Tina Ghavari’s Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day will world premiere at SXSW London this June as the opening film with the director and key cast in attendance.
It is among a second wave of feature films unveiled on Monday for the Screen Program, a key pole of the UK SXSW spin-off, which will unfold in and around the city’s Shoreditch neighborhood from June 1 to 6. They join 17 titles announced at the end of March.
The opening film is adapted by Ghavari, with screenwriter Justine Waddell, from Virginia Woolf’s 1919 novel revolving around the life of Katharine Hilbery, a high-born young woman who challenges the patriarchal society of the time to pursue her love of astronomy and life on her own terms.
Haley Bennett stars as Hilbery and is joined in the cast by Jack Whitehall, Jennifer Saunders, Lily Allen, Sally Phillips and Misia Butler. Talent so far confirmed to attend the premiere are Bennett, Whitehall, Phillips, Butler, alongside Ghavari and Waddell.
The festival also revealed that Savage House with Richard E. Grant and Claire Foy, Bel Powley and Jack Farthing have been added to the lineup.
There will also be a first look screening of Get Jiro, the Adult Swim animated series from Warner Bros. Animation, based on The New York Times bestselling DC/Vertigo graphic novel from the late renowned chef Anthony Bourdain.
Executive Produced by Brian Gatewood, Alessandro Tanaka, Jordan Blum, Bourdain, Joel Rose, and Sam Register, it features stars Brian Tee (A House of Dynamite) and is set in a not-too-distant future L.A. where master chefs rule the town and people literally kill for a seat at the best restaurants.
SXSW London has also unveiled six films selected for this year’s Official Competition section. The comprise Tawfik Sabouni’s The Other Side Of The Sun, Juan Pablo Sallato’s The Red Hangar, Mahnaz Mohammadi’s Roya, Vladlena Sandu’s Memory, Ross McElwee’ Remake and Danielle Arbid’s Only Rebels Win.
“The films in our Official Competition embody what we are most excited about in contemporary cinema: no-holds-barred, deeply human and formally audacious films that provoke and challenge us to think wider, deeper and more empathetically,” said Anna Bogutskaya, Head of Screen at SXSW London.
The Screen sidebar has also announced five new talsk spanning “Toy Meets Tech: The New Technologies of Toy Story 5″ with Pixar artist Thomas Jordan and “BookTok to Screen: Making Hits Out of Views” in which Prime Video Head of Originals UK & Europe Tara Erer and Banijay Head Of Adaptations Hannah Griffiths will discuss how viral literary trends are transformed into global streaming sensations.
Further additional talks include “Beyond the Audition: Casting Directors” with casting directors Sophie Holland (The Witcher, Wednesday) and BAFTA-winner Lucy Pardee (Aftersun, Die My Love); “Responsibilities of Creative Leadership” with Mia Bays (BFI Filmmaking Fund) and Nadia Fall (The Young Vic as well as “Big Stories, No Borders” in which Samuel Kissous (Pernel Media) and Claire Mundell (Synchronicity Films) will examine the new economics of global co-productions.