Passes & Tickets Now On Sale

Just in time for Christmas, our Festival Passes and tickets are now on sale from the Alhambra Cinema.

To see what a pass will get you, you can now see the complete programme on our website – and what a programme it is!

Each day will be special but there are some real gems to look forward to. On Friday night, we have Winners, which is the UK entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category, which will be introduced by Director Hassan Nazer.

On Saturday we have the latest from Festival favourites the Dardenne brothers. Tori and Lokita is a masterpiece of social realism, loved by critics and the public alike.

Don’t be put off by the title of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed on Sunday. It is a documentary about Nan Goldin, a renowned photographer who led a bohemian lifestyle in New York but has recently led a campaign against the Sackler family, responsible for the opioid crisis in the USA that killed so many of her contemporaries.

So that is it – your Christmas dilemma solved. A festival pass and a link to the website – and a good excuse not to talk to the rellies as you browse and make your choices for February!

First Films Confirmed For 2023

 Two vastly different films will top and tail the Keswick Film Festival programme for 2023.

We are opening with Godland, an epic in every sense. A Lutheran priest travels across Iceland in order to set up a new church. Towering landscapes are the backdrop to human frailties. Wendy Ide called it "An engrossing account of a voyage to the dark side of permanent daylight". 

Our closing film will be the latest from KFF favourite Kore-eda Hirokazu, Broker. Starring Parasite’s Song Kang-ho, the film explores Kore-eda’s theme of found families and critics rate it as one of his best films ever – which is quite saying something.

We are currently putting together the final touches to the programme and tickets and passes will be on sale from January.

Osprey Short Film Awards 2023 - Still Open For Entries

Have you made a short film with a Cumbrian connection? If so it could be part of Keswick Film Festival next year. We're looking for new short films under 10 minutes and you have until the end of the year to submit. A panel of judges will select a number of films to show at the Festival and award prizes. For more details see our webpage or FilmFreeway page.

Audience Scores

We've counted up all your votes from the weekend and the quality of films on offer was as good as we can remember. Only 3 of the 24 films scored less than 60% and you rated a staggering 17 out of 24 at 70% or over. 

Between Two Worlds and Parallel Mothers scored almost identically at a shade over 83% and Flee, as is usual with quality documentaries, scored at 85%. A list of scores is available on the website.

Osprey Short Film Award Winners

Around 100 people turned up to the Osprey Short Film Awards on Saturday afternoon at the Theatre By The Lake. The 10 shortlisted films were screened along with two new short films from director Carl Hunter.

The judges prize was awarded to MIDAIR by Louis-Jack, a bouldering film featuring some of the UK's strongest climbers in iconic Lake District locations, set to a pumping techno soundtrack.

The audience selected RAMBLER MAN directed by Angus Imrie for the Audience Award. Written, produced and starring cumbrian native Ewan Pollitt who collected the award. The film, also starring Tim Bentinck (best known for his long-running role on the radio as David Archer) explores mental health, masculinity and our emotional connections with the great outdoors.

We're Back

Keswick Film Festival returns after more than two years away.

Our opening film Ali & Ava will be preceded at 6.30 with a glass of wine and some Asian canapes, courtesy of Cockermouth’s Toral’s Kitchen. Its going to be a great way to open the Festival and tickets are still available.

We go through until Sunday night at 8.30pm in the Alhambra with the possible Oscar winner 'The Worst Person in the World'  from Norway. Along the way you have the chance to see films from all round the World, including 'Drive My Car' from Japan, 'Petite Maman' from France, 'Olga' from Ukraine, 'Parallel Mothers' from Spain and 'Flee' from Denmark. There are films at the Alhambra, at the Theatre by the Lake and at Rheged. There are the Osprey Awards for local filmmakers, and we even have a Young Programmers Fringe Festival this year in Screen 2 at the Alhambra.

For full details go to Festival programme where you can also book your tickets or even buy a pass to the whole festival. Don't miss out - it is going to be a great weekend! 

Covid Information

We are not running the festival with social distancing but it makes sense to be as careful as possible to stay safe as Covid is still around. 

