Leeds International Film Festival 2025
Tom Grieve, Cinema EditorBook now
Leeds Film Festival
Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.
Leeds Film Festival returns for 2025 with previews of brand new titles from top directors and emerging talent, alongside curated strands that delve into the archive. Amongst this year’s highlights are fresh films from the likes of Richard Linklater, Yorgos Lanthimos and Bradley Cooper, plus a dive into Brazilian cinema, and a tantalising section full of exotic escapes.
There’s some real star wattage in this year’s programme too. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson star in Die, My Love, a story of a woman’s descent into psychosis from Scottish director Lynne Ramsay. Jodie Foster’s first French-speaking role sees her take the lead in playful murder mystery A Private Life, while Emma Stone re-teams with her Poor Things director, Yorgos Lanthimos in sci-fi comedy Bugonia.
As mentioned, there’s new work from Richard Linklater who has two films in the festival. First, he collaborates with longtime muse Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon, before Nouvelle Vague, a luminous homage to the French New Wave that depicts the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 classic, Breathless. Unexpectedly, the new release from Bradley Cooper Is This Thing On? features Will Arnett as a stand-up comic in a story inspired by the life of Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop.
Away from Hollywood, we would recommend Chinese Bi Gan’s Resurrection — the director’s last effort (Long Day’s Journey into Night) is up there as one of our favourites of the century so far
Away from Hollywood, we would recommend Chinese Bi Gan’s Resurrection — the director’s last effort (Long Day’s Journey into Night) is up there as one of our favourites of the century so far. From Iran, Jafar Panahi’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just An Accident is a satirical thriller that confronts the violence of the country’s ruling regime. We’ve also heard great things about Annapurn Sriram’s Fucktoys, Sophy Romani’s Blue Heron, and Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s latest, The Secret Agent.
From the archive, there’s more Brazilian cinema collected under the banner Deslocamentos: Brazilian Cinema on the Move. While We Gotta Get Out of This Place crosses continents and decades with a whole host of vacations, road trips and other cinematic escapes, and includes Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in the irresistible Holiday, Ingmar Bergman’s classic Summer with Monika, and the glorious melancholy of Eric Rohmer’s The Green Ray.
