U.K. Films 'Layla' & 'Kneecap' Among Sundance Film Festival Premieres

While Hollywood is prepping for awards season leading up to the Mid-march Oscars, slowly working its way back up the calendar, the Sundance Film Festival is already looking ahead. The January event is the first major festival of the year and the first spot for filmmakers to trot out potential Oscar-worthy films for buyers. It's also the first glimpse of where indie filmmaking is heading thematically, and with almost a dozen U.K. productions or co-productions included on the slate, a window into what's to come for the mid-2020s.

There are 11 U.K. productions or co-productions that will be screened during the festival, which runs from January 18-28, 2024, in Salt Lake City, matching the number screened in 2023, though the balance is different. 2023 saw six U.K. productions and five co-pros, whereas this year, it's only two U.K. productions and nine co-pros on the schedule.

One of those two productions, Layla, will be a World Premiere debut and be screened in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Written and directed by Amrou Al-Kadhi and produced by Savannah James-Bayly, the film centers on a struggling Arab drag queen, played by Bilal Hasna, who falls in love for the first time, "losing and finding themself in a transformative relationship that tests who they really are."