With that in mind:-

During the Festival we would ask that people take a test before attending, to continue to wear masks and leave a reasonable distance between themselves and others in the auditorium – we are not expecting the majority of screenings to be full to capacity.

Venues will be fully aired between screenings.

We will offer a refund to anyone who cannot attend after testing positive up to 48 hours before you are due to come. This may take some time to process. If anyone feels that they can forego a refund to assist with the sustainability of the Festival that would be hugely appreciated – we are a small arts charity and the Festival is largely self-funded.

Young Programmers' Festival Fringe

The Alhambra's Young Programmers are curating a Festival Fringe in the Alhambra's Screen 2. Here's Cameron, one of the head programmers at the Alhambra Cinematic Society at Keswick School to introduce their selection.

We have chosen three films to show during the weekend, all of which are from a different director and have their own unique and wonderful art style and themes:

Saturday 26th March 11.00am - Alhambra

Moulin Rouge - the flamboyant, glitzy and provocative art style of this upbeat and interestingly plotted film will keep you enthralled for the whole of its runtime, with superb performances from Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman and Jim Broadbent.

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Saturday 26th March 2.00pm - Alhambra

Following directed by Christopher Nolan - this surreal experience was One of Nolan’s first ever works and is very niche in its noir art style, it will surely be a unique visual engagement during the festival.

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Saturday 26th March 6.00pm - Alhambra

The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson - this epic film will have you on tenterhooks from the very beginning: an art theft, murder and a coming of age story rolled into one occurring in the background of Wes Anderson’s beautifully intricate cinematography where every little detail is accounted for. This will be a fantastic journey and a thrilling viewing experience accompanied by the classical and contemporary musical score of Alexander Desplat.

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We hope you enjoy and appreciate the art style of these three superbly unique films from three different directors whether it’s Anderson, Luhrmann or Nolan.

Have a fantastic time!

 

Tickets can be booked via the Alhambra website, free entry for Festival pass holders.

More Short Films For Saturday

On Saturday 26th March, in association with the Osprey Short Film Awards, long-time friend of the festival Carl Hunter (Sometimes Always Never, Grow Your Own) will be showing two of his short films. In More Than Time he documents the streets of Liverpool as they have never been seen before. During lockdown, anonymous messages about 'missing and memory'; were left on an answer machine. These ghostly messages float above still photographs of an empty Liverpool. The film is a place where memory populates the streets of a once vibrant city, instead of its people. 

He will also be screening Still Rings a poetic reflection to the second lockdown in the COVID pandemic, in the company of award winning poet Jacqueline Saphra. Carl took a photograph from the same place on Crosby beach every day and Jacqueline wrote a poem every day. Words and pictures take us on a journey where sound is used to reimagine memory, creating sonic ghosts that serve to help us remember what we were missing.

Shuttle Bus to Rheged

With support from Film Hub North and the BFI Film Audience Network, we are able to run a free shuttle bus between Keswick and Rheged on the Sunday of the Festival, 27^th March, for those of you wanting to see The Souvenir Part ll, Master Cheng or Flee.

Buses will arrive at Rheged in time for the start of each film and the return journey will be in time for the next film at the Alhambra. Having said that, the bus will need to leave Rheged very promptly after the end of the films.

If you are interested, please contact festival@keswickfilmclub.org

Booking is essential as there are only 21 seats and we can't end up with 22 people at Rheged after Flee! 

Olga - UK Cinemas in Support of Ukraine

Having withdrawn Petrov’s Flu from the Festival programme, we are pleased to announce that it will be replaced by the Ukrainian film, Olga. 

The Festival is joining up with cinemas across the country under the banner of ‘UK Cinemas in support of Ukraine’ for a charity screening of Olga, raising funds to support the work of the Red Cross and Unicef. 

Set in 2013 the film is the story of the eponymous Olga, a talented and passionate 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast, trying to make her place at the National Sports Centre in Switzerland. But the revolt of Euromaïdan breaks out in Kyiv, suddenly involving her relatives. While the young girl has to adapt to her new country and prepare for the European Championships, the Ukrainian revolution enters her life and shakes everything up. The film poignantly shows the anguish of expatriates as fighting breaks out back at home. 

