Inverness Film Festival Line-up Announced

On Tuesday, Programmer and Head of Film and Visual Art at Eden Court Cinema, Paul MacDonald-Taylor took to the stage to announce the line-up for the 20th edition of the Inverness Film Festival. He unveiled a core programme of upcoming British and International features, alongside a range of special presentations, Scottish shorts, and a selection of films from previous iterations of the festival to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Running from the 4th to the 10th of November, the festival opens and closes with, respectively, James Gray’s (Ad Astra, The Lost City of Z) personal family drama, Armageddon Time, and cheffing thriller The Menu. Preceding the festival on Wednesday 2nd there is a special preview screening of Living, the Bill Nighy starring adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru.

There are two extra special presentations this year, one being a screening of Bill Forsyth’s 1983 classic, Local Hero, followed by a talk with the author of Local Hero: Making a Scottish Classic, Jonathan Melville, and star Jimmy Yuill. The other, a rare screening of Behind the Door, a silent-era revenge drama with live accompaniment from one of the most accomplished artists in the field, Stephen Horne.

Under the Highlights banner you will find Charlotte Wells’ bittersweet tearjerker Aftersun, Luca Guadagnino’s cannibalistic coming-of-age tale Bones and All, and Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, an unconventional biopic of 19th-century monarch, Empress Elizabeth of Austria. Furthermore, there is The Eternal Daughter, the latest Tilda Swinton starring semi-autobiographical film from The Souvenir director Joanna Hogg, Blue Jean, an impactful Thatcher-era lesbian drama, and two opportunities to see Bouli Lanners’ Lewis-set Nobody Has to Know.

It must be mentioned that MacDonald-Taylor has carved out an important Saturday afternoon timeslot for Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, the most recent in a sequence of docu-fiction films the artist has made in protest of the oppressive Iranian regime. The director was arrested earlier this year and is being held unjustly, along with fellow filmmakers, Mostafa Aleahmad, and Mohammad Rasoulof, the latter’s film There is No Evil was shown at last year’s festival. A few days ago the group were tear-gassed during the incident at Evin prison.

The Documentaries selection includes the much-praised Nan Goldin focussed work All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and The Oil Machine which takes a timely look at our relationship with North Sea oil, the screening will be followed by a discussion with the director Emma Davie.

The New World Cinema strand boasts acclaimed features What Do We See When We Look At the Sky?, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, and Golden Bear winner Alcarràs, as well as the welcome return of Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, with The Blue Caftan, whose previous film Adam was shown at last year’s festival.

To celebrate 20 years of IFF there are screenings of four previous features, The Flying Scotsman (2006), No Country for Old Men (2007), Gravity (2013), and Brooklyn (2015).

There are several blocks of short films peppered throughout the festival including two designed specifically for children, and one showcasing talent from the University of the Highlands and Islands. Amongst the other curations you can find there is Is This the End? a film created with Highlands-based mental health charity Mikeysline, and Life of Riley the latest work from up-and-comer Shaun Hughes.

To promote filmmaking in Scotland there is a Monday night double bill in partnership with Short Circuit of Angry Young Men, and Groom, followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Paul Morris and Leyla Coll-O’Reilly. And for those aged 16-25 Eden Court have collaborated with Glasgow Film Theatre to offer a suite of free industry events taking place on Saturday 5th and Monday 7th.

For the full programme and to book tickets visit: Cinema | Eden Court (eden-court.co.uk)