What I love about the Leeds International Film Festival is the sheer variety of the films on offer, with insights into different cultures, times, and ways of seeing the world. Here is a selection of this year’s highlights for me:

There were thrills from the Sahel (Sira 2023) and melodrama involving Dutch imperialists in Indonesia (Sweet Dreams 2023).

I was taken into the future where to save resources citizens at the age of 50 are turned into life-giving trees (White Plastic Sky 2023), and into the past with a frantic search for a winning lottery ticket (Le Million 1931).

There was the craziness of Hundreds of Beavers (2023), and a moving Question and Answer with the director of the Celluloid Underground documentary about how Iranian fundamentalists used censorship and torture in their quest to destroy collections of ‘ideologically unsound’ 35mm films, including by setting them on fire – a fanatical counterpart to book burning.

I wouldn’t be surprised if The Holdovers (2023) becomes a cult Christmas classic.

The Festival was rounded off at the Hyde Park Picture House with Slow (2023) a touching study of sexuality, intimacy and communication between a dancer and a sign language interpreter.

So many films I didn’t get to see of course. I hope to catch some of them at the wonderfully refurbished Hyde Park Picture House in the coming months.

What were the highlights for you? Do let us know.

Huge congratulations to all the staff and volunteers who brought it all together.

Bill Walton