Ahead of kicking off the 34th edition of Raindance Film Festival, founder Elliot Grove still keeps the event’s original mission ethos to his chest. Raindance, the largest independent film festival in the U.K., was born out of a desire to platform underseen and upcoming talent. Last year, the festival ballooned after a few scaled-down editions, with a whopping 90% increase in feature films. This year, the festival will screen 85 features, 112 short films and 27 immersive projects between June 17-26, with 56% of features coming from first-time directors.

Speaking with Variety ahead of opening night, Grove says growth is important, but that “bigger is not automatically better.” “What interests us is whether the festival remains useful to filmmakers and exciting for audiences. The increase in submissions and features reflects something happening globally: more people are making films outside the traditional system because the traditional system itself is becoming harder to access.”

The festival head emphasizes that his team is careful about “maintaining curation and identity.” “A festival can easily become bloated or anonymous,” he adds. “We work very hard to ensure that every selected film feels like it earned its place. We want audiences wandering into films they knew nothing about and leaving transformed by them. That sense of discovery is still the heart of Raindance.”

This year’s edition opens with Michel K. Parandi’s sci-fi “April X,” which stars “Heated Rivalry” sensation Connor Storrie in his first leading role in a feature. Asked about how big a get it is to host the film’s U.K. premiere, Grove says Storrie’s name “brings visibility and excitement.”

“There is no point pretending otherwise,” he goes on. “When Suzanne Ballantyne, head of programming, saw a preview of ‘April X’ in December, she called me and said she had just discovered the next hot male actor. He is one of those actors that audiences and the industry are watching very closely right now, and his involvement absolutely helps raise the profile of the film and the festival internationally.”

That being said, Grove says Raindance is not concerned with “celebrity for celebrity’s sake.” “Connor gives an exceptional performance in the film, but more importantly, the project itself embodies the independent spirit we care about,” he adds. “One of the things I find exciting is that audiences can still discover actors and filmmakers at Raindance before the wider industry fully catches up. That has happened many times throughout our history. So yes, it is a major opening-night film for us, but it still feels authentically Raindance rather than a calculated red-carpet exercise.” 

As for the themes in this year’s program, which includes world premieres of Mexican coming-of-age mystery “Jardines Del Bosque,” Iranian pandemic drama “No Lastname” and debut Estonian feature “Fränk,” from Tönis Pill, assistant director on Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” Grove says films at the festival this year broach issues of instability: “emotional, political, technological and existential instability.”

“Many films are wrestling with questions around identity, memory, disconnection and systems breaking down,” he adds, noting they have received several films dealing with “anxiety around technology and modern life […] expressed indirectly through genre. Horror and science fiction in particular are becoming vehicles for deeper cultural fears.”

On the subject of genre, Raindance is introducing a new award for Best Horror Feature in a year where Curry Barker’s “Obsession” and Kane Parsons’s “Backrooms” dominate the international box office. The decision, Grove says, stems from the fact “horror is one of the most dynamic areas of independent filmmaking right now.”

“We have also seen an explosion of inventive horror submissions from around the world,” adds Grove. “The quality and ambition have been remarkable. Creating a dedicated award felt like recognizing a movement that is already happening rather than artificially creating one. Some of the most exciting first-time filmmakers working today are emerging through horror because the genre still permits risk-taking in ways many other sectors currently do not.”

As a veteran of the indie industry, Grove has noticed several shifts and patterns across the years. The producer sees independent filmmaking in a moment of “profound transition.”

“The old pathways filmmakers were promised 34 years ago have largely collapsed,” he declares, adding he is concerned about “sustainability” as there is a “danger that only independently wealthy people will be able to sustain long creative careers.” Grove is also concerned about a “pressure toward familiarity and recognizable IP” that pushes the market toward an “algorithmic sameness.”

But the festival head is also optimistic. “Technology has democratized filmmaking tools in extraordinary ways. Young filmmakers today are resourceful, technically sophisticated, and globally connected. They are not waiting for permission anymore.”

As for the U.K. indie scene, Grove says “public funding pressures are real.” “The cost of living affects filmmakers directly, crews are stretched and emerging filmmakers are often balancing multiple jobs simply to survive.” At the same time, Grove believes British filmmakers remain “amongst the most inventive in the world,” with directors currently rethinking “format and audience” through embracing “microbudget features, hybrid forms, vertical storytelling, online-first audiences and international co-production models.” 

Hosting the festival in the summer for the second year in a row after moving slots in 2025, Grove notes the new dates give Raindance “a slightly different energy.” “London in summer feels open, international and culturally alive. Audiences are out, filmmakers stay longer and industry guests seem more relaxed and engaged. That human scale matters enormously to us.”