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Maverick Minds

London’s Raindance Film Festival has unveiled its 13-title longlist for the BIFA (British Independent Film Awards) Raindance Maverick Award, recognizing independent films made with budgets under £1 million ($1.3 million).

The lineup includes “Grand Theft Hamlet,” shot entirely within “Grand Theft Auto,” following two unemployed actors staging Shakespeare in the game’s virtual world, and “Strike: An Uncivil War,” which won Sheffield DocFest’s best documentary audience award for its examination of the 1984/85 miners’ strike.

Raindance founder Elliot Grove said: “The Raindance Maverick Award longlist captures the essence of independent cinema at its purest, rebellious and unapologetic best.”

Full longlist:

“The Ceremony”

“The Flight of Bryan”

“Grand Theft Hamlet”

“King Baby”

“Reawakening”

“Restless”

“Satu – Year of the Rabbit” (Joshua Trigg)

“Silent Men” (Duncan Cowles)

“The Stimming Pool”

“Strike: An Uncivil War”

“Tops”

“Treading Water”

“Witches”

The nominations will be announced Nov. 5, with winners revealed at the BIFA ceremony on Dec.

The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) has selected 13 documentaries for consideration in its 2024 Raindance Maverick award category. This award highlights innovative independent British films that showcase a variety of topics. The selections range from a film about postpartum depression to one about a historic labor dispute.

One standout selection is “Witches” by director Elizabeth Sankey. It examines how depictions of witches in movies relate to postpartum depression. The film combines interview clips with footage from old films. “Witches” was the only documentary shown at the prestigious Great 8 screenings at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It also screened at festivals in Tribeca, Rio de Janeiro and London.

Daniel Gordon’s “Strike: An Uncivil War” offers a fresh look at the 1984-85 UK miners’ strike. It focuses specifically on the Battle of Orgreave and includes previously unpublished footage and hidden government records. This sheds new light on an important event in British labor history.

The British Independent Film Awards (Bifa) longlist for the Raindance Maverick award includes documentaries Witches by Elizabeth Sankey and Strike: An Uncivil War by Daniel Gordon.

The 13-strong longlist also includes Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s non-fiction title Grand Theft Hamlet, about a staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet inside the Grand Theft Auto videogame.

Scroll down for the full longlist

Witches examines the relationship between cinematic portrayals of witches and postpartum depression, utilising archival film footage alongside personal testimony. Having been the sole non-fiction title in the UK’s Great 8 showcase at Cannes this year, the film premiered at Tribeca in June,...

Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s documentary Grand Theft Hamlet, about out-of-work theater actors who try to stage a production of Hamlet within the video game Grand Theft Auto during the Covid lockdown, and Witches, Elizabeth Sankey’s doc that posits a connection between historical witchery and post-partum psychological suffering, are among 13 feature films on the longlist for this year’s Raindance Maverick Award at the British Independent Film Awards, or BIFAs.

Also on the longlist are the likes of Strike: An Uncivil War, the best documentary audience award winner at this year’s Sheffield DocFest that uses personal testimony, formerly hidden government documents, and unseen archive footage to tell the story of the Battle of Orgreave during the British miners’ strike of 1984/85; Treading Water, which tells the story of a man who is newly released from prison and struggling with addiction and mental health issues; and King Baby, “a...

Subversive Irish breakout pic Kneecap and Sasha Nathwani’s gentle yet ambitious debut Last Swim are among the titles that have nabbed mentions on the new talent longlists at this year’s British Independent Film Awards.

Both Kneecap and Last Swim pop up on the Douglas Hickox Best Debut Director Award longlist. Other nominees include Hoard, directed by Luna Carmoon, and Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight, which debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

All four films also feature on the best screenplay longlist alongside Christopher Andrews’s Bring Them Down starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott. Other pics on the screenplay longlist include The Ceremony by Jack King and Jed Hart’s Restless.

Overall, the longlists include 31 British features, with 20 fiction and 11 documentary features across four debut filmmaking categories. Within that, there are 13 first-time fiction feature directors, 16 first-time feature documentary directors, 11 first-time writers, and 19 breakthrough producers.

The final...

Rich Peppiatt’s “Kneecap” and Luna Carmoon’s “Hoard” are among the titles in the British Independent Film Awards’ (BIFA) 2024 filmmaker new talent longlists, unveiled Friday. The selections spotlight 31 British features across four debut filmmaking categories, encompassing both fiction and documentary works.

Peppiatt and Carmoon join a group of first-time directors vying for the Douglas Hickox Award, including Amrou Al-Kadhi for “Layla,” Christopher Andrews for “Bring Them Down,” and Daina O Pusić for “Tuesday.” Other contenders in this category are Lucy Cohen with “Edge of Summer,” James Krishna Floyd for “Unicorns,” Stuart Gatt’s “Catching Dust,” Karan Kandhari’s “Sister Midnight,” Jack King’s “The Ceremony,” Rob Morgan’s “Stopmotion,” Sasha Nathwani’s “Last Swim,” and Joshua Trigg’s “Satu – Year of the Rabbit.” The category is sponsored by BBC Film.

The best debut screenwriter category, sponsored by Film4, sees Andrews and Carmoon competing alongside Floyd, Jed Hart for “Restless,...

Filmmakers from Bring Them Down, The Ceremony and Tuesday feature prominently on the filmmaker new talent longlists for the 2024 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas).

Bring Them Down’s Christopher Andrews is longlisted for the Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director and the best debut screenwriter award, while the film’s debut producer Jacob Swan Hyam is longlisted for breakthrough producer.

Scroll down for the filmmaker New Talent longlists

The Ceremony repeats that trio for writer-director Jack King and producers Hollie Bryan and Lucy Meer; as does Tuesday for writer-director Daina O Pusic and producer Helen Gladders.

Four filmmaker new...