Inverness Film Festival will return for its 19th run with a thrilling array of new international cinema next month.
Following last year’s pared-back event due to Covid-19, Eden Court staff are thrilled to be able to screen more than 30 short films and 36 features at this year’s festival taking place from Friday November 5 to Thursday November 11.
Opening the 2021 festival is the Lewis-set drama The Road Dance which is based on the acclaimed novel by John MacKay. It tells the story of a young girl living in Outer Hebrides whose life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.
The festival closes with The Eyes of Tammy Faye – an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, played by Jessica Chastain.
Contemporary films from all over the world
Other highlights of the programme include works by contemporary directors who have screened at the festival in recent years, including Celine Sciamma (Petite Maman), Clio Barnard (Ali + Ava), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Memoria) and Julia Ducournau (the Palme d’Or-winning Titane).
Paul MacDonald-Taylor, Inverness Film Festival director and head of film and visual art at Eden Court, said: “I’m so excited about the Inverness Film Festival this year. After last year’s mini-festival it’s been wonderful being able to submerse myself in some fantastic films from around the world in order to select what we will be showing.”
The Inverness Film Festival festival will also preview Paul Schrader’s new crime drama The Card Counter and Pablo Larrain’s offbeat Royal-drama Spencer.
New World Cinema will take audiences to Iceland for the striking Noomi Rapace-starring horror Lamb, and Romania for Radu Jude’s provocative satire Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.
Inverness film fans will also be transported to Northern France where Juliette Binoche is caught Between Two Worlds, and then they will find themselves in Sudan for the beguiling You Will Die at Twenty – the first Sudanese film to be submitted for the Academy Awards.
Inverness Film Festival to also screen documentaries
Documentary features at this year’s festival include a powerful look at art and resistance in Belarus in Courage, the joyful archive of an environmental legend in Becoming Cousteau, the thrilling story of Castro’s Spies and Andrea Arnold’s highly anticipated debut documentary Cow.
The Scottish Documentary Institute’s emerging talent initiative Bridging the Gap will also deliver two intimate and thought-provoking collections.
In Scottish film, Riptide director and star Tim Barrow will join audiences to discuss his “Schizophrenic love story”, which challenges the stigma of mental illness.
This year’s short film programme will offer screenings from the Glasgow Short Film Festival, a showcase from the University of the Highlands and Islands, and two child-friendly collections from the Discovery Film Festival, Scotland’s International Film Festival for Young Audiences.
In addition, the work of Inverness-born Jamie Kane will be celebrated in a screening of his experimental film work, alongside a sculpture and sound exhibition by Jamie and Ian Kane – The everted rim of a vase.
Paul said: “We’ve had almost two years of not being able to go anywhere, but at the festival you can travel around Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and America. There is a selection of new short films from Scotland, and our first screenings of new work from the students at UHI. Come along to Eden Court and Cromarty Cinema to experience some of the best new films from around the world.”
Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased here.
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