30th Raindance Film Festival Award Winners

To celebrate the outstanding achievements of the films screening in competition at the 30th Raindance Film Festival (26 Oct – 5 Nov 2022), 9 prizes are awarded to features, 5 to shorts/music videos, plus a further ‘Spirit of Raindance’ award.

The debut feature by Michael Morris, TO LESLIE is named ‘Film of the Festival’. Michael Morris is former director of London’s The Old Vic theatre, and has directed extensively in television including Bloodline, Kingdom and House of Cards. Acclaimed BAFTA-nominated and BIFA-winning Andrea Riseborough wins ‘Best Performance’ for her lead role in TO LESLIE, a powerful portrayal of a single mom in West Texas, a lottery-winner who squandered her winnings and hits rock-bottom, but finds an opportunity for redemption.

With nine nominations and two wins at the Israeli Film Academy Awards, KARAOKE also triumphs at Raindance with two awards: ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Screenplay for Moshe Rosenthal.

Korean director Hee-il Leesong’s tense thriller SWALLOW starring actor and musician Ji-hyun Woo, which has its World Premiere at Raindance, is named ‘Best International Feature’. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Pratibha Parmar’s hybrid documentary drama MY NAME IS ANDREA, with a cast including Ashley Judd, Soko, and Andrea Riseborough, wins ‘Best Documentary Feature’. Selected as the official UK entry to the AMPAS International Feature Film category of the 2023 Oscar® awards, WINNERS is named Raindance’s ‘Best UK Feature’. A champion at festivals including Brussels and Cleveland International Film Festival, and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, László Csuja and Anna Nemes receive another award for their first feature GENTLE, winning ‘Discovery: Best Debut Feature’. Acclaimed cinematographer Nikita Kuzmenko wins ‘Best Cinematography’ for Ukrainian feature PAMFIR. British mocumentary SWEDE CAROLINE receives the ‘Spirit of Raindance’ award, as chosen by the festival team. And the winners are:

Film Of The Festival: To Leslie

Best Performance: Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie

Having abandoned her teenaged son and gone bankrupt, Leslie, an alcoholic lottery winner from Texas, is thrown out by a succession of relatives before finding redemption, of sorts, working as a cleaner in a flyblown motel run by two kindly dropouts. TO LESLIE (dir: Michael Morris, USA) is anchored by a powerhouse lead performance by Andrea Riseborough.

Best International Feature: Swallow

When Hoyeon searches for his mother after her unexplained disappearance, he uncovers a violent and revolutionary past. SWALLOW (dir: Hee-il Leesong, Korea) is the story of an ignorant young man with little interest or control over his life, transforming into a tense thriller exploring love. Revolution and identity.

Best UK Feature: Winners

In a small provincial town in Iran, the children work hard to support their families. One day nine-year-old Yahya and his friend find a precious statue. Sharing a passion for cinema, Yahya’s boss decides to help them find the owner. WINNERS (dir: Hassan Nazar, UK) has been selected as the official UK entry to the AMPAS International Feature Film Category of the 2023 Oscar® awards.

Best Documentary Feature: My Name Is Andrea

MY NAME IS ANDREA (dir: Pratibha Parmar, USA) examines the life and pioneering work of controversial public intellectual, Andrea Dworkin. Gripping, relentless and oftentimes haunting, this documentary stands as a tribute to one of the most notorious figures of 20th century feminism.

Best Director: Moshe Rosenthal, Karaoke

Best Screenplay: Moshe Rosenthal, Karaoke

Meir and Tova are resigned to a lethargic life, until they are drawn to a gregarious neighbour. Moshe Rosenthal’s debut feature sets out to expose the underbelly of high-class life, giving us a dramedy for the soul.

Discovery / Best Debut Feature: Gentle

Bodybuilder Edina leads an ascetic life of training and dieting under the watchful eye of her partner in GENTLE (dir: László Csuja, Anna Nemes, Hungary). But when she takes on escort work to pay for supplements and steroids, and falls in love with a client, she sees that her world championship dream isn’t really hers at all.

