The Raindance Web Festival kicks off tonight in Leicester Square, London. In addition to showcasing feature-length films, such as the festival opener, Kai Berry’s “Newcomer,” Raindance will also celebrate a host of short films this season.
American networking platform, Stage 32, has announced that it has partnered with this year’s Raindance Film Fest to provide six of its short films from its recent contest judged by Andrew Beck, Production & Development Executive for The Weinstein Company, Scott Stoop, Manager at BenderSpink, Jairo Alvarado, Manager at Circle of Confusion, Stephanie Wilcox, VP of Development at Rumble Films, Jennifer Breslow, VP Scripted Series at Lifetime, Amanda Johnson Zetterstrom, Executive, Full Fathom Five, Nate Matteson, Producer & Manager, Gotham Group and Elliot Grove, Producer & Founder of Raindance. Forbes describes the company as “Lynda.com meets LinkedIn for Film, Television, and Theater Creatives.”
Submissions to Stage 32 represented 29 different countries, making its partnership with Raindance’s celebration of a global contingency all the more fitting. The top six short films will screen on September 29th at the Leicester Square Vue West End as part of the Raindance Film Festival. The showing will be followed by a world premiere on Stage32.com. The finalists, represented by three different countries, are:
“Anxious Oswald Greene,” directed by Marshall Axani (Vancouver, Canada)
“Ark,” directed by Greg Jonkajtys (San Francisco, CA, USA)
“I’ll Eat You Alive,” directed by Amara Cash (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
“Killer,” directed by Matt Kazman (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
“Low Fi,” directed by Alejandro Montoya (Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA)
“Monica,” directed by Gunnar Tornes (Oslo, Norway)
“Olde E,” directed by Xavier L. Burgin (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
“Seclusion,” directed by Vivian Tse (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
“The Voice In The Head,” directed by Cyrus Trafford (London, UK)
“This Modern Man is Beat,” directed by Alex Merkin (Miami, FL USA)
“Trench,” directed by Nathan Hunt (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
Additionally, Stage 32 Founder & CEO, Richard “RB” Botto, has been selected to Raindance Film Festival Grand Jury alongside Alberto Lopez, International Sales Director for Variety, Col Needham, Founder & CEO of IMDB, among others. Botto has also signed up to present an expert panel on crowdsourcing at this year’s festival, which will feature UK filmmakers, Kerry Skinner (“Common People”) and Simon Cox (“Kaleidoscope Man”).
The Raindance Film Festival runs September 25th-October 4th in various Vue cinemas in the greater London area.
READ MORE: What Is Stage 32, Anyway?
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