What's On

1970: Poland was on the brink of a major uprising. Workers took to the streets in protest against price increases while the militia resorted to using…

Both gripping thriller and insightful character drama, 200 Meters makes clever use of the barriers and contradictions of life in the occupied…

David, an obsessive, genius programmer sacrifices everything in his personal and professional life to build a computer of unprecedented power to test…

A spellbinding cinematic collage of hundreds of films from around the world brings together an ensemble cast of actors with one thing in common: each…

A forbidden love story on the lived-in streets of Bradford. Ali is many things: part-time DJ, caring landlord, surrogate dad. Mostly he’s a live-wire…

Alice, a 60cm tall care robot with a doll-like face, is designed to provide companionship and assistance to elderly people living alone. Alice has…

A triumph of homemade heroism, Alien On Stage is a documentary about a crew of Dorset bus drivers, whose amateur dramatics group ditch the annual…

David Pérez Sañudo's genre-weaving debut feature is a gripping mystery, political drama and probing psychological study. Lide works as a security…

One of the earliest films from Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), Angel’s Egg has an almost mythical status - a mysterious and mystical anime that…

Anita Chitaya has a gift; she can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and she can end child hunger in…

Ascension is a mesmerising portrait of the brave new world of consumerist China and the people working on the frontline of the ascendant new style of…

Set in 1980s Argentina in the midst of a military dictatorship, this subtle and suspenseful thriller sees Swiss private banker Yvan De Wiel travel…

Following a strange experience at a party, teenage Betsy returns home and declares to her mother, Holly, that she no longer needs to eat, being guided…

At Beijing’s Democracy Wall in 1978, the “Stars”, a group of self-taught artists (including a young Ai Weiwei) challenged propaganda by showing…

Marianne Winckler (Juliette Binoche) is a well-known author who goes to live in northern France to research for a new book about job insecurity.…

Our first selection of BAFTA-qualifying shorts interrogate the structures we create for ourselves, and those that are created by others. Not only the…

Cinema is built from light. Flickering beams that project our collective lives back at us. In our second programme of illuminating shorts, we discover…

It’s time to speak up, to witness, to remember. Give testimony. And to Act. Our final set of British short films offer a space for action -…

William Tell (Oscaar Isaac) is a gambler and former serviceman who sets out to reform a young man seeking revenge on a mutual enemy from their past.…

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival—yet criminally underseen for over three decades—Chameleon Street recounts the…

There is something life-giving, magical even, in Clara’s hands. Disabled slightly by a crooked spine, and by a developmental delay that’s willfully…

Set in the perhaps unlikely world of Hong Kong’s astronomically priced housing market, Coffin Homes plays fast and loose with its dark satire as…

In the early 1990s, young Finnish archeology student Laura boards a train from Moscow to Murmansk in Russia’s far north; her goal is to look at some…

A simple, empathetic and patient approach to documentary is applied to moving effect to Luma, a dairy cow. Birthed - starkly, right before our eyes -…

King Vidor’s silent classic The Crowd is a landmark in realist filmmaking and a lacerating critique of the American dream. John Sims is a young man…

A group of strangers awaken in a mysterious square room, with hatches in each of the walls. Not knowing how or why they are there they begin to look…

Atmospheric and creepy are the themes for Day of the Dead this year, with four claustrophobic tales of terror from across the globe. A woman with a…

Newly restored, De Cierta Manera by Afro-Cuban director Sara Gómez is a fascinating docu-romance-drama and critical ethnographic study of a new…

Dear Future Children puts the spotlight on three brave and inspiring young activists, each from different backgrounds and different continents.…

In January 1970, Michael Brody Jr., the 21-year-old heir to a margarine fortune, announced to the world that he would give away his $25-million…

Cinema’s master surrealist Luis Bunuel made this withering satire of social conventions and bourgeois values late in his career as part of his…

Papua New Guinea’s feverish highlands have become the land of plenty for tourists in search of exoticism and foreign oil companies looking for new…

A Dutch military convoy on a peacekeeping mission in the Middle East, becomes stranded when their vehicle breaks down in the desert. As they wait for…

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s sublime and richly complex drama is an adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story probing the psychological subtleties of love…

Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó and screenwriter Kata Wéber (White God and Pieces of a Woman) return with a powerful and richly cinematic drama…

The Exam by the acclaimed Kurdish director Shawkat Amin Korki is a daring tale of emancipation, sisterhood and corruption. Rojin is about to sit her…

Jessica Chastain is outstanding in this intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and return of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and…

