Leeds Young Film Festival 2025
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
The sprawling Leeds Young Film Festival is back this April and organisers have scheduled a huge programme of family friendly film screenings and events, featuring everything from animated classics, to young adult drama, to VR experiences. The festival is spread out across the city with young film fans invited to the likes of Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds Industrial Museum, the Carriageworks Theatre and Leeds City Museum.
Parents can introduce children to old school hits such as Gene Wilder in the 1971 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Sat 12 April), or a 70th anniversary screening of Walt Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp (Sun 14 April). Those classics join more modern favourites, including Aardman Animations’ irresistibly funny Shawn the Sheep Movie (6 & 20 April), 2024’s stunning The Wild Robot (Tue 15 April), and the swashbuckling Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Wed 16 April).
Away from the familiar titles, there are some international hits on the menu at Leeds Young Film Festival 2025. Argentinian animation Giants of La Mancha (Sat 19 April) is a playful twist on Don Quixote, and comes accompanied by an egg hunt at Hyde Park Picture House. While Ghost Cat Ansu (Fri 18 April) is an anime centred on a grieving young girl and a boisterous, moped-riding cat, and Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds (Thu 17 April) is a psychedelic family adventure from the writer of A Cat in Paris.
For slightly older cinemagoers, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (Wed 16 April) is a gorgeous ode to the magic of moviemaking, and Kelly Fremon Craig’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Sat 12 April) is a smartly-written coming-of-age tale — and one of picks of the festival. There’s much more on the festival agenda too, and we encourage you to check out the full listings for more films and events, including a fascinating collection of shorts, and the Drop in the Ocean virtual reality sessions (8 – 13 April), which allow you to experience the magic of the oceans from the perspective of a tiny plankton.
