Eminem’s ‘Stans’ Doc to Premiere at SXSW London

The Eminem-produced documentary about superfans — aptly titled Stans — will have its world premiere at the opening night of the inaugural SXSW London Screen Festival, taking place this June.

Announced last year, Stans was directed by Steven Lockhart and digs into the complicated relationship between artists and their fanbases. Eminem is set to feature prominently in the film, along with some of his closest collaborators and biggest fans. (The title, of course, comes from Em and Dido’s 2000 hit, “Stan,” about an obsessive, delusional fan; in the decades since “stan” has become a commonplace catchall for superfans, even entering the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster.)

Along with Stans, SXSW London announced its closing-night feature, the U.K. premiere of The Life of Chuck. Directed by Mike Flanagan, the film is based on Stephen King’s 2020 novella of the same name about an ordinary accountant who becomes an odd kind of celebrity amid the end of the world. It stars Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jacob Tremblay, Karen Gillan, and Mark Hamill. 

SXSW London is set to feature 12 world premieres and 30 U.K. premieres over the course of its week-long run, June 2 to 7, in the Shoreditch neighborhood of London. The festival’s centerpiece headliner will be Deep Cover, a new action comedy from Tom Kingsley, that stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed as a group of amateur improv comedians who get sucked into the London criminal underworld. 

Other headliners slated for SXSW London include: Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf, a documentary about the titular model and trans activist; The Institute, another King adaptation, this one a TV series starring Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Barnes, and Joe Freeman; and What it Feels Like for a Girl, a coming-of-age series with a primarily transgender cast based on the memoir of Paris Lees. 

More film screenings and events will be announced in the coming weeks. Additionally, SXSW London will feature keynote speeches from Gillian Anderson, Industry creators Mikey Down and Konrad Kay, MUBI CEO Efe Cakarel, and artist Misan Harriman. Full Screen passes for the fest are on sale now on the SXSW London website, while individual tickets will go on sale in May.

(Note: In 2021, Rolling Stone’s parent company, P-MRC, acquired a 50 percent stake in the SXSW festival.)

From Rolling Stone US.