Leids Film Festival

English Summary

Welcome to the Leiden International Film Festival website The Leiden Film Festival (Leids Film Festival) is an annual international film festival in the historical city of Leiden, the Netherlands. The fifth edition of the festival will take place on 26 October - 31 October 2010 in theatres and cultural venues throughout Leiden.
The program consists of international premieres, new art-house cinema, retrospectives, a special selection of Eastern European and Japanese cinema and many side programs such as workshops, exhibitions and parties. Every year several professors of the Leiden University, the oldest university of the Netherlands, are asked to give a lecture on their favourite film.
In addition, the festival wishes to provide a creative platform for young and talented filmmakers and launched the competition ‘Hollandse Nieuwe’ (the New Dutch). The public (approximately 12.000 people) selects the best film of the LFF, which is awarded with the prestigious Iron Herring award, de ‘IJzeren Haring’.

Film Programme 2009

This is an overview of the screenings & programs that can be attended by our English speaking guests. For more information on the language of the films or subtitles, please look at the film details on this website.

Panorama
Japan
Russia
Specials
Off Screen

Panorama

In the competition for best film of the festival you find the latest titles of both Hollywood and international independent films. A short selection of the titles:

The Informant - Matt Damon stars in Steven Soderbergh’s latest crime comedy.

The U.S. government decides to go after an agri-business giant with a price-fixing accusation, based on the evidence submitted by their star witness, vice president turned informant Mark Whitacre.

Antichrist - Lars von Trier’s shocking film about a grieving couple that retreats to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.

Whatever Works - Larry David in new Woody Allen: Attempting to impress his ideologies on religion, relationships, and the randomness (and worthlessness) of existence, lifelong New York resident Boris Yellnikoff rants to anyone who will listen, including the audience.

Precious - In Harlem, an overweight, illiterate teen that is pregnant with her second child is invited to enrol in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction. Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.

Julie & Julia - Julia Child’s story of her start in the cooking profession is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell’s 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child’s first book.

Creation - English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to find a balance between his revolutionary theories on evolution and the relationship with religious wife, whose faith contradicts his work.

New York, I love you - In the city that never sleeps, love is always on the mind. An anthology film joining several love stories set in one of the most loved cities of the world, New York.

In the Loop - In the Loop is a smart new comedy and Sundance Film Festival hit from the acclaimed team behind the award-winning BBC TV comedy series Thick of it. The film is drawing instant comparisons to great political and absurdist comedies like Dr. Strangelove, Wag the Dog and Thank you for Smoking.

Cirque du Freak: Vampire’s Assistant - A young boy named Darren Shan meets a mysterious man at a freak show who turns out to be a Vampire. After a series of events Darren must leave his normal life and go on the road with the Cirque Du Freak and become a Vampire.

Bright Star - “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. A drama based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne.

Paper heart - Charlyne Yi embarks on a quest across America to make a documentary about the one subject she doesn’t fully understand: Love.

The Countess - Julie Delpy is Elisabeth Bathory, the 16th century Hungarian Countess that bathed in virgin blood to preserve her beauty.

Gigantic - Comedy about mattress salesman Brian Weathersby and a young woman named Happy who falls asleep on one of the beds and starts to affect his life upon waking up.

$9.99 - A stop-motion animated story about people living in a Sidney apartment complex looking for meaning in their lives.

Hachi - A drama based on the true story of a college professor’s bond with the abandoned dog he takes into his home.

Amerrika - A drama centred on an immigrant single mother and her teenage son in small town Illinois.

Goodbye Solo - Two men form an unlikely friendship that will change both of their lives forever.

Nothing Personal - Drama about a young woman who travels to Ireland to find seclusion. Won Best First Feature and Best Actress in Locarno.

Japan

Blood is thicker than water: Family portrayed in Japanese Cinema. This list only consists of the Japanese films with English subtitles.

Taste of Tea - A spell of time in the life of a family living in rural Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo.

Sway - Takeru returns from Tokyo to tend to his sick mother and finds his brother subject to a murder trial.

Blood and Bones - Kitano Takeshi stars as a brute pater familias, who abuses and destroys the lives of his wife and family.

I was born, but … - Ozu’s masterpiece about two young brothers who become the leaders of a gang of kids in their neighbourhood.

Passing Fancy - Another Ozu classic: Two Tokyo co-workers come across a destitute young lady in search of a place to live.

Pale Flower - The story of Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster and Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills.

Vacation – Japanese prison drama that revolves around guard Hirai, who is preparing for the first execution in three years.

Memories of Matsuko - When a bored college student learns that a long lost aunt has been found dead in a park, he begins piecing together her life to see if it had any value. What he finds is a revelation.

Achilles and the Tortoise - A film in which the great Takeshi Kitano explores his triumphs, trials and tribulations as a painter.

Russia

Each year, the Leiden Film Festival has a special programme dedicated to the best contemporary Russian films. All films have English subtitles.

Tsar – A spectacular historic drama about the reign of Ivan the Terrible.

Wolfy (Volchok) - A mother runs away from her daughter in an attempt to start new life, and the girl runs after her mother as she has no idea how to live without her.

Captive (Plenny) - The story of a young Chechen and his Russian captor during their civil war.

Morphia (Morfyi) - A drama that chronicles the civil war that raged after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

Hipsters (Styliagi) - The Russian hit-musical about young people that struggle to do things their way in the 1950s.

Tale in the Darkness (Skazka pro temnotu) - Angelina is a police officer that helps orphans and troubled youngsters. When a little boy tells Angelina how lonely, dull and useless she is, she decides to change herself.

Specials

Peter Greenaway - LFF is proud to present a special audiovisual seminar by acclaimed British film director Peter Greenaway, which will look into the symbiosis between Art & Cinema.

Russian Film Concert with Yvo Verschoor - Pianist Yvo Verschoor will accompany two silent Russian films with a specialised interpretation: Earth (Zemlya) by Aleksandr Dovzhenko and The Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kino-apparatom) by Dziga Vertov.

Iranian & Jewish Film Festival at LFF - Film begins where politics end. The directors of both the Jewish Film Festival and the Iranian Film Festival will be present at the screening of contemporary Iranian and Jewish cinema. All films have English subtitles.

Film & Pizza - The Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) is the national centre of archaeology. You are welcome to sit and relax, order a pizza and watch some Italian classics. Only Fellini’s Roma has English subtitles.

Inches International Film Competition - The International Network on Children’s Health, Environment and Safety (INCHES) in cooperation with Leids Film Festival launched an International Film Competition on Health and Environment called “Focus on Children in a Healthy Environment’’ with themes “Climate’’ and ‘‘Environmental Health’’. This film competition has the aim to promote the topic of health and environment and especially the topic of the environmental health of children worldwide.

Off Screen

Besides our wide variety of film screenings, there will be plenty of entertainment.

Every night Festival Café in Scheltema - From 10 p.m. Scheltema is the place to be at the LFF this year. Interviews, special guests, performances … and drinks of course.

Friday October 16th - LFF PRE PARTY with the hit documentary Soul Power, followed by an all night Funked-Up party with ‘Bastian’ in LVC.

Saturday October 31st - Official LFF Afterparty with the international live act ‘C-mon & Kypski’ in LVC.

Press

For more information about interviews, press accreditation and other press related information please contact Hessel Heins: hessel@leidsfilmfestival.nl