Under the circumstances it would have been wholly inappropriate for us to screen a Russian film at the Festival, even though the Director had had his own problems with the Russian authorities. Olga won the Audience award at the Brussels Film Festival, was a winner in the Cannes Critics Week and was voted best feature film at Hamburg – politics aside, Olga will be worthy addition to the FilmFestival programme.

Osprey Short Films 2022

The judging panel has chosen 10 short films to screen at the Theatre by the Lake on Saturday 26th March. All of the films have a connection to Cumbria, whether that be on screen or behind the camera. The films range in length from a little over one minute to eleven minutes and cover an eclectic mix of subjects - running, walking and bouldering in the Lakes, a study of the Duddon Valley, stories of friendship and relationships, living with and alongside dementia and the modern-day disaster that is losing your mobile phone! 

Official Selection 2022

• A Perfect Day For Piracy by Pete Winterbottom (5 mins 26 secs)
• I Think I Know My Own Mind by Ronald Amanze, Jilly Jarman & Sarah Wallcook (5 mins 4 secs)
• #HELLP! by M J Poynton (5 mins 30 secs)
• Midair by Louis-Jack (4 mins)
• Rambler Man by Angus Imrie (11 mins 22 secs)
• Sing To Encounter Me by Laurence Campbell (8 mins 55 secs)
• Tender Buttons by Kitty Handley (8 mins 21 secs)
• The Show by Richard Rowden (9 mins 18 secs)
• Touching The Water by Hannah Maia, Maia Media (7 mins)
• War Torn by Luke Bain & Alexander Dodds (1 mins 3 secs)

More details on all these films can be found on our Osprey page.

Our new brochure has arrived

Oli Bentley, from Split Design, has done another amazing job on the brochure this year – it is in a new format but with the same stunning visuals. You can download a copy here or pick up a copy when you are in Keswick – the timeline is an essential part of the festival weekend.

There is also a full version of the programme to download as a simple pdf – its in black and white and ideal for perusing in those dim cinemas.

Glasgow Film Festival Comes To Keswick

To get you in the mood for a whole weekend of film, we have teamed up with the Alhambra and Glasgow Film Festival to bring three UK premieres to Keswick in the run up to our Festival. Starting with their opening film The Outfit on Wednesday 2nd March, followed by The Happening to recognise International Women's Day on the 8th and their closing film Murina on Sunday 13th, after the Film Club's screening of Lingui,The Sacred Bonds.

You can find more details on these films including links to book tickets on our Glasgow Film Festival page.

Tickets & Passes Now On Sale

Apologies for the delay in getting tickets and passes on sale. We have come up with a solution and tickets and passes are now available to buy on the Alhambra website for all screenings at the Alhambra and Theatre By The Lake. Sales of individual tickets for screenings at Rheged will only be available via Cinema - Rheged. 

You can find direct links to purchase tickets on our film pages and at the bottom of the tickets page. 

If you are buying a pass, please have a look at the ticketing page on our website, on our website or the Alhambra’s, for information as to how to book seats for individual films. 

22nd Keswick Film Festival Programme

The full programme is now available on our website and as ever we are offering you some tantalising choices as to what to see.

Will it be Taiwan’s The Bold Corrupt and the Beautiful ( a "sumptuously produced, meticulously plotted and deliciously acted cautionary tale") or Russia’s Petrov’s Flu ("This is some flu: it plunges us into a deeply strange and unsettling version of reality") on Friday? Pedro's Almodóvar latest, Parallel Mothers or Titane (Julia Doucournau's luridly beautiful Palme d'Or-winner) on Saturday? Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir: Part II or Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District on Sunday?

How do you choose between Juliette Binoche in Between Two Worlds and the Kosovan film Hive which wowed them at Sundance and is riding high on the Oscars shortlist?

First Films Announced For The 22nd Keswick Film Festival

This March we are fortunate that many of our favourite directors have new releases that we can screen. How do the latest films from Clio Barnard, Jacques Audiard, François Ozon, Joanna Hogg and Julia Ducournau sound as a line up?

You can find all the films announced so far on our films page.