Sundance London: Comedy ‘Eighth Grade’, Gender Equality Doc ‘Half The Picture’ Scoop Prizes

Bo Burnham’s well-received coming-of-age comedy Eighth Grade scooped Sundance London’s Audience Favourite Award last night at the UK offshoot of the Sundance Film Festival. The film, about a teenager trying to survive the last week of her tough eighth-grade year before leaving to start high school, had its international premiere in London following its world premiere in Park City earlier this year. Newcomer Elsie Fisher stars in the pic, which A24 will release stateside in July.

Director Amy Adrion was awarded a special Picturehouse #WhatNext Prize for documentary Half The Picture, about the gender gap in Hollywood. The movie uses the current EEOC investigation into discriminatory hiring practices as a framework to talk to successful female directors about their career paths, struggles and hopes for the future. Talking heads include Ava DuVernay, Lena Dunham, Jill Soloway, Rosanna Arquette and Gina Prince-Bythewood. The film was selected for the award by the festival’s programming team.

The Sundance Film Festival: London took place from May 31-June 3 at Picturehouse Central, presenting 12 features from this year’s Sundance Film Festival including a surprise film screening of Bart Layton’s American Animals, alongside two short film programs and four special events. Movies in the program included Jennifer Fox’s The Tale and Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone follow-up Leave No Trace.