Documentaries by Pinney Grylls and Sam Crane grand theft auto hamletabout unemployed theater actors trying to stage a production village in video games Grand Theft Auto During the COVID-19 lockdown, and witchElizabeth Sankey’s documentary Historical Witchcraft, which links links to postpartum psychological distress, is among 13 feature films shortlisted for this year’s BIFA Raindance Maverick Award one.
The long list also includes Strike: an uncivilized warWinner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at this year’s Sheffield Documentary Festival, the film uses personal testimonies, previously hidden government documents and unseen archival footage to tell the story of the Battle of Orgreave during the British miners’ strike of 1984/85 ; tread watertells the story of a man recently released from prison who struggles with drug addiction and mental health issues; and Wang Baobaoa “modern fairy tale” that takes place in a kingdom of only a king and his servants, where the carefully constructed world is disrupted by the arrival of the mannequin queen.
Also on the long list are two films featuring neurodiverse characters and creators. they are brian’s flightwhich “portrays how an unemployed amateur cyclist, a debt-ridden father of three, and a group of neurodiverse deviants set out to solve the mystery of human-powered flight,” and voting pool“a hybrid film that presents the possibilities of a world informed by autistic perspectives and perceptions.”
Raindance hailed the long list as a mix of documentary and fiction, which also includes modern fairy tales and thrillers.
“Raindance Film Festival is the UK’s largest independent film festival, recognized for championing idiosyncratic filmmaking on a shoestring budget,” the organization said. “Raindance presents the Raindance Maverick Award at the annual BIFA Awards, an awards ceremony founded by Raindance in 1998, to recognize these creative, cash-conscious and risk-taking filmmakers.” The award aims to Honoring idiosyncratic films with a budget of less than £1 million ($1.3 million).
“The Raindance Maverick Award shortlist captures the purest, rebellious and unapologetic essence of independent cinema,” said Elliot Grove, founder of Raindance and BIFA.
The final list of nominations will be announced on November 5.
2023 Maverick Honors Awarded to Alice Russell and Gannesh Rajah if the street is on fireDocumentary of a group of rebellious young men tearing up the streets of London in the name of “knives down, bikes up”.
Check out the full longlist for the Raindance Maverick Awards below.
Ceremony – Jack King, Holly Bryan, Lucy Mayer
Flight of Brian – James Erskine, Victoria Gregory, Philip Mandela
Hamlet the Thief – Pinney Grylls, Sam Crane, Julia Tone, Rebecca Wolfe
KING BABY – Arran Shearing, Kit Redstone
Reawakening – Virginia Gilbert, Barry Castagnola
Restless – Jed Hart, Benedict Turnbull
SATU – Year of the Rabbit – Joshua Trigg
“The Silent Man” – Duncan Cowles
“Thrill Pool” – Robin Elliott Knowles, Sam Jon Ahern, Benjamin Brown, Steven Eastwood,
Georgia Bradburn, Lucy Walker, Chloe White
Strike: An Uncivilized War – Daniel Gordon, Nick Taussig, Fjolla Iberhysaj
Top – Ames Pennington, Archie Sinclair
Wade in the Water – Geno Evans, Ben Toy
The Witches – Elizabeth Sankey, Jeremy Walmsley, Chiara Ventura, Manon Addison
