More Passholder and Festival Benefits

Buy a pass and in addition to benefits already in place, for the duration of the Festival receive:

• 10% off food and drink at Barua Street Food (Lake Road, Keswick), just book ahead and show your Pass on arrival

For ALL Festival-Goers we are delighted to be working with Chinty’s Cafe (St John’s Street, just down the road from the Alhambra) to provide a special space for Festival-goers on Friday and Saturday with:

• Central tables reserved for Festival Passholders (other tables available to Festival-goers but BOOK!)
• Special Festival meal-deal of a bowl of soup plus side (scone/ sausage roll/ vegan chickpea bun) plus coffee for £10
• Takeaways available all day

Please note Chinty’s Café is CASH ONLY; book on 017687 74118, in person or email chintyt@gmail.com.

Volunteer At KFF

Keswick Film Festival is run entirely by volunteers. The dedication and enthusiasm of our volunteers is what makes the Festival a success and a wonderful experience for those attending every year.

We could always do with more people to help us and will be delighted if you want to join our friendly team and help us to make the Festival a sensational event.

There are many different roles available, so we are sure there will be something you will enjoy. You can find more information on our Volunteering page.

Scores & Awards

That was quite an Anniversary!

Thank you to all of you who came to Keswick last weekend to make it such an enjoyable weekend. It is always lovely to see people renewing acquaintanceships 12 months on – and to welcome so many new faces to KFF.

There was an incredible range of films on offer, which made it hard to choose at times – and the scores reflected the quality of the films in the programme.

Eventually, it was The Marching Band that took the audience award – the third consecutive year that a film at Rheged has taken the prize. The Monk and the Gun wasn’t far behind. You can see the Top 15 films here on the website.

The Ospreys continue to amaze with their demonstration of film-making prowess. The selection gets better each year – and what a treat to have Ian Picken, KFF’s first Festival Director, to announce the Audience Award was won by Stuart Armstrong for Lay-by. Harvey Greenfield director Jonnie Howard presented the Student Award to Asa Pegler for It Get's Better and the Open Award went to Juliet Klottrup for Travelling Home, which if you missed can now be seen on the Nowness platform.

Friday At The Festival

Here's what's coming up on the first full day of the Festival:

• 12pm Jeanne Dielman... - Alhambra Screen 2 SOLD OUT
• 1pm The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future - Theatre By The Lake
• 1pm The Ceremony - Alhambra
• 4pm No End - Theatre By The Lake
• 4pm Misericordia - Alhambra SOLD OUT
• 4pm Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Alhambra Screen 2
• 6:30pm Crybaby Bridge - Theatre By The Lake
• 6:30pm Quiet Life - Alhambra
• 6:30pm Welcome to the Sticks - Alhambra Screen 2 SOLD OUT
• 8:45pm Seed of the Sacred Fig - Alhambra
• 9pm All Your Faces - Theatre By The Lake
• 9pm Spirited Away - Alhambra Screen 2

Please see the full programme or download the timetable for more details on all the films.

Ticket Availability Update

KFF is proving very popular this year! Passes are selling well. Our opening film Harvey Greenfield Is Running Late is now sold out and we have just opened up Screen 2 for Cottontail on Sunday evening. 

There is still capacity for the majority of the screenings, particularly at the Theatre by the Lake and at Rheged, however anyone who hasn't yet booked a pass will now find themselves with a more limited range of options from which to choose. Individual tickets are still available.

Sold Out

• Opening Night - tickets still available for Saturday's screening of Harvey Greenfield Is Running Late 
• Radiator - Additional screening Sunday 11am

Limited Availability

• Cottontail - Screen 2 now available

Updated: 5 March 19:10

Has there ever been a better decade for music than the 70’s?

We old guys at Keswick Film Festival think not and to prove the point, we have a Tommy: 50th Anniversary Screening and White Rock, featuring a musical score by Rick Wakeman, at his creative best.

Townshend’s incredible concept album was dialled up to 11 by Ken Russell’s direction and a cast of Rock ‘n Roll royalty – Elton John, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton and the incomparable Roger Daltrey. 

Less frenetic but beautiful to watch and hear, White Rock is the groundbreaking documentary of the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics, narrated by James Coburn. It is said to have changed sports documentaries for ever.

The big stage shows from The Who and Yes were an integral part of the 70’s music scene but a lot of the energy of the decade came from smaller venues; pubs, clubs and Students Unions. Graham Parker and the Rumour were an iconic band from the period and Graham will be one of our guests at KFF this year – by virtue of his acting role in Harvey Greenfield is Running Late.

We can’t wait to welcome him – and you to Keswick.

Films At Rheged

Our partnership with Rheged continues this festival with a remarkably diverse slate showing on their big screen, making it easy to base yourself here all day. 

On Saturday 8th March we bring you Tarika (11am) and The Monk and the Gun (2pm).

Teenager Tarika lives with her father Ali in rural Bulgaria, but is isolated from and ostracised by the locals. She has started to develop ‘butterfly wings’, a rare spinal condition inherited from her mother and which is a source of deep superstition. When the villagers’ intolerance becomes dangerous Ali must protect his daughter, in this richly textured allegory. 

After Lunana:A Yak in the Classroom won the 2023 Audience Award, we went hunting for the Director’s next effort and David found a distributor in Germany. The Monk and the Gun is again set in Bhutan, this time in 2006, and the last country to connect to the internet and television is preparing for its first election. Fearing upheavals, an ageing llama sends a young monk on a quest to acquire a pair of guns. With intriguing surprises and colourful characters, this delightfully warm and slyly satirical window onto the world’s happiest nation, builds towards a joyous finale.

On Sunday 9th March, screenings start at 11am with moving comedy The Marching Band (En Fanfare), in which an acclaimed conductor needs a bone marrow transplant. Adopted, he uncovers the existence of a younger blood brother who plays the trombone in a small marching band. A charming tearjerker whose tender moments pack a rare emotional punch.

This is followed at 2pm by Taiwanese drama Mongrel - a raw, commanding and thoughtful film about compassion and decency in the face of inequality and invisibility. We follow undocumented Thai care worker Oom, living in a remote region of Taiwan as he cares for the disabled and elderly, and is forced to navigate their mutual lack of status and currency.

At 5pm, our final Rheged film, Sister Midnight, is a comedy-drama that sees newlywed Uma trapped in domestic hell in a single-roomed Mumbai shack with her ineffectual husband - and bored out of her skull. She unearths feral impulses she never knew she had as this surreal fable takes us to places we were not expecting. 

Oscar Hopefuls at Keswick Film Festival

Forgive us, but we are a bit chuffed with ourselves as a number of our selections for the KFF programme have been recognised as Oscar contenders.

Three films, The Brutalist, Nickel Boys and Emilia Pérez are all in contention for the Best Picture award and two, Flow and Seed of the Sacred Fig are nominated as Best International Feature. For an animated film like Flow (also up for the award in that category) to be nominated in a feature film category, is testament to the brilliance of the storytelling and the animator’s art.

Adrien Brody and Karla Sofia Gascón are up for Best Actor and actress for their roles in The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez and their respective co-stars Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones and Zoe Saldana are nominated as Best Supporting Actors. The films also feature as nominees in the Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay categories.

The one-of-a-kind movie Emilia Pérez even has two nominations for best original song. The Alhambra will be rocking on Sunday afternoon.

Tickets and Passes on Sale from Friday 10th January

We are thrilled to announce that tickets and passes for KFF 2025 will go on sale from Friday 10th January, from the Alhambra Box Office.

Arrangements for passholders to book seats for individual films have changed and detailed instructions on how to do this will be made available.