A heady evocation of the decadent and precarious Weimar era Berlin in 1931, Fabian - Going to the Dogs is a fresh new take on the period drama.…

A mixture of light and dark tales from around the world with several entries from the UK including new films from John McPhail (Anna and the…

How do you know you are you? This is the question posed in several of this year’s sci-fi shorts; Algorithm, Edicus and Killing Time, while I’m Not A…

In the hypnotic and hazily dreamlike documentary Faya Dayi, shot in gorgeous, silvery black and white tones, filmmaker Jessica Beshir plunges the…

In 2008, the late British filmmaker Luke Holland began interviewing the last living generation of Germans to have participated in the Third Reich,…

Flee is one of the film highlights of the year, a documentary which innovatively blends animation and archive footage to tell an extraordinary and…

Directed by Ayumu Watanabe, who created the incredible Children of the Sea (LIFF 2019), Fortune Favours Lady Nikuko is an equally wonderful new anime…

In this puppet horror comedy gorefest, Frank & Zed are two monsters who live peacefully in a derelict castle, relying on each other for survival.…

The radical heart of Japan beats loudly in Funeral Parade of Roses, which nimbly combines late-60s queer / transgender / underground Tokyo culture,…

Three loser brothers (including a caucasian kid, who doesn’t appear to really know Japanese), are struggling to be popular. But luckily they get a…

From 1872 to 1994, German law criminalised homosexuality via ‘Paragraph 175’. It’s this rule, and all of its fearful effects on people and society,…

Another Takashi Miike film is always a reason to celebrate! And now he returns to his 2005 foray into family-friendly fantasy-extravaganza: The Great…

The latest film from Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) is the story of a young man’s heartbreak and liberation in ‘80s Naples. Fabietto Schisa might…

For those only familiar with the 2018 TV series The Haunting of Hill House, this ground-breaking 1963 adaptation of the Shirley Jackson novel is a…

A lively young boy, a grumpy dad, an emotive mum, a taciturn older brother, a soulful dog. A family is on a road-trip across Iran to a mysterious…

Longtime partners and parents to a large family, Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovig) and Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård) have grown independent of each other, with…

Chumbawamba's hit song Tubthumping was one of the 1990s great pop culture moments, capturing the optimistic spirit of the times. In I Get Knocked…

Karen Dalton was a one of a kind American folk singer, unjustly overlooked for many years and only now starting to recover the reputation she…

During a bright Norwegian summer at a nondescript housing complex, a group of young children become friends while playing in the communal playground.…

Radu Muntean, one of the leading filmmakers in the Romanian New Wave (and director of previous LIFF favourites Tuesday After Christmas and One Floor…

Director Hugo Santiago co-wrote Invasión with two giants of Argentine literature, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Jorge Luis Borges. Originally thought lost…

Junk Head takes place in a future where humans have achieved immortality, but at the price of infertility and environmental ruin. One immortal, inside…

Bunny King is a headstrong mother of two with a sketchy past and a razor-sharp tongue. She spends her days washing car windscreens in order to save…

Teenager Ninho is uncertain whether to join the family’s taxi business, preferring instead to support Brazil’s ecological preservation. When his…

Following a traumatic accident, Molly moves from a prolonged stay at a psychiatric hospital into a new apartment, to start her new life alone. Soon…

When city tweens Mia and Kevin are left at their grandmother’s farm without their smartphones, they are bored to tears, but grandma soon finds lots of…

Frederic Baillif’s remarkably authentic docu-style drama follows a group of teenage girls in a residential care home. Emerging from difficult…

A long, sun-kissed summer in their downmarket coastal hometown lies before Nour and his older brothers. Nour is 13, old enough to work and so become…

Manimal freakishness is in plain, matter-of-fact sight in Lamb, a dark Scandi tall tale evoked with stark clarity. Maria and Ingvar toil away on their…

1555, a year after Queen Mary passed the Egyptians Act, making it illegal for gypsies and travellers to live in England, an isolated group of salt…

In a post-apocalyptic world Troy raises his grown son, Jake, in a remote cabin far from civilisation. When Troy is wounded, Jake is forced to travel…

Revolution takes many forms: whether it begins at home or out on the streets. The first programme in the Academy-Award qualifying International Short…

Between the country and the city lies a border where past and present, tradition and modernity form an unruly frontier. These six films signify the…

The reveries of youth turning to reality can quickly lead to rapture… or rupture. In this programme, a Hong Kong teenager embarks on a wild and…

The continent of Europe provides the landscape for this programme of playful, absurd and mysterious films. We encounter the production of a videogame…

