Why Raindance is the must-attend event in the indie film calendar.
The 2026 Raindance Film Festival runs 18 to 28 June in London. The UK’s largest independent film festival, BAFTA and BIFA qualifying, and the must-attend event in the indie film calendar. Hiway is pro
A festival the indie film world built itself.
Raindance was started in 1992 by Elliot Grove, out of a Soho flat, on a budget that wouldn’t cover lunch at Cannes. The pitch was simple. Independent filmmakers needed a place that backed them. The studios weren’t going to do it. The public broadcasters weren’t going to do it. So Elliot did.
Thirty-four years later, it’s the UK’s largest independent film festival, BAFTA-qualifying for shorts, BIFA-qualifying for features, and one of the most respected indie showcases anywhere in the world. The Raindance Film School trained the people running half the production companies you’ve heard of. The festival has launched careers most of the major studios now sign at fees that wouldn’t have got the films made in the first place.
The whole thing still runs on the same idea. Champion the people making the work. Cut out the gatekeepers. Trust that the best film in the room doesn’t need a marketing budget to be the best film in the room.
That’s why it’s still the festival the industry quietly takes more seriously than it lets on.
What this year’s edition looks like.
The 2026 programme delivers what Raindance always has, just more of it.
World premieres. Features and shorts from filmmakers across every continent. The kind of work that doesn’t get made anywhere else. Most of it is being shown in public for the first time.
The Raindance Film School masterclasses. Hands-on, founders-in-the-room, no-nonsense craft sessions. The reason people fly in from outside the UK just for the week.
Panel rooms. Industry, finance, distribution, immersive, AI. The conversations everyone talks about for six months afterwards.
The Filmmakers Party. No commentary needed. You will not want to miss it.
The awards ceremony. Saturday 27 June. The closing showcase of the year’s best independent voices, and the one ceremony every working indie filmmaker actually pays attention to.
Full programme at raindance.org/festival.
Why every part of the film world should be there.
Festivals are how the industry meets itself. Raindance does this better than most. Here’s what each part of the room gets out of being there for ten days.
If you’re a filmmaker. You meet the people who actually make decisions. Distributors who say yes. Sales agents who reply. Producers who pick up your card. Other filmmakers running into exactly the problems you’re running into. It’s an entire year of networking compressed into a week.
If you’re a financier or producer. The early signals are all here. The directors you’ll be backing in 2027 are showing their shorts right now. The IP that will end up on the slate of every Tier-1 buyer is being shopped in panel-room corridors. Cannes is where deals get announced. Raindance is where they get found.
If you’re a distributor or sales agent. Independent film is back as a category. Direct-to-fan economics are showing up at the box office. Raindance is the festival closest to where those shifts are happening. Walk the floor. Take meetings. The slate for the next three years is in this building.
If you’re a journalist or critic. Some of the year’s most-talked-about films will be shown here first. Filmmakers who are about to be everywhere. Industry conversations happening in real time. The breakthrough stories of next awards season often have a Raindance stamp somewhere on them.
If you’re a buyer or platform programmer. Look at the queue at the awards ceremony. Half the people in front of you in the line are scouting too. That tells you what you need to know.
If you’re a fan of independent film. Watching a film at Raindance is not the same as watching it on a streamer. You’re in a room with the people who made it, the people who will champion it next, and the people whose careers it’s about to change. Two pints in the bar afterwards and you’ll see what we mean.
We’ll be there.
Proud to be a Raindance partner.
This year we’re showing up as the technology partner behind Raindance Releasing - the festival’s new year-round streaming home. It went live in the spring with founding films from the Raindance roster. By the end of the festival, every filmmaker who walks in with a finished film should know how to get on it.
That’s our job for the week. Onboarding. Conversations. Listening. Helping.
Beyond that, we’re here because we genuinely believe in what Raindance does and has always done. The infrastructure layer for direct-to-fan that we’ve built at Hiway only exists because filmmakers told us what was broken. Raindance has been advocating for those filmmakers for thirty-four years. Backing Raindance is backing the people who back the people we built the platform for.
Some specific moments to find us:
Saturday 20 June, 15:30 — Immersive World (Ecosystem) panel. David Orman on stage with the people building the next layer of media infrastructure.
Thursday 25 June, 16:30 — Creative HQ Panel. Zach Rothwell on what’s actually working for independent filmmakers right now.
Every day at the Hub. Filmmaker onboarding clinics. Bring your film. Leave with it live.
If you spot us at the bar after a screening, say hi. Especially if you’re a filmmaker. The whole point of the week is meeting the people making the work.
How to get the most out of the ten days.
A few practical things, because everyone’s first Raindance is a slightly chaotic learning experience.
Book your screenings early. The films that sell out are not the ones you think. World premieres in tiny rooms run out the day they go on sale.
Go to the panels. Even the ones outside your specialism. Especially those. The 90-minute side-conversations afterwards are where most of the actual value sits.
Skip nothing on the closing weekend. Awards ceremony, closing film, the bar afterwards. That’s where the year’s relationships get sealed.
Bring business cards. Bring more than you think. Or at least have your LinkedIn QR ready on your lock screen.
Talk to filmmakers, not just buyers. The best contacts you’ll make this year are the people next to you in the queue.
Sleep is optional, but caffeine is mandatory. Ten days is longer than it sounds.
The week starts Wednesday 18 June.
If you’re already booked: see you there.
If you’re on the fence: get off it. This is the festival. Show up.
If you’re not coming this year: keep an eye on the Raindance Releasing catalogue. By the end of the festival, this year’s best independent films will be live and watchable wherever you are.
Either way, Raindance is the moment that matters in the indie film calendar.
We’re proud to be part of it.