The LIFF 2018 programme is now live and flourishing, all there is next to do is plan your experience – we’ll be giving you the low down of what to catch at each venue in the run up to LIFF 2018.
First up, Victoria Hall. Located in the grand Leeds Town Hall, this venue will be the definition of watching the film on the ‘Big Screen’. Not only are you surrounded by architecture reminiscent of the time when film was only just in its beginnings, you’ll get to enjoy some of our finest selection on one of the biggest screens LIFF has to offer.
We can’t introduce our Victoria Hall highlights without mentioning our Opening Night –we are presenting the world premiere of documentary Josh Warrington: Fighting for a City, which follows Leeds native Warrington as he bids to achieve his dream of winning the IBF world title. On the same night at Leeds Town Hall you can also see the first UK screening outside of London for cult American indie hit Sorry to Bother You, by rapper turned filmmaker Boots Riley.
The film festival however, starts outside with a few tricks up our sleeves to give you a true LIFF 2018 greeting to get you ready for a roller-coaster two weeks. Expect live entertainment and a red-carpet welcome before entering a world of cinema.
Opening Night is just the beginning. Steve McQueen's brutal heist thriller Widows puts women in the forefront with an unbelievable cast featuring Viola Davis and Michelle Rodriguez a poised as gangster’s wives turned heist masterminds. wreaking revenge on men who underestimate them. Opening the BFI London Film Festival, Steve McQueen is said to outgun Scorsese with this supercharged crime epic.
Our annual Day of the Dead programme returns to Leeds Town Hall, featuring films about dysfunctional family visits (we can all relate) in Await Further Instructions, a musical about the end of the world with Anna and the Apocalypse and headlining, a re-imagining of the book by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Suspiria from Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino. Heed our warning though, this one is not for the faint hearted.
I AM THE LAW! Forget about ‘that’ Stallone film and immerse yourself in the work that got the classic British comic character Judge Dredd right. With its almost real time setting, Dredd is not only a brilliantly-conceived example of genre cinema, it’s also a great dystopian sci-fi realised in a uniquely British style which earned it it’s cult status.
Rounding off the Victoria Hall highlights and LIFF 2018 is Palme d’Or Winner Shoplifters by film festival favourite director Hirokazu Kore-eda. Shoplifters is a return to Kore-eda’s family-focused dramas as the film follows a poor Japanese family who barely survives through petty thievery and take in a girl who they soon later discover is the centre of a prolific missing child case. Receiving whispers of Oscar-worthy buzz from the get-go, this film will be the beautifully cinematic and emotional conclusion to LIFF 2018.
Keep your eye out for our next Highlights about Hyde Park Picture House.
