Raindance is an independent film festival

Film festival

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

 and film school

Film school

The term film school is used to describe any educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training are usually incorporated into...

 that operates from various cities including: London, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin and Brussels . The festival was established in 1992 by Elliot Grove

Elliot Grove

Elliot Grove is a Canadian-born film producer who founded both the Raindance Film Festival in 1993 and the British Independent Film Awards in 1998.- Biography :...

 to extend the normal film school activities of Raindance.
The Raindance Film School alumni list includes the notable names of: Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and voice artist. He is most widely known for his portrayal of three unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, and Brüno...

, David Yates

David Yates

David Yates is an English filmmaker who rose to mainstream prominence directing the final four films in the Harry Potter film series. He helmed the series' fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth installments, all of which became an instant blockbuster success and made him the most commercially...

, Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright

Edgar Howard Wright is an English film and television director and writer. He is most famous for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the TV series Spaced, and for directing the film Scott Pilgrim vs...

, Matthew Vaughn

Matthew Vaughn

Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch and directing the films Layer Cake , Stardust and Kick-Ass...

, Alison Owen

Alison Owen

Allison Mary Owen is an English film producer. Her credits as a producer include Moonlight and Valentino , Elizabeth , Sylvia , Shaun of the Dead , Proof , The Other Boleyn Girl and Brick Lane .Owen's parents are Mary Kathleen , Allison Mary Owen (born 1961 in Portsmouth) is an English film...

, Guy Ritchie

Guy Ritchie

Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...

, Ben Miller

Ben Miller

Bennet Evan "Ben" Miller is an English comedian, actor and director. He is perhaps best known as one half of comedy double act Armstrong and Miller, along with Alexander Armstrong. Together the pair wrote and starred in Channel 4 sketch show Armstrong and Miller, and the more recent BBC television...

, Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan

Christopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...

, Kirk Jones

Kirk Jones

Kirk Jones also referred to as Sticky Fingaz or Sticky, is an American rapper, actor, and a member of the hip-hop group Onyx...

, Mark Mahon

Mark Mahon

Mark Mahon is an Irish film director, writer and producer from Cork city, Ireland.At the age of twenty two, Mark was severely injured in an accident and had to spend several months in hospital recovering. During this time, he turned his love of acting and his passion for the industry to writing...

, Emily Lloyd

Emily Lloyd

-Early life:Emily Lloyd Pack was born in London, the daughter of Sheila , now known as , a theatrical agent who was a longtime secretary at Harold Pinter's stage agency, and Roger Lloyd-Pack, a stage actor, well-known as Trigger in the British hit sitcom Only Fools and Horses. Her grandfather,...

, Vadim Jean

Vadim Jean

Vadim Jean is an award-winning English film director, producer, and executive producer.After graduating with a degree in History from Warwick University, he found work on Mike Figgis' Stormy Monday, before establishing his own production company in 1989 covering a wide variety of subjects, from...

, Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...

, Roland Gift

Roland Gift

Roland Lee Gift is a British singer and actor. He was the lead singer of the band Fine Young Cannibals.-Biography:...

, Julian Fellowes

Julian Fellowes

Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, DL , known as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, as well as a Conservative peer.-Early life:...

, Paul Brooks

Paul Brooks

Paul Brooks is a British-born film producer.Brooks has a Humanities degree in English/Philosophy/Psychology and Sociology from the University of London...

, Clive Bradley

Clive Bradley

Clive Bradley was a known arranger of steelpan music.-Person:Bradley grew up in Diego Martin, Trinidad where he attended elementary school. He then visited Fatima College...

 and Jeremy Bolt

Jeremy Bolt

Jeremy Bolt is a British film producer who often works with Paul W. S. Anderson at Impact Pictures.Since creating Impact Pictures with Paul WS Anderson in 1992, producer Jeremy Bolt has produced the majority of Anderson’s movies...

.

Awards at the festival include Best International Feature and Short, Best UK Feature and Short, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Debut. In its time the festival has premiered The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American horror film pieced together from amateur footage. The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company. The film relates the story of three student filmmakers The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American horror film pieced together from amateur...

, Capturing the Friedmans

Capturing the Friedmans

Capturing the Friedmans is a documentary film directed by Andrew Jarecki. It focuses on the 1980s investigation of Arnold and Jesse Friedman for child molestation...

, Memento, Oldboy

Oldboy

Oldboy is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook. It is based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr...

, Firecracker

Firecracker (2005 film)

Firecracker is a 2005 thriller film directed by Steve Balderson, starring Karen Black and Mike Patton of Faith No More.-Synopsis:Firecracker is a tale of murder in small town Wamego, Kansas. The film portrays abuse, suffering, denial, and dreams of escape...

, Karosta: Life After the USSR, Girlfriend in a Kimono

Girlfriend in a Kimono

Girlfriend in a Kimono is a short film shot in the summer of 2005, written and directed by Dominic Thackray who describes it as an anti-romance. Named after the 1987 song Girlfriend in a Coma by the Smiths, it tells the tale of autoslacker Vincent who falls for French burlesque dancer Candice, and...

