The full picture: London’s 2018 Sundance Film Festival lineup
Park City’s 2018 Sundance Film Festival has been over for some time now, but across the pond things are only just starting to heat up. This year’s Sundance Film Festival: London will be held at Picturehouse Central from May 31 to June 3. Whether you’re travelling over to Blighty to catch the hottest new indie flicks making their premiere at the UK’s capital or you’re just a cinephile who likes to keep updated on the latest indie hits, here’s Film Daily’s picks of the ten most exciting films added to London’s 2018 Sundance Film Festival lineup:
First Reformed
Director: Paul Schrader
First Reformed will be making its UK Premiere at this year’s London Sundance with an extended introduction from star Ethan Hawke (Training Day), who plays a pastor of a small church in upstate New York undergoing a crisis of faith after an encounter with an unstable environmental activist and his pregnant wife.
Yardie
Director: Idris Elba
Elba’s directorial debut is set in 1973 and based on Victor Headley’s novel, following a young boy who, after witnessing his brother’s assassination, is given a home by a powerful Don. Ten years later, he is sent to London where his quest for retribution brings him into conflict with a vicious local gangster.
Skate Kitchen
Director: Crystal Moselle
The Wolfpack director made her narrative feature debut at this year’s Sundance with this story about a girl whose life as a lonely suburban teenager changes dramatically when she befriends a group of badass girl skateboarders in New York City.
Half the Picture
Director: Amy Adrion
Adrion’s first feature explores the question on the entertainment industry’s lips at this pivotal moment for gender equality in Hollywood: why are there so few female directors? The documentary focuses on successful female directors as they tell the stories of their art, lives, and careers.
An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn
Director: Jim Hosking
Making its UK premiere in London next month is Hosking’s comedy about a woman named Lulu Danger (Aubrey Plaza) whose unsatisfying marriage takes a turn for the worse when a dude from her past comes to town to perform at an event called “An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn For One Magical Night Only”.
Never Goin’ Back
Director: Augustine Frizzell
Frizzell’s girls-gone-wild flick will make its international premiere at the London Sundance, about two high school dropout BFFs turned waitresses who plan a trip to the beach. However, their house gets robbed, rent’s due, and they’re about to be fired – to avoid eviction, stay out of jail, and get to the beach, they’ve gotta hustle the only way they know how.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Director: Desiree Akhavan
Adapted from Emily Danforth’s coming-of-age novel, The Miseducation Of Cameron Post centers around a girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) who is sent to a conversion center after being caught hooking up with the prom queen and goes on to develop mutual feelings for a girl she meets at Sunday school.
Hereditary
Director: Ari Aster
By far the most talked about horror movie of 2018 is Aster’s terrifying exploration into a family suffering from a fate worse than death as they try to escape the dark fate they’ve inherited.
The Tale
Director: Jennifer Fox
Following its success across the pond, Fox’s The Tale is headed to Blighty for its UK premiere. Hailed “the mother of all #MeToo movies”, Laura Dern (Jurassic Park) stars as a woman coming to terms with sexual abuse, in this film that is as harrowing as it is touching.
Eighth Grade
Director: Bo Burnham
Burnham’s dramedy follows an eighth-grader – played by Elsie Fisher (McFarland, USA) – who endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence and thus struggles to finish her last week of classes before heading to high school.
