LIFF 2023 Programme Preview

Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) returns for its 37th year, from the 3rd – 19th November, and we couldn’t be more excited. 

LIFF has been going strong since 1987, and it is now Academy Award, BAFTA, and BIFA qualifying. Over the years, it has developed into the largest film festival in the UK, outside of London. However, this year, we have our eye on first place though. The Festival originated as a special collection of screenings of non-mainstream films at Hyde Park Picture House (HPPH) to keep the cinema afloat amid profit worries. Leeds City Council then supported funding the 1988 edition and the rest is history. 

The Festival has expanded from just HPPH to 9 other venues; the Everyman, Vue The Light, and the Howard Assembly Room in town; the Old Fire Station and Chapel FM Arts Centre in East Leeds; St Luke’s Cares in Beeston; Headingley favourite Cottage Road; the Stockroom (Keighley), National Science and Media Museum, and the Pictureville in Bradford. Technically, it should be the Bradford and Leeds Film Festival. But that’s not as snappy and “BLIFF” just doesn’t sound as good, so Bradford gets overshadowed by its neighbour once again.

LIFF truly is a West Yorkshire enterprise. Its partners include Kirkstall Brewery (lovely beer, but a bit too expensive for some on the student loan), Opera North, Film Hub North, HPPH, and LEEDS 2023 Year of Culture. Classic Leeds haunts – such as Belgrave, Hyde Park Book Club, North Bar, and Wax – are offering discounts to those with seasonal passes, if you need some extra persuasion to purchase one. 

If TikTok has destroyed your attention span as well (I hope it isn’t just me), there are multiple compilations of short films – but unfortunately, I don’t think half the screen will be devoted to Subway Surfers. I wish. There are 2 British Shorts competitions, 2 queer Shorts competitions, 4 Louis Le Prince International Shorts competitions, and a Dutch Discovery Collection, which explains why the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a LIFF partner.

Some familiar favourites are given their moment to shine; it’s not just original indies that are showcased at LIFF. Before Sunrise has its own morning screening on 4th November, so you can spend the rest of the day wallowing and wondering why you didn’t have a love affair on your interrailing Euro Summer. Sean Connery’s James Bond classic From Russia with Love and cowboy staple High Noon are also having a reprise this November, as well as some Alfred Hitchcock essentials. 

Big Hollywood names feature in this year’s LIFF as well. Emma Stone stars in Poor Things, which is the Festival’s opening film, and Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal play opposite each other in All Of Us Strangers, after taking all of our hearts by storm as Hot Priest and Connell Waldron, respectively. I’ll have to fight you for tickets for that one. Bikeriders has a star-studded cast: Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, and Austin Butler star in the drama about a 1960s motorbike gang. Studio Ghibli’s new release The Boy and the Heron is being showcased on the final day of the Festival, which will be 2 hours of pure nostalgia for those raised on My Neighbour Totoro.

Insights into different cultures and lives are available through films like Animalia, about a pregnant Moroccan woman, Goodbye Julia, a Sudanese film, and Inshallah A Boy, a tale of a Jordanian woman. Suppose you didn’t manage to scratch your itch for horror during Halloween. In that case, LIFF has plenty of horror films to satisfy you, for example All You Need Is Blood, Kuroneko, and The Coffee Table, as well as horror marathon Night of the Dead at HPPH on the 11th November. 

‘Coming of age’ is a theme heavily featured at this year’s LIFF as well, from Tiger Stripes and KIDDO to The Queen of my Dreams. There are rom-coms on offer too, if you are searching for a more light-hearted experience at the Festival. The much anticipated Slow is this year’s closing film, a love story through an asexual lens and Fallen Leaves is a romance high on my watch list. Some films act as a TARDIS to take us back in time; Kidnapped follows an abduction of Jewish boy in 1858, La Palisadia is set in newly independent Ukraine in 1996, The Settlers tackles the colonisation of Chile in 1901, and animation Sultana’s Dream follows a young director in the early 20th century. 

As you can see, there is plenty to sink your teeth into this November at the Leeds International Film Festival. You’ll be happy (or sad to hear, if you enjoy seeing a preview of what’s coming) that there is no programme of trailers at the beginning of the film, so make sure you get there on time. You won’t want to miss a thing! I sincerely hope you enjoy this year’s LIFF. It’s one for the ages.

Leeds International Film Festival runs from 3rd – 19th November across 9 cinemas with 250 different screenings across 7 various strands. For a roundup of last year’s festival, read Owen Frost’s review of the festival’s previous iteration in 2022.