This year the festival welcomes director Ken Loach who will receive the Derby Film Festival 2019 Hero Of Cinema Award. His latest film SORRY WE MISSED YOU will screen, along with an opening night preview of JUDY AND PUNCH; a visceral and dynamic live-action reinterpretation of the famous 16th century puppet show. This fierce, darkly comic and epic female-driven revenge story, starring Mia Wasikowska, is perfect for fans of Terry Gilliam, WERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, CORALINE AND PAN'S LABYRINTH.
In Derby Cathedral acclaimed composer Neil Brand will perform his score for Alfred Hitchcock’s BLACKMAIL, a masterpiece of silent cinema and a precursor for his later thrillers THE 39 STEPS and most famously, PSYCHO. Brand regularly performs at The Barbican, BFI Southbank, throughout the UK and at film festivals and special events around the world. He's a well known TV presenter on BBC 4 with the hugely successful SOUND OF CINEMA, THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE MOVIES and SOUND OF SONG.
In THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM a Los Angeles couple give up city life to buy a farm and follow their dream of growing every ingredient they might want to cook. This enlightening and entertaining documentary is a joy to watch while being motivating and magnificent.
Acclaimed director Kim Longinotto turns her viewpoint onto the work of Letizia Battaglia in SHOOTING THE MAFIA. When Battaglia picked up a camera in her early 40s, she was planning to document ordinary people’s lives but she soon found herself recording the reign of terror inflicted on the city of Palermo, Sicily, by the Mafia. Narrated by the 80 year old Battaglia, Longinotto’s film combines archive footage from when the city was besieged by the Cosa Nostra with details of the photographer’s personal life.
The definitive story of a record that has been labelled the “greatest break-up album of all time”, exploring music, obsession, love, loss and fading youth over the 30 year lifespan of The Wedding Present’s much-heralded debut LP is told in THE WEDDING PRESENT - SOMETHING LEFT BEHIND. Director Andrew Jezard will be at the festival for a post screening Q&A.
Wild and troubled nine year old Benni keeps getting expelled from one foster home after another due to her uncontrollable aggression. Too young to be held in treatment programmes and too violent to stay in group homes, she is a ‘system crasher’ – the unofficial, controversial name given to children who slip through the cracks of the German Child Protective Services. SYSTEM CRASHER features an exceptional, no-holds barred, stand out performance from lead actor Helena Zengel.
Derby Film Festival’s sister festival Paracinema presents a day of films that span the genres on the outskirts of cinema, referring to a wide, seemingly disparate collection of films outside the mainstream. Paracinema screenings take place on Friday 15 November.
Derby Film Festival has been made possible with support from Film Hub Midlands through funds from the National Lottery.
For the full line-up including the Paracinema strand head to the Derby Film Festival website using the link below.