Leeds Film have rounded out another successful year of developing and platforming films in Yorkshire as Leeds International Film Festival 2023 comes to a close.
The organisation, which runs three festivals every year – Leeds Young Film Festival (LYFF), the INDIs Fest, and Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) – is looking to revamp their approach to short films and programming, following the success of this year’s event.
Lee Bentham, Communications and Development Officer for Leeds Film, said: “We can invite people from around the world to join in with LIFF so it’s kind of a symbol I think of how amazing Leeds’ film culture has been coming along in the previous three years and as we always say the film was born in Leeds.”
Bentham went on to explain that the first Louise Le Prince film was in Leeds, at Roundhouse Park. Expressing that passion for this ‘amazing history’ of film dating back to the 1930s in Leeds has “Almost crystalized with the film festival where all these different strands and everything that Leeds has in terms of film culture comes together in a big celebration.”
Leeds Film is dedicated to continuing the success of its short film competitions.
Some standouts in the industry are the British Short Film Competition and the Yorkshire Short Film Competition; which serve as a way for the work of local, independent filmmakers to break through into the wider industry and feel represented alongside their peers during LIFF.
Bentham said: “Celebrating what we do, the people of the North, the people in Leeds, they want cinema. They love cinema, it’s still alive and that culture in the North of England is just as strong as anywhere else.”
Film submitted to LIFF can qualify for BAFTA and BIFA consideration; a good performance at LIFF can open many doors at subsequent competitions. What is especially relevant to these films set in the North of England is that these films feature northern accents which we rarely see on screen. Bentham notes these films aren’t seen to have widespread appeal and so are dismissed from selection and competition at the highest levels – a perception that Leeds Film is actively working to change.
Bentham said: “The idea is that over a weekend people all come down to watch the shorts and attend the awards.
“They (filmmakers) can meet each other and connect through that because a lot of them are Northern based or based in Yorkshire so it’s connecting these people in a fun way. Everyone’s there celebrating the films in the festival and they meet other filmmakers and we try and facilitate that through different receptions and social events for them.
“It’s all about getting these filmmakers together, more so they can actually make those connections with other people in the area and also internationally. People fly in for the festival who aren’t based in Britain, so it’s about expanding those networks by making this melting pot of short filmmakers. “
From next year onwards, Leeds Film are planning to dedicate even more time to their short film competitions, with plans in place for what Bentham describes as a “festival within a festival”.
LIFF’s focus on being a public festival and providing educational and networking opportunities has benefitted both the organisation and those it serves. In the last decade, the number of submissions and their quality have increased dramatically. Notably ‘An Irish Goodbye’ – which went on to win Best Live Action Short Film at the 95th Academy Awards – had its world premiere at LIFF, and now the competition is building on its prestige to develop home-grown filmmakers of its own.
Another success to come out of LIFF is Alfie Barker’s award-winning film Halfway. He is one of LIFF’s own film prodigies, as he has been attending workshops since he was eight.
Bentham told us “Alfie went to a claymation workshop that we put on, became obsessed with it and decided to go into films, and he used to always come to LIFF and enrolled in the classes we used to do back then.
“He (Alfie) was involved from when he was a kid and coming through that, now the jury voted his film as the best – it’s been this really nice full-circle moment and good for us because it’s a really nice example that this is working, that we have managed to spark off that interest in people when they’re young and that’s so important.”
Film programming is another area in which Leeds Film are keen to improve, with the organisation doing outreach sessions in the local community, such as in The Old Fire Station Community Centre, Hyde Park Picture House, and the Stockroom Cinema.
Bentham said: “Leeds actually has a really powerful film culture in terms of both the festival and Hyde Park Picture House for the independent film scene, but also Leeds has got a huge DIY programming scene.
“I think there’s 15 to 20 -that we know of- regular film clubs and venues, as far as we’re aware it’s probably one of the places in the UK that has the most DIY film culture so even from that level upwards until LIFF we’re celebrating this culture.
Bentham explained LIFF’s plan, that starting from early 2024, they will be hiring new programmers to be ‘buddied’ up with more experienced members of staff with the intent of making it an entry-level role available to inspire people who may not have considered programming as a pursuit or wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to get into the industry.
“Something that we’ve been trying to do is diversify the actual programming in general and who the programmers are.
“Programming is something that is really difficult to get started in, there aren’t exactly entry-level programming jobs.
“It’s often people who are in that world in some way and have been programming their own stuff and it kind of creates this bubble that I think the UK is trying to fix, to make it so it isn’t just one type of person choosing what everyone should see because that is a powerful role.”
Ultimately for Bentham and Leeds Film, this year’s festival has built upon and continued their existing successes. Alongside Leeds-produced filmmaker Alfie Barker winning the Best British Short Film award, films such as Malinda Kaur’s Yorkshire Short winning ‘F.O.G’ and ‘Tish’ – a documentary about photographer Tish Murtha which won the audience award for Best Documentary Feature – prove that their open approach to film in the North is paying off.
Bentham said: “LIFF is much more about the public, a lot of other festivals are kind designed for industry professionals whereas we don’t require an accreditation or anything like that to come to the festival.
“It’s trying to celebrate filmmakers and their work from the area, giving a platform to short films, especially Yorkshire with Yorkshire Shorts and British Shorts and again part of Leeds Film’s idea is that we’ve been nurturing that talent from the start.”
“Those roots we put in earlier are having an influence not only on the level of work that’s coming out of Yorkshire but also on the number of people who are engaging with cinema culture.
“I think the biggest complaint we’ve had this year is that everything has been sold out, and there are much worse complaints to have.”