, Ex Drummer

Ex Drummer

Ex Drummer is a 2007 Flemish film directed by Koen Mortier. It is based on the book by Herman Brusselmans of the same name.- Plot :In Ostend three handicapped musicians are looking for a drummer for their band, consisting entirely of disabled people. They want to perform only one time at a music...

and War Games: At the End of the Day

War Games: At the End of the Day

War Games: At the End of the Day is a 2010 Independent thriller film directed by acclaimed Italian director Cosimo Alema, who co-wrote it with Daniele Persica and Romana Meggiolaro. Luca Legnani is credited as executive producer. The film is distributed by Universal Pictures...

.

Jury members have included Lou Reed

Lou Reed

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

, actresses Judi Dench

Judi Dench

Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...

 and Kerry Fox

Kerry Fox

Kerry Fox is a New Zealand actress. She came to prominence playing author Janet Frame in the movie An Angel at My Table directed by Jane Campion, which gained her a Best Actress Award from the New Zealand Film and Television Awards....

, Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

, Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...

, Dutch photographer and filmmaker Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...

, Mick Jones

Mick Jones (The Clash)

Michael Geoffrey "Mick" Jones is the former lead guitarist, secondary vocalist and co-founder for the British punk rock band The Clash until his dismissal in 1983. He went on to form the band Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts before line-up changes led to the formation of Big Audio Dynamite II and...

 of The Clash

The Clash

The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...

, Andrea Arnold

Andrea Arnold

Andrea Arnold OBE is a filmmaker and former actress from England, who made her feature film directorial debut in 2006 with Red Road.-Early TV work:...

, Marky Ramone

Marky Ramone

Marky Ramone is an American musician. He is best known for being the drummer for the Ramones, but has also played in other notable bands like Dust, Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, and the Misfits.Although he is not the original drummer , Marky is the only living...

, and American filmmaker Jonathan Caouette

Jonathan Caouette

Jonathan Caouette is an American film director, writer, editor and actor. Caouette is the director and editor of Tarnation , an autobiographical documentary, and director of All Tomorrow's Parties about a cult music festival.-Films:...

. Patrons of Raindance include Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor

Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...

, Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam

Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...

, Mike Figgis

Mike Figgis

Michael "Mike" Figgis is an English film director, writer, and composer.-Personal life:Figgis was born in Carlisle, England and grew up in Africa. Figgis for several years had a relationship with the actress Saffron Burrows and cast her in several films...

, Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

, and Marky Ramone

Marky Ramone

Marky Ramone is an American musician. He is best known for being the drummer for the Ramones, but has also played in other notable bands like Dust, Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, and the Misfits.Although he is not the original drummer , Marky is the only living...

. The festival attracts key industry figures including notable appearances by Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...

, Mike Figgis

Mike Figgis

Michael "Mike" Figgis is an English film director, writer, and composer.-Personal life:Figgis was born in Carlisle, England and grew up in Africa. Figgis for several years had a relationship with the actress Saffron Burrows and cast her in several films...

, Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

, Don Letts

Don Letts

Don Letts is a British film director and musician. He is credited as the man who through his DJing at clubs like The Roxy brought together punk and reggae music.-Biography:...

, Marky Ramone

Marky Ramone

Marky Ramone is an American musician. He is best known for being the drummer for the Ramones, but has also played in other notable bands like Dust, Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, and the Misfits.Although he is not the original drummer , Marky is the only living...

, Trudie Styler

Trudie Styler

Trudie Styler is an English actress and producer. She is the second wife of the musician Sting.-Life and career:Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. She attended North Bromsgrove High School, where one of her teachers was Clifford T. Ward...

, Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...

, Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...

, Mick Jones

Mick Jones (The Clash)

Michael Geoffrey "Mick" Jones is the former lead guitarist, secondary vocalist and co-founder for the British punk rock band The Clash until his dismissal in 1983. He went on to form the band Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts before line-up changes led to the formation of Big Audio Dynamite II and...

, Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...

 and Jonny Lee Miller

Jonny Lee Miller

Jonathan "Jonny" Lee Miller is an English actor. During the initial days he was best known for his roles in the 1996 films Trainspotting and Hackers...

.

Raindance is also the founder of the British Independent Film Awards

British Independent Film Awards

The Moët British Independent Film Awards is an annual award ceremony celebrating achievement in independently funded British film and cinema. Nominations and jury are announced at the beginning of November with the award ceremony taking place in late November or early December.-History:The British...

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External links

• Raindance
• Agenda Collective - Producers of the 2009 RFF Trailer
• Raindance.tv
• Raindance Canada
• Raindance Film Festival Facebook
• British Independent Film Awards
• EyeForFilm.co.uk - News, reviews and features from the 2006-2009 Raindance Film Festival