, USA-China, Lead Artists: Liam Young, Kayvan Boudai, Eilliot Ordower, James Clar

A VR experience set in an imaginary city of 10 billion people, encompassing the entire population of the planet, where every culture co-exists in peace. Architect and filmmaker Liam Young has stirred international conversations with his recent book Planet City. It imagines a vast metropolis hosting the world’s population, allowing the rest of the planet to grow wild and untethered to mankind’s meddling. Young’s multi-disciplinary project plays out here as an immersive VR experience. By confronting the environmental crisis facing us, Young conveys a story of a generation taking back a future that has been stolen from them and presents a hopeful vision of it. Supported by The Barbican Centre, London.

Planet city – uk premiere 2022, usa china, lead artists liam young, kayvan boudai, eilliot ordower, james clar

Presentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 7 minutes

WALZER – WORLD PREMIERE

2021, Netherlands, Lead Artists: Frieda Gustavs, Leo Erken

Composer and performance artist Frieda Gustavs collaborates with visual artist and photography collector Leo Erken on this thought-provoking VR experience. A complex, three-dimensional virtual collage is created out of thousands of old photographs gleaned from private collections, online marketplaces and flea markets. It serves as a backdrop for non-linear narratives encompassing women’s rights and the first wave of feminism in Western Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As this collection was amassed, personal histories emerged that, in the resulting work, allow participants to create their own journeys, drawing on characters and events from this era. Opening in a thick fog, a sole balloon begins the journey, which features an original score by Gustavs – the waltz of the project’s title.

Walzer – world premiere 2021, netherlands, lead artists frieda gustavs, leo erkenPresentation location: 26 Leake Street / Duration: 10 minutes

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London

Full Line Up for inaugural The London Action Festival revealed

JULY 28 SPECIAL EVENT #1: LAUNCH EVENT WORLD’S BEST “DIE HARD” SCREENING EVER… (PROBABLY!) 7:30 PM – 11:00 PM – The Royal Geographical Society

Die Hard

Copyright: Die Hard © 1988 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

A Die Hard Screening like no other! Including a Q&A with iconic director John McTiernan who promises to settle the great ‘Is Die Hard a Christmas Film?’ debate once and for all.

Also including Robert Davi – Everyone’s favourite tough guy and Agent “Big” Johnson in the movie – Appearing and singing live! Plus other surprises.
(Approx. 2 hours, 30 mins / BBFC Cert 15)

JULY 29 SPECIAL EVENT #2: OFFICIAL OPENING NIGHT EVENT

7:30 PM – 9:30 PM – Royal Geographical Society ONE NIGHT ONLY – NOT TO BE MISSED – LIVE CELEBRATION OF ALL THINGS ACTION

The Friday Night Showdown on July 29, a live not to be missed, one night only celebration of action with incredible panellists including leading directors, music composer David Arnold (Casino Royale, Independence Day and Sherlock) will perform live, comedy, music, magic and even a game show. The event will also launch the Festival’s first ‘Moving Target’ Awards celebrating the careers of John McTiernan and Vic Armstrong (a leading figure in the world of stunt co-ordination and action direction). Patrick Savage’s McBain Quartet are going to be there too. It’s the night that has everything.

JULY 30

SCREENING: THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER

9:30 AM – 11:10 AM – Picturehouse Central

Selected by the British Film Institute (BFI) as one of the 10 best action movies of all time, this special presentation of one of Jackie Chan’s biggest hits is a rare screening of the original, uncut Hong Kong version in Cantonese with English subtitles in a new restoration from Warner Bros.
DRUNKEN MASTER The Legend Of The Drunken Master © 1994 WBEI A

