Friday 1 – Thursday 7 November 2024
The Inverness Film Festival (IFF) is returning with a diverse line-up that promises an exciting celebration of cinema from around the world.
The festival will open with Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch, a bold dark comedy that sees new mum Amy Adams going feral. Closing this year’s festival is Conclave, Edward Berger’s Vatican-set psychological thriller where Ralph Fiennes is tasked with one of the world’s most secretive and ancient rituals – selecting a new Pope.
Highlights of this year’s IFF include Jason Reitman’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ origins comedy drama Saturday Night; Jesse Eisenberg’s stellar road movie A Real Pain; Andrea Arnold’s whimsical social-realist drama Bird; and Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel exploring themes of race and injustice. Guy Maddin returns with wild dark comedy Rumours, Mike Leigh takes another unflinching look at life’s harsh realities in Hard Truths and IFF favourite Karen Gillan leads the funny and touching Late Bloomers.
New cinema from around the world will transport audiences to new places and perspectives, taking in India (Mumbai-set comedy Sister Midnight), Nepal (Himalayan odyssey Shambhala), Tibet (Pema Tseden’s Snow Leopard), Iceland (Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks), Zambia (On Becoming a Guinea Fowl), Iran (The Seed of the Sacred Fig) and many more countries.
Cinematic documentaries are always a strong fixture of the festival, with this year’s selection including The Shepherds of Berneray, documenting four seasons of crofting in the 1970s; Mark Cousins’ meditative exploration of Scottish painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in A Sudden Glimpse of Deeper Things; and a sonic journey with an iconic Scottish band in Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound, with director Anthony Cook and Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite in-person.
In addition to feature-length films, the IFF will showcase a selection of the finest Scottish short films, highlighting emerging voices and innovative storytelling. For younger audiences and families, the festival presents Flow, a visually stunning feline adventure that will enchant viewers of all ages.
Tickets for the 22nd Inverness Film Festival will be available from 10am on Friday 11 October.
Paul MacDonald-Taylor, Inverness Film Festival Director and Head of Film + Visual Art at Eden Court, said: “We’re delighted that this year’s festival is another international affair, showing films from around the globe – but with an important focus on features and short films from Scotland, playing across six days of the festival. We’re previewing some of the most exciting new films that will be competing over next year’s awards season, which you can see before almost anyone else at the 22nd Inverness Film Festival.”