Heads up that all the quote formatting is b0rked.

Universal Language (19)
Possibly my new favourite film. It's that good. A fever dream single day story where a small cast mill about on absurd quests. What's going down in the beige zone? Why did the turkey steal the boy's glasses? What's in the forgotten briefcase? Glorious.

She Loved Blossoms More (20)
I loved this. Not sure the rest of the audience did. Greek sci fi body horror. Three brothers living in an old mansion get spectacularly high whilst doing mad science. Cue pan-dimensional chicken, talking flowers, flare guns and more! Silly in a good way.

Ah so sad not to be seeing this one. Hope it gets some sort of release later.

Earth with live score (18)
Soviet propaganda film, celebrating collective farms and mechanisation of the Ukrainian grain harvest with an astonishingly lovely guitar and piano live accompaniment. Film was pretty, if a bit meandering, but the music was incredible.

Christmas Eve at Miller's Point (17)
I was underwhelmed by this one. It had a really good setup - festive family gathering with everyone scoring points and arguing - but it pulled its punches. Never really felt very funny, very awkward or very… anything. Ho hum.

La Cocina (16)
Wow! Fast paced kitchen drama with heavy messages, laugh out load scenes and astonishing kitchen choreography. It was the longest film I've seen at LIFF24 but it flew by. I want to watch it again. Seriously good stuff.

All we imagine as light (15)
I'm still not sure what made me pick this one but I'm glad I did. Another story of society changing fast, mixing rural/urban, arranged/love marriages and women's experiences in Mumbai. A really lovely film.

Betânia (14)
An absolute joy. Rural Brazil bringing the funeral rites, the environment and a society that's changing very fast. It's a story about family and supporting each other and I loved every minute of it.

World Animation Shorts Competition (12, 13).
The animation is always a treat, though second batch a bit gloomy. Standouts were the pig trying to get some beer and a very dark tale behind the scenes of an adorable children's puppet show.
Lovely to see them on a huge screen in a busy cinema!

Animalia Paradoxa (11). Well there's always one I don't really enjoy. Dystopian hellscape, animation, puppetry, scavengers and references to the book of revelations. It sounds great but wasn't much fun. I think I'd have loved it as a short. Or even two shorts.

More LIFF24 reviews. Now we're hitting the four film days.


East of Noon (10) has a lot to like about it but never really clicked for me. Some very memorable scenes, and then quite a lot of ambling around.

Don’t Cry Butterfly (9) was a bit heavier. Neatly told Vietnamese story about relationships and loss. Not sure which bits were real or metaphors. I enjoyed it but I don’t know if I’ll remember much about it.

This happens every year. Im way behind on my LIFF24 reviews.

Rumours (8) was truly astonishing. A heavy hitting cast are leaders of the G7 discussing a response to an unspecified crisis. So far so normal. Cue undead bog people, a giant brain, a pocketful of ham… It’s utterly unhinged and great.

Followed by How to Make a Killing (aka A Bear in the Jura) (7). Christmas crime caper with bears, drug dealers, bags of cash, swingers, and all sorts. Enjoyed every minute of it.

LIFF24 day 3 was a cracker too!

The Fable (6) was a joy. Some very clever mangling together of film and cgi in a magical realist tale of colonialism and almost feudal land ownership. Very clever stuff. And a suit of wings!

Eye opening, sad and moving. I think it underplayed just how important the NHS is and occasionally stretched the witch parallels a bit, but it was raw and personal and I’d watch anything else from Elizabeth Sankey in a heartbeat.

Witches (5) was a collage of film footage (yes!) of witches (yes!) illustrating how the healthcare system fails those with postpartum depression and psychosis (yikes).

Throw in some meta angles where they’re literally making a film of their lives as it happens and you’ve got my attention. Five stars from me.

Ok day two at LIFF24 was at least as strong and so beautifully varied.

The Other Way Around (4) was a Spanish indie anti-romance about a couple planning a separation party to end their relationship.

I’d forgotten Dave Made a Maze!

And Tim Travers and the Time Traveller’s Paradox was a very silly time travel adventure. A lot of very funny bits and some bonkers special effects. I tired of it a bit in the final act, but it’s exactly the kind of unhinged story that I love to see at the film festival

Solid first day of films at LIFF24.

A Samurai in Time (1) was a very straight faced time travel tale. It didn’t go anywhere very unexpected but was really good fun.

Paul and Paulette take a Bath (2) was dead weird, quite sweet and a lot deeper than I was expecting. Enjoyed it a lot.

😂 And there I was worrying #cocksOfLIFF had died with twitter. Good work

Leeds film festival 2024. We’re back, let’s go. Missed the first weekend for the first time in … a decade? No matter. Bring on the films

#manhole
A man gets stuck in a hole. How will he get out? This takes a dumb idea and turns it into a suitably taught little thriller. Quite fun 🕳️🕳️🕳️

Hundreds of Beavers
Gloriously silly fun. Part animation, part people running about dressed as beavers, rabbits and horses, all completely bonkers slapstick fun 🦫🦫🦫🦫🦫

Sweet Dreams
Underwhelmed by this one. The trailer had made it out to be deeply weird but it was mostly straight faced and gloomy. An interesting setup - Dutch East Indies in decay, inheritance and illegitimate children - but it didn’t really do very much with it. 🐅🐅

The Holdovers
Quite lovely. Utterly predictable but it’s a love letter to 70s filmmaking that is a joy to watch. An unlovable teacher and student find common ground when forced to spend Christmas together 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Le Million
Fun 30s froth. A hard up artist wins the jackpot but loses his ticket. Hijinks ensue. Lots of very familiar slapstick scenarios, locking each other in rooms, mistaken identity and so on, but this is old so a lot of this was much newer at the time. 💸💸💸💸