Sundance Film Festival London brought some of the best films from Utah to the Picturehouse Central over the weekend and the audiences voted British film Brian and Charles as the best of the fest.
Brian and Charles, directed by Jim Archer, took home the Audience Award as voted by the audiences attending screenings. Other films screening at the London edition of the festival were the Rebecca Hall-starring Resurrection, the Finnish horror film Hatching and the Princess Diana doc The Princess.
Based on a short film of the same name, Brian and Charles is the story of lonely inventor Brian who builds Charles, a robot made out of a washing machine and a mannequin head. The two form a friendship that defies expectations but it also resembles that of a parent and a teenager as Charles begins to rebel against Brian’s quiet, reserved life.
Archer as well as actors David Earl and Chris Hayward were in attendance and the award was a pleasant surprise for the team. Brian and Charles was warmly received in January in Utah as well and is now gearing up for a July release. Watch this space for our interviews with Archer, Earl and Hayward where we discuss the making of the feature film and working on the chemistry between a man and machine.
The festival also always features a surprise film and this year’s film was a complete and total surprise. Traditionally the surprise film isn’t revealed until it actually starts, the A24 horror comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies was selected to shock the lucky audience this year. It’s a strange and certainly surprising choice for the surprise film as it didn’t screen at Sundance in January, instead premiering at South by Southwest in March.