Sundance London Announces Kneecap To Open 2024 Line-up

Sundance have announced the 2024 Sundance London Film Festival Opening and Closing Galas. The 11th edition of the festival will showcase Kneecap and Dìdi (弟弟), two hotly anticipated feature directorial debuts.

2024 Festival is set to take place between 6th until 9th June at Picturehouse Central in the heart of London. Opening with Rich Peppiatt’s raucous and infectious Irish-language film, Kneecap. At Sundance in Utah the Irish comedy drama won the audience award, now it’s time for it’s UK Trailer.

Of the 80,000 native Irish speakers, 6,000 live in the North of Ireland and three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This is the real-life story of how this anarchic Belfast trio became the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save and reinvigorate their mother tongue. Set in post-troubles Belfast, childhood best friends Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh and Naoise Ó Cairealláin live debaucherously, selling drugs and partying to the time, but when they inadvertently cross paths with high school teacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh, things begin down a path none of them saw coming. At the same time, a civil rights movement, led by JJ’s partner is fighting for the right to have the Irish language instated as an official language of Northern Ireland. With this political backdrop, JJ sees an opportunity to use music to further the cause. Following in the footsteps of Naoise’s father (played by Michael Fassbender), an IRA stalwart who instilled in them the power of language and culture, the three of them form Kneecap, a politically charged, anti-establishment rap trio who rap in Irish and embody the spirit of defiance.

The festival will close on 9th June with the UK premiere of Sean Wang‘s Dìdi (弟弟). Wang’s short film Nai Nai & Wai Pó was nominated for 2023 Oscars.

The film, set in 2008 in California’s Bay Area, is a funny, irreverent, and affecting ode to first-generation teenagers navigating the joy and chaos of adolescence as seen through the lens of a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy, played by Izaac Wang (Good Boys, Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon).

Eugene Hernandez, Director, Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming commented on the films “Having Kneecap and Dìdi (弟弟) bookend the Sundance Film Festival: London 2024 sets the stage for a rousing edition celebrating new cinema. These two debut films, by breakthrough directors Rich Peppiatt and Sean Wang, offer irresistible storytelling and bold filmmaking that resonated deeply with our audiences at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s been an honour to welcome these filmmakers into the Sundance community. We look forward to bringing these exciting discoveries to London audiences and to sharing their energy and ion for independent cinema.”

We are still waiting for the full line up of 2024 Sundance London Film Festival, that full line up will be announced later this month. Sadly this year we where unsuccessful in getting a press for Sundance earlier this year, so we can’t wait until the line up has been revealed, hopefully you in London!

Sundance Film Festival: London 2024 es are released on sale today, with early bird pricing in effect until 26th April.

Festival
£75 early bird price then £80 full price