‘To Leslie’, ‘Karaoke’ win top prizes at UK’s Raindance Film Festival

By Ben Dalton2022-11-04T12:44:00+00:00

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raindance winners

Source: Raindance

‘To Leslie’, ‘Karaoke’

Michael Morris’ debut feature To Leslie and Moshe Rosenthal’s Israeli comedy Karaoke were the big winners at the UK’s Raindance Film Festival, which announced the prizes for its 30^th edition in London today (November 4).

US drama To Leslie won the film of the festival award and best performance for Andrea Riseborough, who plays a Texan single mother who attempts to rebuild her life after squandering a lottery win. It premiered at SXSW in March. Morris was formerly director of London’s Old Vic Theatre and has previously directed episodes of TV dramas Bloodline, Kingdom and House Of Cards.

Scroll down for the full list of feature winners

Rosenthal received the best director and screenplay awards for Karaoke. The film, about a middle-class suburban couple in their 60s who are drawn to their karaoke-loving neighbour, debuted at Tribeca in June, and previously won prizes at Jerusalem Film Festival and the Israeli Film Academy.

Best UK feature went to Hassan Nazar’s Winners, which is the UK’s entry to the international feature category at the 2023 Oscars.

Hee-il Leesong’s South Korean title Swallow won best international feature; Pratibha Parmar’s My Name Is Andrea, about feminist icon Andrea Dworkin, picked up best documentary feature; and Hungarian bodybuilding drama Gentle by Laszlo Csuja and Anna Nemes took the discovery prize.

The prizes were selected by 28 jury members, including actors Naomi Scott, Naomie Harris, Damian Lewis and Lucy Boynton as well as Modern Films CEO Eve Gabereau and producer Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor.

The awards landed on the same day that the British Independent Film Awards (Bifas) announced its 2022 nominations. The Bifas were founded in 1998 by Raindance founders Elliot Grove and Suzanne Ballantyne.