With increased attendances and over 15,000 admissions, Raindance 15 has been a huge success. Held over 12 days in 3 locations (Cineworld Haymarket, Cineworld Shaftesbury Avenue and The Rex Cinema) with 180 individual feature films, special events & shorts, Raindance has been at its best ever; Masterclass with Michael Madsen, live pitching session with Ewan McGregor and the best line of documentaries this side of Edinburgh!

Raindance closed tonight; 7th October, with Tartan Films’ Gus Van Sant’ feature “Paranoid Park. Before the film, a presentation of this year’s winners introduced by festival founder Elliot Grove and festival producer Jesse Vile followed by one of Raindances infamous closing night parties at Sound in Leicester Square

At the presentation, Grove and Vile announced the following winners:

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: "Once"
Director: John Carney
(Republic of Ireland)

Best UK FEATURE: "Exhibit A"
Director: Dom Rotheroe

BEST DEBUT FEATURE: "Ex Drummer"
Director: Koen Mortier (Belgium)

BEST DOCUMENTARY: "Frank & Cindy"
Director: G.J Echternkamp (USA)

BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT: "Dragonflies" [Poland]

UK SHORT sponsored by Delta Airlines: " The Truffle Hunter"

Delta Air Lines supports the Best UK Short Film Award with a prize of 2 return tickets to anywhere in the US. The prize was designed to give UK filmmakers the opportunity to attend screenings of their film in US festivals. Last year’s winner, Osbert Parker, used his tickets to fly to Aspen Shorts Fest where he was awarded the best animation prize for his short film.

TISCALI SHORT FILM AWARD [UK]: "Amelia and Michael"

SAE DIGITAL SHORT FILM AWARD: "The Stronge"r [UK]

Back for the second year, the winner of the SAE Digital Short Film Award is chosen from a strict rule of criteria - the film must have been entirely shot and edited using only digital means of production and must demonstrate a unique approach to filmmaking utilising new digital technology.

CANON BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD: "Dragonflies" [Poland]

This year sees the introduction of a brand new award that focuses on the photography of a film and the work of the cinematographer. The Canon Best Cinematography Award goes to the best cinematographer in a short film with the winner taking home a brand new Canon XH A1 HD camera. The award will be chosen by a panel of established cinematographers.

ADOBE ANIMATION AWARD: "Pushkin" [UK]

2007 marks the creation of the Adobe Animation Award for the best-animated short film. The award winning film will be chosen for its originality and technical proficiency by the Raindance jury and an Adobe animation specialist.
Diesel Film of the Festival

The Truffle Hunter [UK]

For the fourth year running we are very excited to announce the Diesel Film of the Festival prize. The winners of last year’s award, Kasimir Burgess & Edwin McGill (Australia), were selected for their unique and original style of filmmaking as well as demonstrating a strong passion for their art. Diesel supported their win by funding their project to produce the 15th Raindance Film Festival trailer. Diesel has been working with Raindance since 2003 to help support the next generation of film-makers and give them the opportunity to showcase their work internationally. The winner of the Diesel Film of the Festival Award will be given the opportunity and financial support to produce the trailer for the following years Raindance Festival that is shown before every film screening.

Raindance is the UK largest independent film festival showcasing shorts and features from all over the world and specialising in directorial debuts. Distinguishing itself with its rock and roll attitude, Raindance runs riot in the West end of London in Late Sept/ Oct. As well as showing independent films from around the world, the festival hosts a number of special events (26 in 12 days this year) including master classes, Q&A sessions, its renowned pitching event where you could end up pitching your film to an exec from a key distributor and of course Parties Galore. In its first year 1993 Raindance hosted 22 features, 130 shorts and attracted 130 visitors with closing night film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, the feature screen debut of 14 year of Leonardo DiCaprio. In the years since, Raindance has premiered amongst others Pulp Fiction, The Blair Witch Project and Memento. In 2007, festival attendance rose to 15,000 with 73 features and 90 short films from 40 different countries.

Jury 2007
Iggy Pop; Mick Jones, Penny Woolcock, Andrea Arnold, Oli Harbottle, Jonathan Harvey, Sandy Lieberson, Anthony Quinn, Jemma Rodgers, Tessa Ross, Ed King, Davide Scalenghe and Brian Tufano.

Our submissions for the 15th Annual Raindance Film Festival open on January 1st and close June 1st. Our festival dates are September 27 - October 7th and we screen at the CineWorld Shaftsbury Avenue cinema in the heart of London's West End.