Raindance Film Festival announce jury award winners 2024

Raindance Awards Ceremony @ Wonderville, Haymarket: to celebrate the outstanding achievements of the films screening in competition at the 32nd Raindance Film Festival (19 – 28 June, 2024), jury awards are presented to features and shorts.

Raindance’s awards system has this year been overhauled to reflect the festival’s newly defined focus on emerging filmmakers. As of this year, Raindance’s jury awards honour features by debut and second-time filmmakers in five categories: Discovery Award for Debut Feature, Best International Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Debut Director, Best Performance in a Debut Feature.

Additionally, films screening out of official competition in the Founders Strand qualify for the Spirit Of Raindance award. An Oscar qualifying festival, Raindance further honours the work of short filmmakers with four awards.

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AND THE WINNERS ARE:

DISCOVERY AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT FEATURE: SLEEP (dir: Jason Yu)

The final film role for acclaimed Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite, A Hard Day), starring alongside Jung Yu-mi (Train to Busan, Kim Ji-young: Born 1982) playing a young expectant wife who must figure out how to stop her husband’s nightmarish sleepwalking habits before he harms himself or his family.

Honourable mentions: It’s Burning, Sisterhood

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: THE STRANGERS’ CASE (dir: Brandt Anderson)

Tragedy strikes a Syrian family in Aleppo, starting a chain reaction of events involving five different families in four different countries. Winner of the Amnesty International Film Prize at Berlin, it’s a familiar yet sadly topical story told from numerous perspectives.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: SEARCHING FOR AMANI (dir: Debra Aroko & Nicole Gormley, Kenya/USA)

In search of truth and redemption, a 13-year-old boy investigates his father’s tragic murder within the boundaries of one of Kenya’s largest wildlife conservancies.

BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR: LUKE GILFORD, NATIONAL ANTHEM

A soft-spoken construction worker accepts job with a vibrant community of queer rodeo performers and forges the confidence to explore his own identity. Writer/director Luke Gilford sets his exhilarating reinvention of the coming-of-age story against stunning landscapes, boldly reimagining an exploration of first love, found family, and self-discovery.

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A DEBUT FEATURE: PAULA GRIMALDO, THE QUIET MAID

Paula Grimaldo plays a young Colombian woman who works as a maid for a wealthy, privileged and difficult Spanish family. She is quiet & discreet, as she was told, until she sees a way to take revenge.

SPIRIT OF RAINDANCE AWARD: DOG WAR (dir: Andrew Abrahams, USA)

In this thought-provoking documentary, a team of animal-loving combat veterans infiltrate the dog meat farms and markets of South Korea to save as many dogs as possible.

ACADEMY AWARD QUALIFYING SHORTS PROGRAMME

Raindance is an Oscar-qualifying festival. The recipient of Best Live Action Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Animation Short are eligible for consideration in the three Short Films categories of the Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run (provided the film otherwise complies with Academy rules). Honouring homegrown talent, Raindance also presents an award to Best UK Short.

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT: THE MASTERPIECE (dir: Alex Lora, Spain)

Leo and Diana, a rich couple, bring a broken TV to a recycle point where they meet two scrap dealers. Diana asks them to come to their house to get more objects. Leo looks at them collecting objects with mistrust, until they see the scrap dealers have something they want.

Honourable Mention: Void

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: A BODY CALLED LIFE (dir: Spencer MacDonald, US/Switzerland/Poland)

A self-isolated human delves into the hidden world of microscopic organisms, forging a tender connection with these nearly invisible creatures and developing a massive online following, as he seeks to understand his own place in the cosmos and accept the scars of his past.

Honourable Mention: For Here I Am Sitting In A Tin Can

BEST ANIMATION SHORT: 74 (dir: Charalambos Margaritis, Cyprus)

On the 20th of July 1974 the Turkish army invaded the island of Cyprus, one third of which has been under military occupation ever since. Through the journey of its central character 74 takes on the impossible task of dealing with the memory of the invasion and its aftermath.

Honourable Mention: Diary of an Illness

BEST UK SHORT: HOUSEWARMING (dir: Liam White, UK)

Saskia has just moved into her first house, but the dream is soured by an unexpected arrival.

Honourable Mention: Area Boy

RAINDANCE 2024 JURY

This year’s jury: Alice Englert (actor: Bad Behaviour, You Won’t Be Alone, Ginger & Rose), Claes Bang (actor: The Square, The Northman, William Tell), Diego Luna (actor: Y tu mamá también, Rogue One, Milk), Jared Harris (actor: Chernobyl, The Terror, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), John McCrea (actor: Cruella, Femme, Dracula), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (actor: Femme, Candyman, Culprits), Al Morrow (producer: The Reason I Jump, Heavy Load, The Enfield Poltergeist), Daniel Green (Distribution Operations Director, Global at MUBI), Emilie Szemraj (Creative Executive, Acquisitions and Development at Protagonist), Ivana MacKinnon (producer: How To Have Sex, Slumdog Millionaire, The Descent), Joanne Michael (Head of Marketing and Distribution at Cornerstone), Katie Bignell (Founder & Festival Strategist, Festival Formula), Nafi Gordon-Sy (Head of Home Entertainment at Dogwoof), Paul Sng (director: Tish, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché), Adam Morris (actor/writer/producer, Lucid),  Denise Parkinson (Allied Global Marketing), Jack Howard (Executive Producer of Eleanor).

BEST UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY

Raindance’s script competition 2024: DARRYL WIMBERLEY “A SEEPING WOUND”

RAINDANCE’S 1st RAINMAKER AWARD: THOMPSON DEAN

Raindance has this year introduced a new award: the Rainmaker Award, honouring allies of independent film – those outside of the film industry who nevertheless support and champion independent film.

“We are proud to announce the establishment of the Rainmaker Award, a prestigious accolade presented to extraordinary individuals from outside the film industry, who have made a significant impact on the independent film landscape,” Byron Rose, Raindance Chairman elaborates. “Known for their innovative thinking and trailblazing spirit, recipients have reached the highest pinnacle of the business world. Thompson Dean is the first recipient of the Rainmaker Award and represents all that encompasses a Rainmaker.”

Thompson Dean is the Chairman and Co-Head of Avista’s Investment Committee. He previously served as the Managing Partner and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Avista Capital Partners until transitioning to Chairman in 2022.  Prior to co-founding Avista Capital Partners in 2005, Mr. Dean led DLJ Merchant Banking Partners for 10 years. Mr. Dean served as Managing Partner of DLJMB I, II and III and DLJ Growth Capital Partners until his departure in 2005 and was Chairman of their respective Investment Committees. Mr. Dean received a B.A. from the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar, and an M.B.A. with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Mr. Dean currently serves on the Boards of Cooper Consumer Health, eMolecules, Probo Medical, Terrats Medical, Vision Healthcare and WellSpring Consumer Healthcare. He previously served on the Boards of Acino International, Charles River Laboratories, ConvaTec Group, Fisher Scientific, Nycomed, Trimb Healthcare, VWR and Zest Dental Solutions, among others. He is Former Chairman of the Special Projects Committee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital and served as a member of the College Foundation Board of the University of Virginia. In addition, Mr. Dean serves on the Lenox Hill Neighborhood Association.

Thompson Dean says: “It’s my honour to support Raindance’s trailblazing work, and assist in its mission to discover, champion, and be the voice of independent film, at home here in the UK and abroad.”