Now in its tenth year, the Holmfirth Film Festival is growing and adapting to continue to provide the communities of the Holme Valley with rewarding, collective cinema experiences. Funding from Film Hub North is supporting the festival’s transition to a new model to ensure the event’s long-term success and sustainability.

Previously running over the course of a demanding week, in 2019 the festival is instead hosting weekender events in summer and winter, with regular off-festival screenings scheduled throughout the year. New venues are popping up across the villages of the Holme Valley too – providing local audiences with more chances to enjoy the festival, and giving the festival team more room to experiment with programming.

The festival’s successful summer weekender – running from 7-9 June – focused on the riches of European cinema, both past and present, and looked forward towards the future of sustainable living in the midst of the climate crisis. Audiences filled the Holmfirth Picturedrome, a much-loved and suitably vintage local venue, for a day of Europhile nostalgia courtesy of Il Postino. And the Holmfirth Civic Hall, a new space for the 2019 edition, hosted screenings and discussions on environmental issues both global and local – from the international farming industry to the future of transport infrastructure in Holmfirth itself.

The link between humanity and nature is a recurring theme for the festival’s second weekender, taking place from 8-10 November. Apollo 11 and Maiden document epic undertakings to explore the far reaches of our planet – and beyond. While Quiet Flows the Don, Five Seasons and Honeyland provide more meditative insights into our connection with the natural world. Elsewhere in a particularly strong documentary line-up, a music strand shines a light on the worlds of jazz, funk and soul through portraits of iconic artists like Aretha Franklin (Amazing Grace) and Miles Davis (Birth of the Cool) as well as genre-defining label, Motown (Hitsville).

Outside of the weekender dates, the Hub is pleased to be supporting the festival to deliver additional regular events, ensuring Kirklees’ rural communities can enjoy independent film year-round. Screenings to date have included 2019 world cinema highlights, including the neo-realist meets magic-realist folktale Happy as Lazzaro; Nadine Labaki’s crushing tale of childhood on the streets of Beirut, Capernaum; and Bird of Passage, a cautionary tale about the early days of the Colombian drug trade from the team behind Embrace of the Serpent. Ignition Awards funding will support further off-festival events through to March 2020.