View the full LIFF 2022 programme
You can view the full programme by clicking on LIFF 2022 Films on the top menu of the website or click this link. You can also view the full programme in the LIFF 2022 guide format on this link which also has details of how to pick up or receive a printed copy.
You can buy individual tickets for films on each film page and there are great value passes for buying multiple tickets.
LIFF 2022 programme sections
Official Selection
We are delighted to open and close LIFF 2022 with two outstanding new British films. The deeply moving and life-affirming drama Living, directed by Oliver Hermanus and starring Bill Nighy, opens LIFF 2022 on 3 November. One of the best British debut features in recent years, Aftersun from writer/director Charlotte Wells and starring Paul Mescal and newcomer Frankie Corio closes LIFF 2022 on 17 November.
Official Selection includes some of the top prize-winners and most acclaimed new films of the last year. Alcarràs won the Golden Bear at Berlin 2022 and The Novelist’s Film the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. From Cannes 2022, highlights include the joint Grand Prix winner Close, and Broker which took the Best Actor prize. And from Venice 2022, the Special Jury Prize winner No Bears, and Vera which took Best Director and Best Actress in the Horizons section.
We are also presenting restorations of two film classics as part of Official Selection. Casque d’Or from 1952 is master filmmaker Jacques Becker’s tale of small-time gangsters, and Brief Encounters from 1967 is the sublime debut of great Ukrainian filmmaker Kira Muratova. As well as Brief Encounters, we are showing two other features at LIFF 2022 in support of Ukraine – Pamfir, also in Official Selection, and The Hamlet Syndrome in Cinema Versa.
Official Selection: New Directors Competition
We are launching a New Directors Competition as part of Official Selection, with UK Premieres of feature films from eight first or second-time filmmakers, six of whom are women. LIFF has always supported the work of exciting new filmmaking talent and we wanted to increase our support for features alongside our seven competitions for shorts in Leeds Short Film Awards.
Cinema Versa
Cinema Versa celebrates another great year for documentary cinema with many of the most acclaimed and notable new films. These include Laura Poitras’s All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, a powerful portrait of the artist and activist Nan Goldin, and the winner of the Golden Lion at Venice 2022. The human body is revealed as it’s never been seen before on screen in De Humani Corporis Fabrica. A Bunch of Amateurs is a warm and funny profile of the Bradford Movie Makers, one of the oldest amateur film clubs in the country.
There are inspirational tales of political resistance in Myanmar Diaries and My Imaginary Country in Chile. Music documentaries include the story of techno in God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines and the life of jazz legend Thelonious Monk in Rewind and Play.
We also present a batch of exciting premieres including: the eye-opening environmental documentary Matter Out of Place; Hello, Bookstore, a lovely and gentle portrait of a long-running bookshop in a small town in Maine; and The Star Wars Kid, the fascinating story of the first truly viral video on the internet.
Fanomenon
Fanomenon has been a popular part of LIFF since 1999 and it was created to focus on film genres frequently categorised as ‘fantastic’, including fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, but also to encompass comedies, thrillers, anime, cross-genre films, and the unclassifiable.
This year we present two acclaimed new independent horror films, The Harbinger and Huesera. We welcome Harry Kümel for a Q&A with his cult vampire horror Daughters of Darkness (1971). We also screen a restoration of Bill Gunn’s radically black take on the vampire genre Ganja & Hess (1973). Anime has always been part of Fanomenon and we present one of this year’s highlights, Goodbye, Don Glees!, and the live action Anime Supremacy! about competing TV studios. We have more animation with the unique Unicorn Wars, an action comedy from Spain about teddy bear soldiers.
Our selection of films from South Korea include brilliant murder mystery thriller Confession, dark comedy drama New Normal, and ‘weird wave’ sci-fi The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra. From Thailand, we present action comedy Fast & Feel Love about the world of competitive cup stacking. We have more comedy – of darker kinds – with Sick of Myself from Norway and Incredible but True from France. We have more thrillers too with serial killer drama Holy Spider from Denmark, chilling Haneke-inspired The Uncle from Croatia, and one-take murder mystery Medusa Deluxe from the UK.
