All arthouse roads lead to Keswick

Don't just take our word for it, but "All arthouse roads lead to Keswick"

So says Newcastle's The Crack Magazine who took a look at our programme and wrote this marvellous editorial -

It's particularly lovely in Keswick from late February and into March, not least because that's when the annual Keswick Film Festival will be taking place, and for their 20th anniversary event they've got a truly stunning line-up. It's not often that you find a festival that appears to have been curated especially for you.Glastonbury, for instance, always manages to throw a spanner in the works by shoving a Coldplay or a U2 on to spoil things, and I've lost count the number of times I've sat through crushingly unfunny improv sets at the Edinburgh Fringe. But the clever people behind this year's Keswick Film Festival appear to have tapped directly into The Crack's 'Very Favourite Films of Recent Times''list because on flicking through their programme I’ve found myself exclaiming: "Love it! Love it! Love it!"

You can see the full article on The Crack Magazine website.

Documentaires at the Festival

There is an intriguing strand of documentaries at KFF this year.

Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group has chosen a remarkable pair of films. Citizenfour is the story of the journalists working with Edward Snowden to publish his revelations about NSA surveillance. USA Today said "Citizenfour plays like a thriller as it chronicles a complex and vitally important chapter in our history".  A Long Hot Summer in Palestine is Norma Marcos' fascinating account of the impact of conflict on ordinary citizens and Norma will be flying in from Paris to talk about the film and her experiences.

Nae Pasaran is the inspiring story of the workers in Glasgow whose refusal to service the engines from Pinochet’s air force saved lives, several thousand miles away, in Chile. Thanks to guest Neil Sinyard and his contacts with the family of Director, William Wyler we have The Memphis Belle which takes us to the heart of a bombing mission in World war ll. Down to Earth, at Rheged takes us to special places on the planet, safeguarded by some special people.

Film lovers will need no introduction to Agnès Varda, whose Faces Places takes her on a trip around France. In the company of JR, a young photographer, they travel in a special box truck equipped as a portable photo booth and traveling printing facility. They take photographs of people around the country, creating special, colossal mural pictures of individuals, communities and places they want to honour and celebrate.

Guests at the 20th Keswick Film Festival

Our guest list is now on the website and it makes for a line-up that is perfect for the 20th Keswick Film Festival.

Carl Hunter is an old friend of the Festival. He co-wrote (with Frank Cottrell Boyce) Grow Your Own which was a sell out in 2008. We screened it again for our 10th Anniversary when Carl and Frank made the short film, Accelerate, to mark the occasion. Carl also chaired the judging panel for the Osprey short film competition.

Sometimes Always Never is Carl's first feature film as director, which comes with a tremendous pedigree both in front of and behind the camera. The gala night on Saturday 2nd March will be memorable.

James Gardner's Jellyfish has been scooping up awards wherever it is screened. James will be introducing the film at our opening night and will be able to give us an insight into working with the amazing young talent that is Liv Hill who plays Sarah.

Mike Tweddle, a master of making dramatic films with ridiculously small budgets, brings Sparrowhawk to Keswick after impressing the Film Club audience with his earlier film, Damaged Goods; Norma Marcos brings her unique insight into the middle east conflict with A Long Hot Summer in Palestine, one of two Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group screenings and Neil Sinyard returns, bringing with him a rare chance to see William Wyler's documentary on The Memphis Belle.

Passes and tickets are now available from Theatre By The Lake.

Accommodation offers for the Festival weekend

This year, a number of Keswick Hotels and B&Bs have offered discounts on accommodation for the Festival weekend. There are a range of offers here on our website, including the option to stay on the Sunday night free of charge.

Our early bird offer on Film Festival passes runs out in the new year, so now is the time to book if you would like that extra £5 to spend on fine Keswick Brewery ales (other beverages are available) on your weekend at the Festival.

Sorry To Bother You and more films

We've announce some more films for our 20th Festival. I can guarantee that you will be still talking about Border days after seeing it. From the writer of the novel Let the Right One In, Border is the tale of a Swedish Customs Officer with the ability to sense people's emotions – a smuggler's nightmare. As she discovers where this peculiar gift comes from, we move into magical territory.

Staying in the Nordic countries, Arctic is a gripping Icelandic thriller with Mads Mikkelsen and from Demark we have The Guilty, a taut, gripping drama set within the confines of a police call centre.

On that theme, if the next thing you hear about KFF is by phone, you will know that we will have contracted out our marketing to the company in Sorry to Bother You, a biting American satire on race, resistance, capitalism – and telemarketing.

Details of the rest of the festival programme will come to you – by whatever means – in the days to come.

Early Bird Passes, with a saving of £5, are now available from the Theatre By The Lake.

Sorry to have bothered you!

Ian

Early Bird Passes Now Available

Passes are now available for the 2019 Festival at a special early bird rate. This £5 off offer expires on 3rd January, making a festival pass the ideal Christmas present.

Our opening and closing films cannot be more different. We are going to kick off with Jellyfish, a award-winning British movie set in the deep south of England and close with Green Book, a gem of a film from Peter Farrelly, set in the American South. In between those two films we travel all parts of the compass from arid war zones to arctic ice. A particular highlight will be Carl Hunter’s first feature Sometimes Always Never, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and starring Bill Nighy, Jenny Agutter, Alice Lowe and Sam Riley.

Further details of the film programme will follow very soon and we look forward to seeing you in Keswick in February.

Your Memories of Keswick Film Festival

We would like to hear your memories from previous Festivals so that we can collate them and show just why this fabulous event has endured.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be posing a number of questions but I’d like to start by asking for your favourite introduction or Q&A by one of our Festival guests. Moments such as those are the essential difference between 'going to a Festival' and 'going to the pictures'.

I have two such stand out moments. Frank Cottrell Boyce’s Q&A after the screening of Millions at the 2009 Festival and Greta Scacchi’s birthday quiz after White Mischief in 2017.

We were all charmed by Millions but then Frank’s interaction with the children in the audience was magical; and for Greta to devise a quiz during the screening of White Mischief and offer slices of her birthday cake as prizes made it a truly memorable night.

But there have been so many such occasions – we’d love you to post your memories on our Facebook page, by commenting on this blog post or contacting us in the usual way.

If your memory needs a jog, have a look at our archive pages on the website

Ian Payne

Festival Director