Best Cinematography: Nikita Kuzmenko, Pamfir

Retired smuggler Pamfir returns to his home in Western Ukraine, determined to earn an honest living. His plans for a life without crime are compromised when his son sets fire to a church. Promising to repay the damage, Pamfir returns to the world of smuggling for one last job. PAMFIR (dir: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Ukraine) features dramatic cinematography by Nikita Kuzmenko. 

Spirit Of Raindance: Swede Caroline

Celebrating Jo Hartley’s first ever lead performance, British mocumentary SWEDE CAROLINE (dir: Finn Bruce, Brook Driver, UK) follows a competitive giant vegetable grower as she readies herself for the big annual National Veg Championship.

Academy Award® Qualifying Shorts Programme

Raindance is an Oscar® qualifying festival. The recipient of Best Short Of The Festival is eligible for consideration in the Short Film category of the Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run (provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules).

Best Short Of The Festival: Same Old (Dir: Lloyd Lee Choi, USA)

A Chinese immigrant living in America, surviving on tips from his job as a delivery worker, has his bike stolen and embarks on a desperate journey to reclaim it. 

Best UK Short: Glorious Revolution (Dir: Masha Novikova, UK/Ukraine/Germany)

In 2014, at the height of the Ukrainian revolution, a mother’s son is killed while protesting in Independence Square. Her attempt to bury him as a hero clashes with a corrupt bureaucratic system.

Best Documentary Short: Elephant Food Is For The Strongest Teeth

(dir: Michael Kinsella-Perks, Will McBain, UK). An up-close view of the ancient Nigerian martial art of Dambe, following Kano City champion ‘Ebola’ who’s preparing for a clash with his rival.

Best Animation Short: My Year Of Dicks (Dir: Sara Gunnarsdóttir, USA/Iceland)

An imaginative fifteen-year-old is stubbornly determined to lose her virginity in this retro-romantic-comedy with a female-forward look at sexual awakening.

Best Music Video: Crazy (C Prinz, USA)

An expansive metaphor embodying the hardships women go through in their ascension to power.

Raindance 2022 Jury

This year’s jury: Damian Lewis (Billions, Homeland, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Band of Brothers), Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey, Mank, Our House, War & Peace), Phoebe Fox (The Great, The Aeronauts, Woman in Black: Angel of Death), Tom Bateman (Thirteen Lives, Death on the Nile, Behind Her Eyes), Naomi Scott (Anatomy of a Scandal, Aladdin, Charlie’s Angels), Weruche Opia (I May Destroy You, High Desert, Slumberland), Daniel Brühl (Good Bye, Lenin!, Rush, The First Avenger: Civil War, The Alienist), Holliday Grainger (The Capture, Great Expectations, Cinderella), Lydia West (Years and Years, It’s a Sin, Dracula), Naomie Harris (The Man Who Fell To Earth, Moonlight, Skyfall), Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody, Murder on the Orient Express, The Ipcress File), Colin Morgan (Merlin, Mammals, Borderland), Lara Pulver (Sherlock, The Split, Maternal), Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Three Body Problem), Joseph Morgan (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Titans), Anne-Marie Duff (Bad Sisters, Suffragette, Nowhere Boy)

Film critic & Girls on Film podcast host Anna Smith, Director & winner of Raindance Discovery Award at BIFA 2021 Celeste Bell, Founder and CEO of Modern Films Eve Gabereau, Head of Programme for Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest Muffin Hix, Founder and director of the International Latino Film Festival – San Francisco Sylvia Perel, Filmmaker and Jarman Award Recipient Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Creative Director of We are Parable Anthony Andrews, Festival Manager at Memento International Anais Gagliardi, Producer and founder of Joi Productions Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, Writer-director Luke Cutforth (The Drowning Of Arthur Braxton, Raindance 2021 Best UK Feature), Founder and CEO of ScreenHits TV Rose Hulse, Film London’s Head of Film Culture Paul Bowman.