Leeds International Film Festival 2023
Tom Grieve, Cinema EditorLeeds Film Festival returns for 2023 with 17 days of screenings across the city, including at the recently restored and re-opened Hyde Park Picture House, which returns as the festival’s lead venue. Running from 3 – 19 November, the festival programme brings together much-anticipated new releases with carefully curated classics sure to please any film fan. Included this year are the likes of Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthinmos’ Poor Things, Jeff Nichols’ 60s’ set motorcycle gang drama The Bikeriders, and Jonathan Glazer’s prize-winning The Zone of Interest.
There are strands designed to appeal to all tastes. Documentary lovers can head over to the Cinema Versa selection, films range from Holding Up the Sky which documents the struggles of the Yanomami of Brazil, to Mutiny in Heaven, a documentary cult Melbourne rock band, The Birthday Party. The Official Selection features works from some of the world’s top auteurs. We’d tip Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall as some of the programme’s big titles.
For film fans whose tastes lean towards genre fare, Leeds Film Festival presents Fanomenon, a section dedicated to action, anime, horror, sci-fi and more. This year the strand features its own Sci-Fi Day, and Night of the Dead — an all night cult horror marathon full of genre bangers. Meanwhile, for 2023, Thrill Rides is a strand dedicated to famous and not so famous thrillers set on trains, including some Hitchcock classics, James Bond and Bong Joon-ho’s modern cult fave Snowpiercer.
Those who have visited Leeds Film Festival before will be familiar with its sprawling nature. As well as Hyde Park Picture House, there are screenings at Vue, Everyman and Howard Assembly Rooms, while other strands on offer include Cinema Amour, Dutch Discoveries and Rear Window — each boasting its own treasures waiting to be discovered.