Film festivals are one of those great gems in life. Besides screening some of the best upcoming films, both shorts and features, before even their official releases, they provide fantastic entertainment and educational value for anyone with an interest in the film industry. From public workshops to seminars, guest speakers and award ceremonies – a good festival goes a very long way. And fortunately, November is a great month to be on the prowl.

24th Leeds International Film Festival

4th-21th Nov

This is one mammoth event. The Leeds International Film Festival is in its 24th year, a testament to its success, and this year boasts over a 100 features and 150 shorts over 18 days. Phew. Among those is the highly desirable The King’s Speech (Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helen Bonham Carter), so desirable in fact event organizers have arranged for a second screening due to the huge demand to view it. After Firth’s enlightening role in A Single Man I’m not really surprised. But the story of the stuttery King George is far from the only popular feature on display and you will without a doubt find dozens of films to your liking.

Check out the website for more information, an event this size is spread out a bit so it will help when choosing where to view what!

Bradford Animation Festival

9th-13th Nov

Also currently on the run is the Animation Festival at Bradford’s National Media Museum. This is an awesome festival with screenings happening as well as seminars, workshops and special guests – all aimed at animation. Guests this year include Inception visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin, EPIC, and Gary Jackson taking a model making seminar. One of the films to look out for here would be Sylvain Chomet’s critically acclaimed L’illusionniste (The Illusionist), but again its one of many to be seen. The festival culminates with the BAF, please don’t read fart, Awards hosted by English animator Barry Purves.

Version Film Festival / Adaptation Film Festival

13th-14th Nov

A bit different from the rest, this festival focuses on short films adapted from poetry. With 40 shorts set to be screened, its a great opportunity to see something new. The appealing thing about this particular event is that its focus is on the transition between literature and screen – so the budding writers out there should take note. It also includes an animation workshop and several seminars on writing aimed at assisting writers in creating work specifically designed for films. It might not be as large as some of the other festivals but you’ll definitely walk away from Manchester with a great experience.

View their page for more information all you future Bards!

Foyle Film Festival

19th-27th Nov

Now this is going to be a keeper. The 23rd edition of the Foyle Film Festival promises to show off some classics and some upcoming beauties. Based in Derry, events kick off with the premier screening of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest on Friday night, the final chapter of Stieg Larsson’s brilliant trilogy brought to screen. Noomi Rapace, will you marry me? Multiple workshops on subjects from acting to “no budget” film-making ensure an insightful experience and screenings of memorable films like Metropolis and Citizen Kane guarantee great entertainment value. Definitely not to be missed!

So there you have it! A few more great festivals to attend this month. Be sure to check out the previous article for the other awesome happenings around the country and together we can slay the manky creature called boring November!