Sundance festival: London 2014

Film and music is at the centre of this year’s Sundance London, the big smoke’s offshoot of the Utah film festival headed by Robert Redford. Despite its setting in the corporate hole of the O2’s Cineworld, after just two years the event has raised a great reputation for its remarkable selection of films and now finds itself at the heart of London’s movie calendar.

UK premieres of a new documentary on the rise of The Who and panels with Jarvis Cocker feature, alongside first UK showings of Frank, in which Michael Fassbender stars as the leader of an avant-garde rock group who hides himself in a papier-mâché mask. 

One highlight is Lambert & Stamp, which tells the story of two amateur filmmakers who, while researching for a subject for an underground movie, discovered Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend, later mentoring and managing the band that later became The Who. The Hollywood Reporter raved at its premiere, asking: “Is it too sweeping a statement to say Lambert & Stamp instantly earns a place in the pantheon of great music docs? Who cares, let’s just go ahead and say it.” Alongside Jarvis Cocker leads a panel on how British documentary is pushing the boundaries of music, biography and film, accompanied by the directors of the excellent Nick Cave doc and Sundance hit 20,000 Days on Earth, released later this year.

Culture Whisper have already hinted at some hits from this year’s festival in the Rockies. Bickering friends Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite to play versions of themselves on a restaurant tour in The Trip to Italy , the feature-length version of the upcoming BBC2 comedy series. There's also the UK premiere of the acclaimed Blue Ruin , which took away the FIPRESCI critics prize at Cannes last year, and Sundance hosts Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney's Finding Fela , about Nigerian Afrobeat music and making a musical about its leading figure Fela Kuti.

Elsewhere, there’s The Case Against 8, a gripping documentary on the case to overturn California’s ban on same sex marriage, which won the documentary directing award at this year’s festival. And Fruitvale Station, which won the rare accolade of winning both the Grand Jury and Audience Award at 2013’s Sundance.

As part of Sundance's archive strand, a selection of films too brilliant to see on the small screen (although we at Culture Whisper would say that about any film) include Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, which famously caused a ruckus with the censors on its arrival in the UK, and Debra Granik’s rustic Winter’s Bone, which launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career in 2010.

As well as the feature programme, there is an extensive selection of shorts showing on the O2’s big screens. Look out for the animated short film Yearbook, which tells the melancholy, surreal and sometimes funny story of a man asked to compile the history of the human race, before the world is destroyed. 

After just two years, Sundance London is fast becoming one of the biggest cinematic events in the London calendar, and with an extensive selection of talks and events on offer, is an absolute must for film buffs in the capital. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 9am.

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