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Maverick Minds

London’s Raindance Film Festival has unveiled its 13-title longlist for the BIFA (British Independent Film Awards) Raindance Maverick Award, recognizing independent films made with budgets under £1 million ($1.3 million).

The lineup includes “Grand Theft Hamlet,” shot entirely within “Grand Theft Auto,” following two unemployed actors staging Shakespeare in the game’s virtual world, and “Strike: An Uncivil War,” which won Sheffield DocFest’s best documentary audience award for its examination of the 1984/85 miners’ strike.

Raindance founder Elliot Grove said: “The Raindance Maverick Award longlist captures the essence of independent cinema at its purest, rebellious and unapologetic best.”

Full longlist:

“The Ceremony”

“The Flight of Bryan”

“Grand Theft Hamlet”

“King Baby”

“Reawakening”

“Restless”

“Satu – Year of the Rabbit” (Joshua Trigg)

“Silent Men” (Duncan Cowles)

“The Stimming Pool”

“Strike: An Uncivil War”

“Tops”

“Treading Water”

“Witches”

The nominations will be announced Nov. 5, with winners revealed at the BIFA ceremony on Dec.

The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) has selected 13 documentaries for consideration in its 2024 Raindance Maverick award category. This award highlights innovative independent British films that showcase a variety of topics. The selections range from a film about postpartum depression to one about a historic labor dispute.

One standout selection is “Witches” by director Elizabeth Sankey. It examines how depictions of witches in movies relate to postpartum depression. The film combines interview clips with footage from old films. “Witches” was the only documentary shown at the prestigious Great 8 screenings at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It also screened at festivals in Tribeca, Rio de Janeiro and London.

Daniel Gordon’s “Strike: An Uncivil War” offers a fresh look at the 1984-85 UK miners’ strike. It focuses specifically on the Battle of Orgreave and includes previously unpublished footage and hidden government records. This sheds new light on an important event in British labor history.

The British Independent Film Awards (Bifa) longlist for the Raindance Maverick award includes documentaries Witches by Elizabeth Sankey and Strike: An Uncivil War by Daniel Gordon.

The 13-strong longlist also includes Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s non-fiction title Grand Theft Hamlet, about a staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet inside the Grand Theft Auto videogame.

Scroll down for the full longlist

Witches examines the relationship between cinematic portrayals of witches and postpartum depression, utilising archival film footage alongside personal testimony. Having been the sole non-fiction title in the UK’s Great 8 showcase at Cannes this year, the film premiered at Tribeca in June,...

Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s documentary Grand Theft Hamlet, about out-of-work theater actors who try to stage a production of Hamlet within the video game Grand Theft Auto during the Covid lockdown, and Witches, Elizabeth Sankey’s doc that posits a connection between historical witchery and post-partum psychological suffering, are among 13 feature films on the longlist for this year’s Raindance Maverick Award at the British Independent Film Awards, or BIFAs.

Also on the longlist are the likes of Strike: An Uncivil War, the best documentary audience award winner at this year’s Sheffield DocFest that uses personal testimony, formerly hidden government documents, and unseen archive footage to tell the story of the Battle of Orgreave during the British miners’ strike of 1984/85; Treading Water, which tells the story of a man who is newly released from prison and struggling with addiction and mental health issues; and King Baby, “a...

The British Independent Film Awards (Bifas) has unveiled the documentary and international film longlists for its 2024 ceremony, with films including in-videogame title Grand Theft Hamlet and Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner Anora.

Grand Theft Hamlet is on the 12-strong best feature documentary list. The film is the debut feature from directorial duo Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane; it premiered at SXSW this year and was recently acquired for a UK-Ireland theatrical release. It follows two struggling actors who find solace from lockdown isolation by staging William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the online Grand Theft Auto game.

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Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” made a huge debut in the U.K. and Ireland with £11.3 million ($14.3 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

In doing so, the anticipated sequel captured 71% of the box office and delivered the biggest box office opening since “Barbie.”

In its second weekend, Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” dropped down to second place with £1.8 million and now has a running total of £7.1 million. In its fifth weekend, Paramount’s “If” earned £414,673 in third position for a total of £11.4 million.

In fourth place, in its sixth weekend, Disney’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” collected £388,500 for a total of £15 million. Rounding off the top five was Sony’s “The Garfield Movie” with £355,208 for a total of £7.8 million.

There were two debuts in the Top 10. MetFilm Distribution’s “Wilding” bowed in ninth place with £127,191 and Vertigo’s “Freud’s Last Session” in 10th with £72,989.

This week,...

Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of a grim day in U.K. history: the Battle of Orgreave when police clashed with striking workers at a coking plant, leaving more 100 people injured.

Those shocking events are investigated in the documentary Strike: An Uncivil War, which on Monday – the eve of the anniversary – won the Audience Award at the 31st Sheffield DocFest. News media, authorities, and the Conservative government of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tried to pin responsibility for the violence on the workers, but the film directed by Daniel Gordon lays bare an orchestrated plan by police to attack the strikers.

‘Strike: An Uncivil War’

“We have been overawed by how much audiences have been deeply engaged with films at Sheffield DocFest this year, and this is especially true of Daniel Gordon’s Strike: An Uncivil War,” Sheffield Creative Director Raul Niño Zambrano and Managing Director Annabel Grundy said in a statement.

At The Door Of The House Who Will Come Knocking, The Boy And The Suit Of Lights and No Other Land were the main winners at this year’s Sheffield DocFest.

The festival, which ran from June 12-17, saw public attendance rise by more than 20% compared to 2023.

Update: Strike: An Uncivil War has been unveiled as winner of the audience award. The documentary about a violent confrontation during the UK’s miners’ strike is directed by Daniel Gordon and produced by Embankment Films. Tull Stories will release the film in the UK and Ireland on June 21.

Maja Novaković’s At...