Manchester Film Festival at Odeon Great Northern

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor

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Manchester Film Festival

Odeon Great Northern, Manchester
14-23 March 2025

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

The Penguin Lessons
Manchester Film Festival 2023
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Manchester Film Festival is back this March with a huge selection of UK and world premieres, Oscar contenders, and curated favourites scooped up from the likes of Cannes and Sundance film festivals. The nine-day event runs primarily at Manchester’s Odeon Great Northern from 14 – 23 March, with selected screenings at HOME and Factory International at Aviva Studios for the first time this year.

2025’s festival opens with a special presentation of Peter Cattaneo’s adaptation of the bestselling The Penguin Lessons starring Steve Coogan, which screens in the UK for the first time. The film follows an Englishman’s personal and political awakening as he adopts an orphaned penguin in 1970s Argentina and is billed as a poignant true story about an unlikely bond.

Joining Cattaneo’s film is Santosh, a dark crime drama about a widow who inherits her husband’s job as a police constable in Northern India. The Hindi-language film has been selected as the UK’s submission for the Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards.

A red carpet interview from Manchester Film Festival 2023
Manchester Film Festival

Amongst the rest of the 37 feature films, our hot tip is to seek out Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud — the director of Pulse and Cure has been one of the leading lights of Japanese cinema for a couple of decades now, and his latest mystery has been quietly gaining buzz from people in the know. 

Meanwhile, on Saturday 15 March, former Saturday Night Live cast member Kyle Mooney has directed apocalyptic sci-fi comedy horror Y2K. Produced by hip indie studio A24, and starring the likes of Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler and Fred Durst, the film imagines a 1999 New Year’s Eve Party where the machines really do rise up against humanity.

Other intriguing sounding titles include Danny Turkiewicz’ Stealing Pulp Fiction, which stars Matt Adams, Jason Alexander and Cazzie David as a group of film fans trying to steal Quentin Tarantino’s personal print of his 1994 masterpiece; and My Dead Friend Zoe, a drama featuring Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman about a U.S. military veteran taking care of her grandfather who is haunted by the presence of her deceased friend. 

As always there’s also a focus on local filmmaking, with premieres of films such as addiction drama Departures and music-world set Kid accompanied by a strand of short films from the North West. Filmmakers both working and aspiring will also want to look out for industry events and workshops to be announced nearer to the festival.

Where to go near Manchester Film Festival at Odeon Great Northern

Manchester
Food hall
Kargo MKT

Mighty food hall in Salford Quays, with around twenty street food vendors, serving a huge range of cuisines.

Asap Coffee Interior/ Counter
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
ASAP Coffee

If you’re looking for quality coffee and a decadent brunch in a setting that nails the Northern Quarter brief, you’d struggle to do better than ASAP Coffee.

Interior of George St Chapel
Manchester
Event venue
George Street Chapel

This beautifully restored former Independent Methodist Chapel in the heart of Oldham is as much a creative hub as a heritage landmark.

Chinatown
Restaurant
Pho Cue

Family-run Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. Prepare to queue for Pho Cue.

Come to Swithens Farm for a great family day out in Leeds. Our farm has plenty to offer whatever age you are!Swithens Farm is a working farm. For many years now Ian and his wife Angela have built a following that they welcome in all year around. We now have a farm shop, café, playbarn and petting farm. When we first opened we only had the usual farm animals – cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and it was free entry. We now have llamas, alpacas, meerkats, rabbits, guinea pigs, donkeys and a pony.On the working farm, we breed our own cows, pigs and sheep and we sell the meat through the farm shop and the café. If you buy a sausage sandwich from the café the sausage will be from the butcher who has made the sausage by hand using our own pork. We also produce our own free-range eggs.
Leeds
Swithens Farm

Swithens Farm is a working farm. For many years now Ian and his wife Angela have built a following that they welcome in all year around.

Peak District
Restaurant
The Chequers Inn

The Chequers Inn is a 16th century, family-run, traditional country inn with an impressive dining space. The Peak District at its best.

Testbed Main Space
Leeds
Event venue
TESTBED

TESTBED is a newly renovated 10,000 sq foot event venue in Leeds that offers endless possibilities for creating unique and inspiring experiences.

Manchester
Restaurant
Salt & Pepper

Chinese inspired British food in the centre of Manchester, backed up by plenty of well-deserved local hype.

Morning Glory - Coffee Cup
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Morning Glory

Morning Glory positions itself as a grab-and-go spot, with just 12 seats inside serving coffee, bagels and sweet treats.

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