DRUNKEN MASTER: The Legend of the Drunken Master © 1994 WBEI

(102 mins / BBFC Cert 15)
PANEL EVENT: THE WORLD IN ACTION — CELEBRATING ASIAN ACTION CINEMA
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM – Picturehouse Central
“The World in Action” looks at Asian Cinema with Hong Kong as its traditional epicentre and the huge influence it has had on global Action Cinema. With Special Guest Speakers including Joey Ansah (actor, director and martial artist); Mike Fury (journalist and author) and Jude Poyer (2nd unit director, action designer, and stunt coordinator).
(Approx. 1 hour)
PANEL EVENT: PUNCH ABOVE YOUR WEIGHT — HOW TO MAKE YOUR FIRST ACTION MASTERPIECE
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM – Picturehouse Central
If you’ve dreamed of making high octane action movies on a low budget – find out just what that’s like from the experts in “Punch Above Your Weight – How To Make Your First Action Masterpiece” with special guests to be announced.
(Approx. 1 hour)
PANEL EVENT: THE CAR CHASERS
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM – Picturehouse Central
“The Car Chasers” is a look at key moments of action design in Film and TV from some of the best stunt performers who specialize in being both fast and furious when it comes to cars and bikes on screen. The panel will include stunt drivers and performers Steph Carey (No Time To DieMorbius), Lloyd Bass (The King’s ManF9: The Fast Saga) and Rick English (The BatmanMission Impossible: Rogue Nation) who together have over 450 Film & TV credits between them.
(Approx. 1 hour)
BONUS PANEL EVENT: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! – HOW TO BECOME A STUNT PROFESSIONAL
3:45 PM – 4:30 PM – Picturehouse Central
A free to attendees bonus event from the London Action Festival presented in association with the British Stunt Register, the world’s leading and largest association of stunt professionals. Do you have what it takes? Come along and hear from the experts in one of the most exciting professions in the Entertainment industry.
(Approx. 45 mins)
PANEL EVENT: WHAT’S THE SCORE?
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM – Picturehouse Central
“What’s The Score?” explores just how significant the work of the Composer and Music Supervisor is in bringing action to life and the techniques of scoring for Film & TV including Special Guest Steven Price – Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning composer (GravityLast Night In SohoBaby Driver).
(Approx. 1 hour)
PANEL EVENT: GANGS OF LONDON
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM – Picturehouse Central
GANGS OF LONDON director Corin Hardy, will present exclusive new and unseen footage from the second series of the show, which will premiere on Sky in October, at the inaugural The London Action Festival.
SPECIAL EVENT: THE GREAT ACTION QUIZ NIGHT
8:30 PM – 10:30 PM – Venue TBC
Saturday night offers the London Action Festival’s Great Action Quiz Night. How much do you really know about the movies and TV shows you love? Here’s the chance to test your knowledge against our Grand In-Quiz-itor Dick Fiddy (Author and TV consultant for the BFI and Guinness Book of World Records). With Martin Cox and Marshall Julius (Journalist, film critic and author of Vintage Geek and Masters of Make-Up Effects) and a host of prizes.
(Approx. 2 hours)
JULY 31 PREDATOR SPECIAL 35TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING + Q&A WITH DIRECTOR JOHN MCTIERNAN
9:30 AM – 11:40 AM – Picturehouse Central
Arnold Schwarzenegger takes on an extra-terrestrial hunter in the first classic installment of the ongoing franchise. The screening is followed by a Q & A with the director John McTiernan.
(107 mins / BBFC Cert 15 + Q&A)
WATCH THIS SPACE
12:00 PM – 2:30 PM – Picturehouse Central
SPECIAL EVENT: TBA
PANEL EVENT: WRITE CLUB
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM – Picturehouse Central
Write Club assembles some of the leading writers in the industry who lay the blueprint for any action movie or TV show in the form of the script.
(Approx. 1 hour)
SPECIAL EVENT: ‘SCHOOL FIGHT’ EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE PREVIEW + Q&A WITH DIRECTOR DAMIEN WALTERS AND CAST
3:15 PM – 4:30 PM – Picturehouse Central
With the support of UK production powerhouse MARV – we will be hosting exclusive footage from their new action movie SCHOOL FIGHT marking the debut of Damien Walters as Director. Damien has a long association with Director Matthew Vaughn as his Stunt Coordinator. With Cast members Greg Townley and Bobby Holland Hanton.
(Approx. 75 mins)
PANEL EVENT: JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION MASTERCLASS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM – Picturehouse Central
We take a look at the world of visual effects in JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION with a masterclass from some of the leading experts in the field of Visualization and VFX including Pawl Fulker (Partner + Creative Director, Proof London Ltd. / Senior Visualization Supervisor), Dave Vickery (ILM, Visual effects Supervisor) and with the involvement of Director Colin Trevorrow.
(Approx. 1 hour)
SCREENING: CON AIR SPECIAL 25TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING + Q&A WITH DIRECTOR SIMON WEST
CON AIR Images Courtesy Of Park CircusWalt Disney Studios
6:45 PM – 9:30 PM – Picturehouse Central
“Con Air” a Special 25th Anniversary Screening of the classic action thriller film directed by Simon West and starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich. A must see for all Nicolas Cage’s aficionados and devotees of action cinema as its best. The screening is followed by a Q&A with director Simon West.
(115 mins / BBFC Cert 15 + Q&A)
WATCH THIS SPACE
9:30 PM – 11:30 PM – Picturehouse Central
SPECIAL EVENT: TBA
The London Action Festival, which runs from 28-31 July, is a first-of-its-kind celebration of one of the most globally produced and commercially successful genres of Film and TV will launch in London with a major 4-day celebration this Summer. Ticketing and full information can be found at: www.londonactionfestival.com
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