Many films mentioned already are UK Premieres at LIFF 2022 and we have more, including two cross-genre ones, Spanish fantasy drama/black comedy La Pietà and charming Canadian sci-fi/deadpan comedy Viking, fresh from its recent success at Toronto Film Festival.
Note for fans of Fanomenon marathons We know many fans of Fanomenon have enjoyed our film marathons in previous years. For several reasons, including shifts in the availability of certain genres of films and changes in the structure of our programme, we are not able to present the marathons this year. We are sorry for any disappointment caused and we hope you still enjoy your Fanomenon experience during LIFF 2022.
Leeds Short Film Awards 2022
We love short films at LIFF! We show more shorts than features – with 110 from 50 countries this year. They are a vital opportunity for new filmmakers to reach audiences and the film industry. A qualifying festival for short films for the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and British Independent Film Awards, LIFF presents seven competitions, each judged by different juries.
The Leeds International Short Film Competition is our largest selection, with four programmes of outstanding new shorts from across the world. The British Short Film Competition celebrates homegrown filmmaking and the Yorkshire Short Film Competition champions shorts from new creative talent in the region. The World Animation Competition brings together brilliant British and International animated gems in two bumper programmes. We also present short film competitions dedicated to dance films and music videos and to the work of queer filmmakers in two programmes curated for LIFF by Leeds Queer Film Festival.
All the competitions except for Music Videos are available on our streaming platform Leeds Film Player during LIFF 2022 – see the schedule in this guide to find out from when they can be viewed.
LIFF 2022 Spotlights - Films Femmes Afrique: Women Creators of the Future
LIFF 2022 is delighted to be collaborating with the Films Femmes Afrique Festival in Senegal to present a special programme of films by and about women from across Africa and the diaspora, supported by the British Council. Films Femmes Afrique held its 5th edition in March 2022 with the theme ‘Women Creators of the Future’, and we continue this celebration at LIFF this year with a selection of documentary and fiction titles that tell remarkable stories of African women. Many of the titles are debut features, highlighting the sheer talent of female filmmakers across the continent.
The selection of films includes: Erige Sehiri’s acclaimed fiction debut Under The Fig Trees; Maryam Touzani returning to LIFF with her latest feature The Blue Caftan, in addition to her much loved debut Adam; and a special programme of shorts reflecting on what it means to call a place home. Special events include: the Afro-futurist musical Neptune Frost with a panel discussion on African cinema and cinephilia; the spellbinding documentary Above Water with a panel discussion on climate change, in partnership with Global Leeds; and Youth, the first feature film made in Djibouti, in partnership with Cinema Africa!
LIFF 2022 Spotlights – Disability Futures
Disability Futures is a season of films exploring innovative representations of disability on screen. We celebrate films by disabled filmmakers who make creative use of film technology to share their perspectives, like Reid Davenport’s extraordinary debut I Didn’t See You There. We also focus on films involving the creative collaboration of disabled participants like Kathryn Arjomand in her son Noah’s deeply moving Eat Your Catfish. Disabled actor Petri Poikolainen shines in Finnish thriller The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, and hearing-impaired filmmaker Daniela Muñoz Barroso uses innovative cinematography and sound design in Mafifa. An exciting VR experience, archive films and talks challenge stereotypical representations of disability, anticipate future developments, and discuss new technologies.
Disability Futures is presented by LIFF 2022 and the University of Leeds and funded by the Wellcome Trust. Disability Futures is also presented in partnership with injury and litigation specialist law firm Stewarts.
LIFF 2022 Spotlights - One Love from Jamaica
On 3 April 1962 Jamaica declared ‘Out of Many, One People’ as the nation’s motto, just four months before independence from Britain was ushered in on 6 August. Sixty years on it is more relevant for the whole world today than ever, one which has inspired the Jamaica Society Leeds’ Out of Many Festival. We are delighted to be presenting the film programme for Out of Many Festival as part of LIFF 2022.
The cultural impact, beauty and depth of Jamaican film shine through in classics like Babylon, Rockers, and The Harder They Come, presented in its 50th anniversary year and introduced by Justine Henzell. The vibrant sounds of Jamaica reverberate through the music documentaries Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes, The Story of Lovers Rock, and Inna de Yard: The Soul of Jamaica. Some of the features will also screen with impressive short films handpicked by JAFTA, the Jamaica Film & TV Association.