Sundance London Film Festival 2022
Sundance Institute and Picturehouse have announced the programme of feature films, short films and panel discussions for the Sundance Film Festival: London 2022, taking place from 9 to 12 June at Picturehouse Central.
Presented in association with Adobe, the festival will present 12 feature films from the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA, selected for London by the Sundance Institute programming team in collaboration with Picturehouse.
Opening on 9 June with the UK premiere of Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, the festival will close four days later on 12 June with the UK premiere screening of British filmmaker Jim Archer’s feature Brian and Charles, presented by Time Out. The feel-good comedy film stars British actor and comedian David Earl as Brian, a lonely and unlucky inventor who builds an artificial intelligence robot made from odds and ends, including an old washing machine.
The festival will feature an equal number of male and female directors in this year’s film selection (across features and shorts), allowing a range of British, Finnish, French, Australian, Emirati, Indonesian, Canadian, Lebanese and American filmmakers to tell their authentic stories.
Festivalgoers will have a special chance to catch an unannounced title with the festival’s fourth Surprise Film.
FEATURE FILM PROGRAMME
American independent narrative and documentary films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA.
A Love Song / USA (Director/Screenwriter: Max Walker-Silverman) Two childhood sweethearts, both now widowed, share a night by a lake in the mountains.
Brian and Charles / UK (Director: Jim Archer, Screenwriters: David Earl and Chris Hayward)
Meet Brian – a lonely, luckless inventor who takes on his most ambitious project yet. Enter Charles – Brian’s extraordinary masterpiece – an artificially intelligent robot made from odds and ends, including an old washing machine, who has an inexplicable obsession with cabbages. Brian and Charles is a heartwarming and entertaining tale about friendship, family, finding love, and letting go.
Fire of Love / Canada, USA (Director: Sara Dosa)
From National Geographic Documentary Films comes the extraordinary love story of intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died just as explosively as they lived — capturing the most spectacular imagery ever recorded of their greatest passion: volcanoes.
Free Sol Choo Lee / USA (Directors: Julie Ha, Eugene Yi)
In 1970s San Francisco, 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is racially profiled and convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. After spending years fighting to survive, investigative journalist KW Lee takes a special interest in his case, igniting an unprecedented social justice movement.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande / UK (Director: Sophie Hyde, Screenwriter: Katy Brand)
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is an uplifting comedy that challenges expectations. Nancy & Leo discover an unexpected bond in this hilarious, heartwarming, sex-positive tale of empowerment and self-discovery.
Hatching / Finland (Director: Hanna Bergholm, Screenwriter: Ilja Rautsi)
Tinja is a 12-year-old gymnast who’s desperate to please her image-obsessed mother. After finding a wounded bird in the woods, she brings its strange egg home, nestles it in her bed and nurtures it until it hatches. The creature that emerges soon becomes her closest friend and a living nightmare, plunging Tinja into a twisted reality that her mother refuses to see.
Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul / USA (Director/Screenwriter: Adamma Ebo)
In Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, the proud first lady of a Southern Baptist megachurch, Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall), carries immense responsibility on her shoulders. After a scandal involving her husband, Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown), the church is forced to close temporarily, leaving Trinitie struggling to manage the aftermath. Now Trinitie and Lee-Curtis must rebuild their congregation and reconcile their faith by all means necessary to make the biggest comeback that commodified religion has ever seen.
The Princess / UK (Director: Ed Perkins)
The story of Princess Diana is told exclusively through a contemporaneous archive creating a bold and immersive narrative of her life and death. Turning the camera back on ourselves, it also illuminates the profound impact she had and how the public’s attitude to the monarchy was and still is, shaped by these events.
Resurrection / UK (Director/Screenwriter: Andrew Semans)
Margaret’s life is in order. She is capable, disciplined, and successful. Soon, her teenage daughter, who Margaret raised by herself, will be going off to a fine university, just as Margaret had intended. Everything is under control. That is, until David returns, carrying with him the horrors of Margaret’s past.
Sharp Stick / USA (Director/Screenwriter: Lena Dunham)
Sarah Jo is a naive 26-year-old living on the fringes of Hollywood with her mother (longing for money) and sister (longing for exposure). She just longs to be seen. When she begins an affair with her older employer, she is thrust into education on sexuality, loss, and power.
Watcher / USA (Director: Chloe Okuno, Screenwriter: Zack Ford) A young woman moves into a new apartment with her fiancé, only to be tormented by the feeling that she is being stalked by an unseen watcher in an adjacent building.
We Met in Virtual Reality / UK (Director: Joe Hunting)
Filmed entirely inside the world of VR, this documentary captures the excitement and surprising intimacy of a burgeoning cultural movement, demonstrating the power of online connection in an isolated world.
For the full line-up of Festival, films click here
Sundance Film Festival: London Ticket Passes are on sale now, with priority booking for Picturehouse Members and Sundance Film Festival Ticket Passholders on sale from 10:00am, 25 April. General ticket sales will open at 10:00am on 3 May. Tickets can be purchased today with a Sundance Film Festival ticket pass; buy yours now at picturehouses.com/sundance. Become a Picturehouse Member now at picturehouses.com/membership.
Three films to screen across the UK as part of the Sundance Film Festival: London UK Tour – Good Luck To You, Leo Grande; A Love Song; Free Chol Soo Lee
Additional events include live podcast recordings taking place across the weekend including Girls on Film and The Evolution of Horror, a screening of Lemon chosen by keynote speaker Christine Vachon and a special 25th anniversary screening of Love Jones
