At the heart of the Film Festival is the Official Selection, a major programme of the best premieres and previews of exciting new features from around the world that you can´t see anywhere else. From the delight of the Opening Gala selection Rumba to the rest of the must-see line-up including Black Ice, Mermaid, Momma´s Man, Moscow Belgium, Time to Die, and Wellness, the Official Selection is essential viewing for every fan of world cinema. The prestigious Golden Owl Competition of the Official Selection returns with a stunning range of innovative and exciting films never screened before in the UK, all by emerging filmmakers who are pushing cinematic boundaries. Controversial German filmmaker and gay rights campaigner Rosa von Praunheim is profiled through a special retrospective, while the extended version of Sergio Leone´s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly takes over the spectacular setting of Leeds Town Hall.

Cinema Versa is the Film Festival´s home for documentaries and underground voices, mavericks and nonconformists. As always, one of the strongest themes is music and this year a wide range of musical styles are profiled and celebrated from hip hop (Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome) to art rock (Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake), 60´s pop (The Wrecking Crew) and world music (La Paloma: the Melody of Longing). Live events include John Foxx, premiering his new audiovisual work The Quiet Man, Thomas Truax with One Man in the Band, and video collage and electronic music artist Andrew Sharpley´s Modular Films. The other dominant theme is Human Rights, with highlights including French doc-road movie Chomsky and Co, The Truth Be Told: The Cases against Supinya Klangnarong, and Fire Under the Snow which profiles a Buddhist monk arrested imprisoned for 33 years for peaceful demonstration, plus events with Oxfam, War on Want, the World Development Movement and Water Aid.

A unique Film Festival experience, KiNETIKA! is full of magnificent experimental films and events centring around the theme of Consciousness and the Collective. Fascinated with consciousness and film, the experimental filmmaking collective Sector 16 from Hannover will be KiNETIKA!´s special guests, sharing their intense and amazing films, many of which are collectively created. EXP24, Leeds-based collective of experimental filmmakers, will unveil their wondrous Super 8 and 16mm films hand-processed at their very own proto lab. Some of the most stunning experimental films of the year, largely on 16mm, will be shown in three selections; Subtle Bodies, The Earth and Sky are Taking Turns, and Utopia? Leeds collective Inecto School improvise a phenomenal soundtrack to Murnau´s jaw-dropping silent film Tabu on 16mm, and the documentary Reverse Shot explores the filmmaking collective which nurtured Herzog, Fassbinder and Wenders, enriched by special screenings of their wonderful films. Let the collective adventure commence!

Short films are the unseen gems of world cinema and the Film Festival is delighted to launch a dedicated new section with over 160 outstanding examples in 25 unique programmes - and you can see as many as you can for only £25 with the Short Film City Pass! Celebrating these small wonders of world filmmaking on the Film Festival´s big stages, Short Film City also honours the memory of Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (born 1842), the unsung pioneer of cinema who shot the first ever moving images in history, 120 years ago in Leeds. Ten competition programmes of some of the world´s best fiction, animation, documentary, experimental, and fantasy short filmmaking are presented alongside three Best of British and one Yorkshire selection. Out of competition, the thrilling filmmaking talent of the Basque Country and the unique observations of Latvian auteur Laila Pakalnina are Short Film City´s first special selections.

Horror, science fiction, Far Eastern anime and fantasy, and cult unclassifiables - the Film Festival has them all and more in Fanomenon, the UK´s leading genre film celebration. Fanomenon features over thirty fantastic features including UK and European premieres, a stunning selection of shorts, the Silver Melies Competition, two horror marathons Day of the Dead and Night of the Dead, the UK´s biggest selection of Japanese and Korean titles, and the massive Thought Bubble comic convention. Opening with the UK premiere of the visually striking and haunting Pop Skull, the film represents Fanomenon´s continuing support of celebrating and nurturing new and emerging talent. Additionally the most outrageous and shocking new films from Belgium, France, Norway and the UK will compete for the prestigious Silver Melies award. The selection of films from Japan, China, Hong Kong and Korea are as weird and wonderful as ever, helping to make Fanomenon 2008 the UK´s most exciting selection of world fantasy filmmaking yet.