Hinterlands Film Festival 2021
Supporting Skipton’s celebration of rural film through our Ignition Awards

Welcome back, Hinterlands - a love letter to rural film and the landscapes of the Lakes and Dales.

Hinterlands Festival is back! Following a successful first edition in 2019 and an inevitable postponement in 2020, Skipton’s celebration of rural film returns for a well-deserved second edition.

The festival, developed by outdoor arts specialists Wild Rumpus and supported by National Lottery funding through Film Hub North’s Ignition Awards, is starting quick out of the blocks after its unplanned interval. Their programme of film, music and performance takes over the town’s Plaza Cinema on its reopening weekend, running from 21-23 May.

   It is with great joy that we return to the beloved Plaza Cinema in Skipton. Independent cinema has been so heavily impacted by the pandemic and we hope that Hinterlands can help kick-start the process of renewal and revitalisation. We hope the festival will prove to be a catalyst for more year-round film activity in this beautiful town. – Rowan Hoban & Sarah Bird, Directors at Wild Rumpus

On opening night, Hinterlands presents the premiere of Then There Was Everything – an arboreal meditation featuring local archive footage and material shot by students from nearby Craven College. Robin Richards, founding member of Dutch Uncles and one of the UK’s most exciting composers, will perform a specially commissioned score. Skipton-based cellist Sarah Smout opens the evening with a performance of Eyjar, a solo show inspired by a musical journey over land and sea to Iceland.

Elsewhere in the programme, audiences can get an early look at some of the most exciting new releases coming to cinemas – each firmly rooted in the festival’s rural ethos. Selections include Oscar-winning itinerant drama Nomadland; Supernova, Harry Macqueen’s heart-breaking story of a couple touring the English countryside one last time; and Ammonite, the second feature from Francis Lee whose debut, God’s Own Country, was a standout hit at Hinterlands 2019.

And the festival is keeping it weird with a special appearance from the Notable podcast: Stuart Maconie and Elizabeth Alker’s chronicle of the extraordinary, unclassifiable and downright freaky tales of musical history. For this live recording, Elizabeth and Stuart will discuss the work of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, and the psychedelic, folky fusion heard on the remarkable soundtrack to The Wicker Man. A screening of Robin Hardy’s landmark rural horror is, of course, the only appropriate conclusion.

Explore the 2021 festival

Hinterlands Festival 2021 is supported by National Lottery funding through our Ignition Awards. For more information on how we can help your next project, contact our team or visit our Exhibition Funding landing page.