This programme journeys towards the heart of many different kinds of darkness. Beginning with a duck hunting trip that takes an unexpected turn of…

Our final programme is a fiery, feral celebration of chaos, magic, and hidden desires. We follow a nurse in São Paulo who finds solace in a…

Always eclectic and unconventional, the Leeds Music Video Competition is a kaleidoscopic survey of some of the best new music videos from around the…

Leeds Queer Film Festival is once again thrilled to be curating LIFF’s Queer Short Film Competition, featuring LGBTQ+ stories from around the world…

The second of the two programmes, curated by Leeds Queer Film Festival, takes its audience on a journey visiting transgender women in Pakistan, two…

Hailing from the site where cinematography and choreography meet, this compelling collection of international dance films navigates the countless ways…

A great chance to see the award-winners from this year’s competitions all together in one bumper programme of short film wonders. The size and…

Veteran Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun returns with this powerful tale of resilience and sisterhood. Amina is a single mother living on the…

This richly observed feature debut by Norika Sefa follows the quiet teenager Venera, growing up in a small village in Kosovo. Living in a crowded,…

The Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez claims thousands of victims every year as drug cartels clash with government forces in the so called 'War on Drugs".…

Jesmark, a Maltese fisherman discovers another leak in his wooden luzzu boat. Barely getting by, he sees his livelihood and the family tradition…

Magnetic Beats is a lively and distinctive debut from Vincent Maël Cardona channelling post-punk energy in the world of underground radio in 1980s…

Cult classic The Man Who Stole the Sun is ranked by Japanese critics as one of the best films ever made but has rarely even been screened…

21-year-old Mariana belongs to a world where she must keep up the appearance of a perfect woman. To resist temptation, she and her girlfriends try to…

Come and meet the Filmbankmedia team! Filmbankmedia have a catalogue of over 15,000 films available to license for non-theatrical…

A woman working as a botanist in Bogotá feels unsettled by a sudden ‘Bang!’, that maddeningly, only she can ever hear. What might be the cause? What…

Miguel is a sensitive but self-destructive Lebanese gay man, haunted by the religious and political oppressions of his youth. Traumatised by…

From the producers of Carol (LIFF 2015 closing film), adapted from Graham Swift’s novel by Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth - LIFF 2016), and directed by Eva…

Maria Speth’s intimate, utterly absorbing documentary is a joyful cinematic experience, exploring the bond between an inspirational teacher and his…

World famous Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso looks back on his experiences in 1968 when he was arrested and jailed by the military…

Dénes Nagy won Best Director at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival for his powerful feature debut with its breathtaking visual style. Deep into the Second…

A startling investigation into how the corporate takeover of society is being justified by the sly rebranding of corporations as socially conscious…

Night of the Dead 2021 returns as two late night double bills across Friday 12 & Saturday 13 November, with four bloody good horror features and…

No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics traces the history of queer comics in the USA through the profiles of five pioneering artists - Alison…

When Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia) sets out to make a documentary about life on the road with singer-songwriter St Vincent, things take an endless…

Openly gay director James Whale brought to life some of the most iconic Universal monsters during their peak in the 1930s, as well as this lesser seen…

In times of crisis, ordinary people instinctively step up to help each other in the absence of positive government action. On Our Doorstep tells the…

Ferdinand Khittl’s poetic, mysterious and puzzle-like feature is a meta-documentary that binds together the themes of LIFF 2021’s Kafkaesque Cinema…

Four young Parisians explore sex and city life. Emilie is an underachiever who’s living her best sex life. To help pay the bills she takes in Camille;…

French auteur Céline Sciamma (Tomboy, Portrait of a Lady on Fire) returns with this exquisite time-bending tale of childhood grief and wonder.…

A rarely screened adaptation of a story by the great Polish science fiction author, Stanislaw Lem, Pilot Pirx’s Inquest follows his most famous…

Iuli Gerbase’s debut feature is an eerily prescient sci-fi parable, made entirely pre-COVID, about a global threat which forces the world’s population…

Do you remember your first moments at primary school? In ​​Laura Wandel’s striking debut film, we’re with 7-year-old Nora right through her own…

Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother George (Jesse Plemons) brings home…

In her feature filmmaking debut, writer-director Nana Mensah plays Ghanaian-American Sarah. Sarah is a PhD student whose planned future is thrown into…

Responding to personal, political and technological upheavals, these bold, sensory shorts stretch documentary forms in their efforts to process,…

Masterfully written, directed and shot by Valentyn Vasyanovych, Reflection is an extraordinary and profound meditation on the effects of war.…

