This year Leeds International film festival celebrates its 25th anniversary. It all started at Hyde Park Picture House and each year it has grown not only in size, it is currently the third largest film festival in the UK, but also in popularity. The festival now takes place across various venues in the city including Leeds Town Hall.
This year the festival takes place from the 3rd of November through until the 20th.
Its not just feature films that are shown at the festival, shorts are also catered for. LIFF has 5 programme sections, it has it’s Official Selection, which includes the opening film this year, Andrea Arnolds Wuthering Heights, Fanomenon which includes Night of The Dead XI, a horror marathon, Thought Bubble, which includes one of the UK’s largest comic book convention’s, Cinema Versa which will showcase documentaries and music on film, Short Film City showcasing local, national and international short films and animations and last but not least Cherry Kino which will be showing wondermental cinema, experimental films and the films that make you sit back and think.
If you’re a fan of classic cinema, films that have really stood the test of time, your well catered for this year. Hitchcock’s classic Psycho will be showing on Saturday 5th at the Town Hall, there will be a showing of the 1925 Phantom of the Opera, which is a silent film, but there will be a live organ. Monday 14th again at the Town Hall, I highly recommend this, should be a fantastic event.
If your fans of aliens and outer space, the guys at LIFF have thought about you as well. Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind will be showing again at the Town Hall on Sunday 13th. What’s better then LIFF showing Ridley Scott’s Alien? Well showing Alien and Aliens, which also celebrates its 25th birthday this year. Catch Alien at the Town Hall on Sunday 6th and Aliens again at the Town Hall on Tuesday 15th.
The programme of films is so diverse; everybody that looks through it will find something that appeals to them.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask Communications Manager Kay Brown a few questions regarding this year’s festival.
Introduce Yourself & your position within Leeds International Film Festival.
I'm the Communications Manager for the Film Festival and as such my position is quite varied. This year I have been involved in obtaining sponsorship and in-kind commercial relationships, generating income through advertising sales, developing media partnerships, proofing print items, designing partner advertisements, distributing print items, uploading content to leedsfilm.com and other platforms (including Facebook and Twitter), consumer research and devising and implementing the Film Festival's audience development strategy.
How did you first become involved with the festival?
I originally became aware of the Film Festival whilst working at The Carriageworks whilst I was at University. The theatre used to be a venue for the Film Festival as well as housing the central Box Office, and whilst working at the theatre I worked both front of house shifts at screenings and sold tickets for Film Festival events in the Box Office. In 2009 I began asking the Box Office Manager about the Film Festival’s promotions and why I wasn’t being told about the Film Festival through University as I was studying within the Communications department. This led to me being introduced to Darren, the Business Manager of the Film Festival, and providing the team with a small proposal of how they could have a greater impact on campus and target students more effectively. After the Film Festival I contacted Darren to congratulate the team on their success of breaking all previous attendance records and asked to be kept in mind for any future positions.
As I was nearing graduation last year Darren got in touch with me and invited me to resend my CV as they were looking at recruiting for the role of Communications Coordinator and I was later invited to interview. I was successfully recruited for a temporary contract for last year’s Film Festival and played an integral role in developing the Film Festival’s advertising revenue and audience development strategy. My work for last year’s Film Festival led to me being invited back this year to continue to build the relationships and partnerships which contributed to the success of last year’s Film Festival.
What is your favourite part of the job?
The Film Festival has a small core team of staff and this means that my job can be challenging as I fulfil tasks that other organisations have separate roles for but it also means that I am able to guide my own personal development and lead on projects that can be really varied. I’m not sure I would have the opportunity to have such a diverse workload so early in my career anywhere else or be part of such a dedicated and talented team.
Working as a part of a small team also allows me to have a greater personal investment in the Film Festival and a pride in what we do. Last year’s Opening Gala film was The King’s Speech and even when I hear the promotional music for the film now; it makes me feel really proud that we were granted permission to screen the film months before it was on general release and won a number of awards. The fact we were given permission to screen the film reinforces that distributors not only value our event and our audiences but they see Leeds as an important city for showcasing film.
Can you briefly explain the selection policy for the films?
Our submissions are open to all and filmmakers can submit their films through Withoutabox (an online submissions system used by most major film festival’s). Submissions generally open after the Film Festival in December/January and close in July/August as we have to lock the programme in September so we can begin promotion for that year’s event.
We have 5 programme sections that filmmakers can submit to: Official Selection – featuring new cinema discoveries and the Golden Own Competition (which presents UK premieres and was introduced in 2004 to encourage debate surrounding the distribution of films in the UK); Fanomenon – genre films from around the world including terrifying horror, action packed sci-fi, mind-blowing fantasy film and anime; Cinema Versa – documentaries inspired by the underground festival aesthetic; Short Film City – short film programmes including the Yorkshire Short Competition and World Animation Competition; and Cherry Kino – experimental films that fill you with, and make you, wonder.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s festival?
This year the Film Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary and because of this we have secured some really exciting previews and major events. Our Opening Gala screening of Wuthering Heights is going to be a highlight for us as we’ve been working hard to develop our hospitality areas in Leeds Town Hall which people will get their first glimpse of (there will be purpose built bars from North Bar and Kahlua in the vestibule), as well as working with the film’s distributor Artificial Eye to secure guest attendance for the screening. It’s going to be the perfect opening for our anniversary event and should pave the way for sold out screenings during the rest of the Film Festival with audiences experiencing the complete festival atmosphere in iconic venues within the city.
Which film within this year’s festival would you recommend?
As I’m not involved with programming for the Film Festival I haven’t seen any of the feature films we’re screening this year so I can’t recommend as such, but there are two films I’m particularly enthused about seeing that I can’t choose between. They are: Finisterrae, a very funny, deeply strange and highly original debut by Sergio Caballero following the wanderings of two ghosts through the Camino of Santiago to Finisterrae, the end of the world, and The Artist, this film has had rave reviews since it screened at Cannes and is tipped for Oscar success, it’s a highly original and hilariously funny story about ambition and passion set in 1920s’ Hollywood which stunningly recreates the silent era of film.
What am I looking forward to at this festival? The Thing is my highlight. A prequel to John Carpenter’s classic but reviews coming from the states say that if you didn’t like the original, there is a good chance this may not be for you. As a huge horror fan I’m very much looking forward to Inbred which has been compared to The League of Gentlemen TV series. Take Shelter has just received some great reviews from London Film Festival and is part of this years official selection and if you are a fan of comics, Tim Sale will be appearing at Thought Bubble to sign comics and give a talk on the current comic industry.
Overall Leeds International Film Festival will be amazing this year, I urge you all to go and see what you can. Programmes can be found at various venues across Leeds including Travelling Man and Leeds Town Hall.
If you are attending the festival this year all I can say to you is have fun and enjoy and who knows this time next month you may just have a new favourite film.
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