'Festival'

There’s something in the space between these two definitions of the word ‘festival’ that captures how we feel about the very special experience of being part of a film festival. Film festivals present a chance for people to come together, with film acting as the glue that binds, a gateway to new worlds, or whatever metaphor takes your fancy. Of course film brings people together in this way all year round, but festivals give us permission to step out of our normal routines and give ourselves over to something more than the everyday.

With these thoughts in mind we’re excited to be working on a range of festival collaborations, some old and some new, as part of our October and November programme. Highlights include our old friends at Leeds International Film Festival who will be returning to the Picture House between the 3-19 November. For us, this feels like another marker in the process of moving back home. Returning into the fold for one of the best and biggest film festivals in the UK today.

Another old favourite we can’t wait to welcome back is the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival (LPFF) which runs from the 13 Nov – 10 Dec in a range of venues across the city. We look forward to welcoming LPFF for a couple of screenings late in November. We’ve also been lucky enough to begin working this year with the inspiring team behind the London Indian Film Festival. This fantastic festival showcases the best new and classic Indian, South Asian, and diasporic filmmaking, with screenings across London, Birmingham, Manchester and now Leeds between 25 Oct – 4 Nov.

More information on these and other collaborations will be announced soon, so keep an eye on our website and the official festival sites.