The 16thRaindance Film Festival (Oct 1-12) in London will kick off with Clark Gregg's Choke starring Sam Rockwell and will close with the world premiere of Mark Tonderai's directorial debut, Warp X horror film Hush.

Choke, adapted from Chuck Palahniuk's novel, also stars Anjelica Huston (set to attend the opening gala) and Kelly MacDonald.

Other guests expected at London-based Raindance include Faye Dunaway for Flick, Corey Feldman for The Birthday, and Jeremy Podeswa for Fugitive Pieces.

The festival will show 75 features and 100 shorts, plus live events, Q&As and masterclasses.

This year's jury includes actor/director Peter Capaldi, distributor Oli Harbottle, Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, producer Rebecca O'Brien, director Nicolas Roeg, critic Kim Newman, and online journalist Joe Utichi.


Raindance continues its musical leanings with films about Patti Smith, The Beatles, and The Arctic Monkeys (who will attend the festival) and Gunnin For That # 1 Spot, a basketball documentary directed by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch.

Also Primus' Les Claypool will do a Q&A for his mockumentary Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo. The fest will host a special event with George Martin's son Giles Martin for the London premiere of All Together Now.

UK features in the programme include Matthew Thompson's Dummy, Neil Thompson's Clubbed, Aisling Walsh's The Daisy Chain, Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching, and David Howard's Flick. Mike Figgis will present a new short for Sony Ericsson, Life Captured.

New initiatives at Raindance include an audience award for best feature and the Dailymotion Short Circuit Award with Raindance.tv to judge the best 60-second shorts. That judging panel will be led by Michael Winterbottom. The festival's Best UK short award is sponsored by Delta Airlines.

Raindance director Elliot Grove said: 'We are especially pleased to welcome Ken Loach as festival patron for our 16th anniversary of The Raindance Film Festival. We are excited to present a fantastic line-up of international films which represent the true nature of the festival and excellence within independent filmmaking.'

Features in the programme include Jake Mahaffy's Wellness (US), Satoshi Miki's Adrift In Toyko (Ten-Ten) (Japan), Jonas Cuaron's Ano Una (Mexico), Spiros Stathoulopoulos' PVC-1 (Colombia-Greece), Lina Chamie's The Milky Way (Brazil), Paul Morrison's Little Ashes (UK), Srdjan Vuletic's It's Hard To Be Nice (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Marcos Jorge's Estomago (Brazil/Italy), and Damian Harris' Gardens If the Night (US).

The full line-up is available at www.raindance.co.uk.

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