LONDON — Lynn Shelton’s “Humpday” will kickstart this year’s Raindance Film Festival, which includes an American Indie sidebar, organizers said Monday.
Shelton’s movie, which stars Joshua Leonard and Mark Duplass, opens the London event, which aims to set itself apart from other festivals here by focusing on discoveries, innovation and indie filmmaking.
The festival will close with Steven Soderbergh’s “The Girlfriend Experience” to round out a strong U.S. presence.
Also in this year’s lineup is “My Suicide,” featuring one of David Carradine’s last turns before his death.
Steve Balderson returns to the festival with “Stuck!” starring Karen Black, Mink Stole and Susan Traylor.
Raindance will play host to the U.K. premiere of Canadian Ryan Ward’s “Son of the Sunshine” and the unspooling of Zach Clark’s “Modern Love Is Automatic” starring Melodie Sisk, Maggie Ross and Carlos Bustamante.
Organizers said the 17th edition of the festival boasts 75 features and more than 150 shorts all thrown into the usual festival mix of Q&As, master classes and live events.
This year’s jury includes actor Riz Ahmed, writer-director Armando Iannucci, actress Kerry Fox, director Momoko Ando, artist, musician, poet, writer, filmmaker Billy Childish, BBC Films creative director Christine Langan, filmmaker Jon Ronson, producer Andy Williams and legendary musician-actor Tom Waits.
The festival is set for Sept. 30-Oct. 11.
