‘Grand Theft Hamlet,’ ‘Witches’ Feature on Longlist for BIFAs Raindance Maverick Award

Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s documentary Grand Theft Hamlet, about out-of-work theater actors who try to stage a production of Hamlet within the video game Grand Theft Auto during the COVID lockdown, and Witches, Elizabeth Sankey’s doc that posits a connection between historical witchery and post-partum psychological suffering, are among 13 feature films on the longlist for this year’s Raindance Maverick Award at the British Independent Film Awards, or BIFAs.

Also on the longlist are the likes of Strike: An Uncivil War, the best documentary audience award winner at this year’s Sheffield DocFest that uses personal testimony, formerly hidden government documents, and unseen archive footage to tell the story of the Battle of Orgreave during the British miners’ strike of 1984/85; Treading Water, which tells the story of a man who is newly released from prison and struggling with addiction and mental health issues; and King Baby, “a modern fairytale” set in a kingdom populated only by a King and a Servant, whose carefully constructed world is disturbed by the arrival of a mannequin Queen.

Also part of the longlist are two features featuring neurodiverse characters and creators. They are The Flight of Bryan, which “charts how an unemployed amateur cyclist, an in-debt father-of-three, together with a rag-tag team of neurodiverse outliers, set out to untangle the mystery of human-powered flight,” and The Stimming Pool, “a hybrid film that presents the possibilities of a world informed by autistic perspectives and perception.”

Raindance lauded the longlist as a mix of docs and fiction features that also includes modern fairytales and thrillers.

“Britain’s biggest independent film festival, Raindance is recognized for championing maverick filmmaking on a limited budget,” the organization said. “Raindance celebrates these creative, cash-conscious, and risk-taking filmmakers with the Raindance Maverick Award at the annual BIFAs, the awards ceremony founded by Raindance in 1998.” The award honors maverick films made with a budget of under £1.0 million ($1.3 million).

“The Raindance Maverick Award longlist captures the essence of independent cinema at its purest, rebellious and unapologetic best,” said Elliot Grove, founder of Raindance and BIFA.

The final list of nominations will be unveiled on Nov. 5. The BIFAs ceremony takes place in London on Dec. 8.

The 2023 maverick honor went to Alice Russell and Gannesh Rajah for If the Streets Were on Fire, which documents a rebellious group of young people who tear through London’s streets in the name of “Knives Down, Bikes Up.”

Check out the full longlist for the Raindance Maverick Award below.

THE CEREMONY – Jack King, Hollie Bryan, Lucy Meer
THE FLIGHT OF BRYAN – James Erskine, Victoria Gregory, Philipp Manderla
GRAND THEFT HAMLET – Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane, Julia Ton, Rebecca Wolff
KING BABY – Arran Shearing, Kit Redstone
REAWAKENING – Virginia Gilbert, Barry Castagnola
RESTLESS – Jed Hart, Benedict Turnbull
SATU – YEAR OF THE RABBIT – Joshua Trigg
SILENT MEN – Duncan Cowles
THE STIMMING POOL – Robin Elliot Knowles, Sam Chown Ahern, Benjamin Brown, Steven Eastwood,
Georgia Bradburn, Lucy Walker, Chloe White
STRIKE: AN UNCIVIL WAR – Daniel Gordon, Nick Taussig, Fjolla Iberhysaj
TOPS – Ames Pennington, Archie Sinclair
TREADING WATER – Gino Evans, Ben Toye
WITCHES – Elizabeth Sankey, Jeremy Warmsley, Chiara Ventura, Manon Ardisson