An eerie pitch black comedy from debut feature filmmaker Chema García Ibarra, whose previous short film Misterio screened at LIFF 2013. While an…

In the aftermath of a pandemic, most people have become complacent and the warning from a scientist that it could easily mutate goes ignored. That is…

Teenager Sophie, a blind ex-skier, makes a living house-sitting rich mansions while their owners are away. During one particular job, the secluded…

A motley assortment of masterless Samurai bands together to defend a poor village from bandits. There are so many facets to this film’s greatness,…

Winner of the 1966 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and presented as part of LIFF 2021’s Kafkaesque Cinema selection, The Shop on the Main Street…

Debuting to rave audience reviews at Scotland Loves Anime Festival 2021, LIFF presents the English Premiere of Sing a Bit of Harmony. The beautiful…

So, Which Band is Your Boyfriend in? explores the real-life experiences of a wide range of non-male participants in the UK’s DIY and underground music…

SOA is an extraordinary film about listening and sound. Director and sound artist Raquel Castro spent several years accumulating interviews with…

Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky took one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, and made it his own in this…

In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) begins to untangle her…

To mark the centenary of the great science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, we present this tribute in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute…

Film critic and documentarian Mark Cousins returns to his long running Story of Film project with a new chapter dedicated to the cinematic innovators…

Have you heard of summer ghosts? The urban legend tells of the ghost of a young woman who appears when fireworks are lit. Tomoya, Aoi, and Ryo are…

This delightful, freewheeling and zany time travel comedy from 2005 is a cult favourite in Japan. To members of the college Sci Fi Club, summer means…

Days before his wife is due to give birth, Dastan decides to shirk his responsibilities and go on a fishing trip with his two best, if not very…

Symbol is a sublime feat of surreal comic fantasy from cult Japanese filmmaker / performer Hitoshi Matsumoto. A man wakes up and finds himself…

Megalomaniac Mr. Wallendorf (a grizzled Ron Perlman) is a world renowned fashion mogul whose business only sells one style of shoes. His conniving,…

Fog, wind, trees and mist express the ghostly paranoia of a wily, crazed Samurai bonded to Spider’s Web Castle. Director Akira Kurosawa transposed…

Tiong Bahru Social Club is a colourful and quirky social satire on modern Singaporean society, set inside a whimsical trial housing project that aims…

The winner of this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or, Titane is Julia Ducournau’s second jaw-dropping feature after her cannibal coming-of-age debut Raw (LIFF…

Adapted from the Weekly Shonen Magazine manga of the same name, Tokyo Revengers is the best…

For the last decade of global film culture this film has often been placed at the top of the tallest tree: ‘The Greatest Ever’. Tokyo Story’s deepest…

Pursued by loan sharks, Aoyama is rescued by a mysterious man in yellow overalls who offers him the opportunity of a better life in an isolated…

Transform is a genuine expansion of the way disability is represented on film. Filmmaker Ishida Tomoya is a young disabled man and a wheelchair user…

After two Black Chicagoans are killed, millennial organisers challenge an administration complicit in state violence against its residents. Told…

This accomplished debut feature by Cássio Pereira dos Santos gives powerful expression to the struggles of a young transgender teenager in Brazil.…

In this seductively original urban fairytale, director Alexandre Koberidze starts with a simple love story and builds a quirkily unpredictable…

Known as one of the greatest satires of communism, and presented as part of LIFF 2021’s Kafkaesque Cinema selection, The Witness was banned for over a…

This year our expanded Planet Japan celebration includes several unreleased films from previous editions of LIFF. Like Angel’s Egg, Summer Time…

Every year the LIFF World Animation Competition presents a comprehensive selection of new short animated films from around the world. From festival…

Once more we’ve been round the globe (virtually of course) to bring you the finest and most diverse animated short films, for our ever popular World…

And finally, our third selection of films made by some of the world’s most creative, clever and brilliant animators. We begin with an epic vision of…

Senegalese master Ousmane Sembène unleashed one of his most ingenious, scathing satirical dramas with Xala in 1975. He targets the new bourgeois elite…

A phenomenal exploration of local filmmakers from across the region. This exquisite collection of distinctive and exceptional shorts covers a lot of…

Dina Amer’s vibrant and heart wrenching debut is a dramatic adaptation of the life of ‘France’s first female suicide bomber’. Probing far deeper than…

The remarkable first feature by Marí Alessandrini, Zahorí is a moving story of teenage rebellion and self-discovery set amidst the beautiful and…