LIFF announces opening and closing films, and feature competitions for 2024.
We are thrilled to reveal the opening and closing films for LIFF2024 and our Constellation and Fanomenon sections, and 16 UK Premieres in our feature competitions. Constellation is our new main programme section where we preview many of the most anticipated films of the year and exciting new discoveries in the New Directors Competition. Expanded for LIFF 2024 including with a new competition for fantastic genre features, Fanomenon is the home at LIFF for fantasy, sci-fi, horror, dark comedy, cult films, and much more. The full programme is announced on 9 October.
OPENING AND CLOSING FILMS
Still: The Ties That Bind Us
LIFF 2024 Opening Film - The Ties That Bind Us
(UK Premiere) Carine Tardieu/France, Belgium
Our opening film is a compassionate, emotionally engaging story about new kinds of family ties and what brings people together in times of adversity.
Constellation Opening Film – A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg/USA, Poland
A whip smart road movie about odd couple Jewish cousins on a tour through Poland to honour their beloved grandmother, a Holocaust survivor.
Fanomenon Opening Film - Escape from the 21st Century (UK Premiere)
Yang Li/China
A wildly imaginative sci-fi action comedy adventure where three teenage friends sneeze and fight their way to the future and back to save their world.
Constellation Closing Film - Nightbitch
Marielle Heller/USA
This genre-bending exploration of motherhood and identity stars Amy Adams as a stay-at-home mum who becomes convinced she’s turning into a dog.
Fanomenon Closing Film – The Killers (UK Premiere)
Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deok, Chang Hang-jun, Lee Myung-Se/South Korea
This dark and stylish anthology film from South Korea features four individual visions of the hitman genre, with mutual murder and mayhem.
LIFF 2024 Closing Film – All the Long Nights (UK Premiere)
Shô Miyake/Japan
Bringing the festival to a fitting close is an uplifting and radiant tribute to friendship by Shô Miyake, one of Japan's most promising filmmakers.
CONSTELLATION FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
Still: Simon of the Mountain
Betânia (UK Premiere)
Marcelo Botta/Brazil
A captivating and joyful insight into a family pulling together against the challenges of a new way of life in Brazil.
East of Noon (UK Premiere)
Hala Elkoussy/Egypt, Netherlands, Qatar
A vividly imaginative Egyptian fable and a clever political satire set in a confined, isolated community.
The Editorial Office (UK Premiere)
Roman Bondarchuk/Ukraine, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic
A freewheeling satirical drama that skewers post-truth politics in Ukraine in the days before the Russian invasion.
The Fable (UK Premiere)
Raam Reddy/India, USA
A magical realist tale and an incisive political allegory, beautifully shot in 16mm in the Indian Himalayas.
Ivo (UK Premiere)
Eva Trobisch/Germany
In this masterful follow-up to 2018’s All Good, Eva Trobisch crafts an intimate character study focused on a palliative home-care nurse
Loveable (UK Premiere)
Lilja Ingolfsdottir/Norway
This multi-award-winning interpersonal drama from Norway is a searing yet heartfelt portrait of what it means to be loveable.
Pierce (UK Premiere)
Nelicia Low/Singapore/Thailand, Poland
A young fencer reconnects with his brother after his release from prison, and questions if he truly committed the violent crime he’s accused of.
Simon of the Mountain (UK Premiere)
Federico Luis/Argentina, Chile, Uruguay
A playful and provocative drama about a young man who befriends a group of disabled teenagers, deftly questioning societal attitudes and social boundaries.
Toxic (UK Premiere)
Saulė Bliuvaitė, Lithuania
Winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno, this unflinching drama sees two teenagers put their bodies and minds through hell to become models.
FANOMENON FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
Still: Jupiter
Animalia Paradoxa (UK Premiere)
Niles Atallah/Chile
Niles Atallah conjures an astonishingly rich post-apocalyptic world in which a strange, human-amphibian creature struggles to survive.
Chlorophyll (UK Premiere)
Ivana Gloria/Italy
In this intimate film fairy tale from Italy, Maia - whose hair and blood are naturally green - is constantly drawn to connect with nature, trees and flowers.
Else (UK Premiere)
Thibault Emin/France, Belgium
Thibault Emin's mesmerizing debut feature is a body horror romance set amid a strange epidemic that causes the infected to melt into their surroundings.
Jupiter (UK Premiere)
Benjamin Pfohl/Germany
In this dark sci-fi drama, a teenage girl grapples with her family’s deepening devotion to a cosmic cult that promises a higher existence on Jupiter.
She Loved Blossoms More (UK Premiere)
Yannis Veslemes/Greece, France, New Zealand
The Greek weird wave just got gloriously weirder with Yannis Veslemes’ existential fever dream about time travel and family ties.
U Are the Universe (UK Premiere)
Pavlo Ostrikov/Ukraine
Pavlo Ostrikov’s wondrous space romance about a lone astronaut and a faraway connection was written and filmed during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Vulcanizadora (UK Premiere)
Joel Potrykus/USA
Underground director Joel Potrykus presents a darkly comedic and unpredictable exploration of two aging slackers intent on carrying out a disturbing pact on a doomed camping trip.
The full LIFF 2024 programme will be announced on Wednesday 9 October, when tickets and passes become available to book. Leeds International Film Festival 2024 will take place from 1-17 November.
Still: All The Long Nights