Christopher Nolan, Edgar Wright, Guy Ritchie, Nicholas Winding Refn…

These are just a few of the coolest filmmakers to have fostered their careers at Raindance Film Festival, and this Thursday will commemorate the 20th year of Britain’s oldest and largest independent festival on the industry schedule.

It’s one of only two UK film festivals to have a direct relationship with the Oscars, with the winner of it’s ‘Film of the Festival’ Award automatically gaining entry to the nominations for Best Short Award at next year’s Academy Awards ceremony.

So it’s not surprising that last year saw 16,500 admissions, all desperate to feature on the 12-day program.

This year the submissions have been whittled down to 105, and divided under a series of strands for audiences to choose from:

Retrospectives
Documentary
Days in Europa
Homegrown (UK)
Way Out East
Mexican Film
North American Indies
The Reel Quebec
Raindance Symphony Orchestra
World Cinema
Shorts Programmes

To make your experience even more inclusive they’ve even designed an APP that allows you to check in to screenings, rate and review the films you’ve seen as well as interact with other movie buffs throughout the festival.

I’ll be sure to try it out in between screenings and interviews, and if you’re in London between the 26th September and 7th October you can too.