Our guide to Cambridge Film Festival 2024
It’s the best week of the year, and yes, I am including Christmas in that. That’s because, for a film fan like me, the Cambridge Film Festival is a stack of Christmasses come at once, a veritable treasure trove of cinema both new and restored with a week of films suitable for all ages and tastes.
As always, picking up such a packed programme and trying to find somewhere to start can be a little intimidating. The festival is conveniently grouped into strands, and each of them has within it a variety of dramas, comedies, documentaries and more, unmissable whether you are a dedicated cinephile or just a casual film lover.
Opening and closing films
The opening film is traditionally a showcase for the best of British film talent, and in recent years has highlighted the work of top tier British directors including Clio Barnard, Martin McDonagh and Carol Morley.
This year it’s the turn of Andrea Arnold, who won an Oscar for her short film Wasp and has picked up the Cannes Jury Prize three times (for Red Road, Fish Tank and American Honey). She’s returning to her North Kent roots in this year’s opening film: Bird is a slice of social realism with a difference.
It stars Barry Keoghan as Bug, a man struggling to raise his young family and to win over his daughter Bailey (a fierce debut from Nykika Adams). While he’s trying to use unlikely schemes to fund his imminent wedding, Bailey’s looking for adventure elsewhere and her path crosses with that of the mysterious Bird (Franz Rogorowski), and the pair attempt to find help and healing for each other. Arnold is a master of stories that explore the fringes of society, but here she’s created something truly special by weaving in a little hint of fantasy, escapism and hope.
The film which will close the festival is a showcase for the talents of Jesse Eisenberg. He writes, directs and stars in A Real Pain, where cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Succession’s Kieran Culkin) join a tour group visiting Poland to explore their family roots after the passing of their grandmother. David and Benji are a pair of absolute contrasts, the former shy and introspective, the latter brash to the point of discomfort, finding truths about each other as they journey into their family past.
Eisenberg and Culkin are a magnetic pairing, while Eisenberg the writer / director avoids the need to tie up everything neatly, instead allowing the unspoken moments to carry equal weight in this affecting drama.
Gala screenings
The festival also features previews of some of the best films which will hit cinema screens in the coming months. Expect Anora to deservedly get lots of attention come awards season: director Sean Baker is another who lives well in the periphery of society, and has followed up The Florida Project and Red Rocket with this tale of stripper Ani (Mikey Madison) hired for a week to be the girlfriend of the son of a Russian oligarch. So far, so Pretty Woman, but Baker first turns the film on its head into broad farce before finding tenderness and humanity in Ani’s plight, all helped by a star-making performance from Madison.
If you’re looking for big name performances, then Amy Adams headlines Nightbitch, the new film from director Marielle Heller. Adams is an artist who’s given up her career to take care of her young son, but also has a husband (Scoot McNairy) who’s proving hard work. If that wasn’t enough, being a mother seems to be taking an unusual physical toll, with an inescapable feeling that she’s turning into a dog. Adams relishes the chance to express some biting truths about the rigours of motherhood.
I’ve not seen everything showing yet, but if there’s a better film at this year’s festival than The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, then it will have to be truly exceptional.
Mohammed Rasoulof’s drama explores the escalating suspicions and tensions between a father, mother and their two daughters during the 2022 protests, and when a gun goes missing father Iman (Missagh Zareh) is willing to go to any lengths to get to the truth. Rasoulof’s film is an example of Iranian cinema at its finest, exploring universal truths of the human condition while shining a searchlight on the country’s political and social challenges.
I can also recommend All We Imagine As Light, Payal Kapadia’s gentle drama following the lives and loves of two Malayali nurses working in the bustling thrum of Mumbai who then help a colleague relocate to her former village after her home is demolished by developers.
Kapadia explores different facets of relationships with a delicate touch and finds strength in challenging situations.
Completing the Gala Screenings line-up are Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel set in an abusive school in 1960’s Florida, and The Girl With The Needle, Magnus von Horn’s drama about an underground adoption agency in post-First World War Copenhagen.
International festival highlights
The Cambridge Film Festival is always an excellent showcase for the best in world cinema and this year is no exception. Films featured span the globe, from Benin to Mexico and the Swiss Alps to snowy Manitoba. That’s the setting for the wonderfully quirky Universal Language, as a group of townsfolk cross paths and explore each other’s eccentricities.
There’s a turkey shop with framed posters of the turkeys on the walls, jars full of tears and the world’s dullest tour guide, but Matthew Rankin’s film, which blends Canada with Iran, also has plenty to say about identity and purpose. Fans of Wes Anderson or Roy Andersson should be well served.
Other highlights of this strand include dry, wistful comedy Eephus, following the inhabitants of a small New England town playing the last baseball game on the town’s ground before it’s demolished, and having to find increasingly inventive ways to keep the game going when extra innings are required.
Grand Theft Hamlet is the hilarious story of two men who decided to conduct a lockdown experiment, to see if they could put on a virtual staging of one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays in GTA Online; difficult when everyone there is just out to kill each other. Fans of kitchen dramas Boiling Point and The Bear might also enjoy La Cocina, a day in the life of a New York City kitchen whose cast includes Rooney Mara. Director Alonso Ruizpalacios captures the chaos of the kitchen, from the simmering tensions of the staff to flood water filling the kitchen floor, but finds moments of curiosity and beauty amid the confusion.
Other festival strands
There are a wealth of other sections to explore in this year’s festival, also grouped to make them easy to navigate. Environment and Community explores the challenges facing our planet and the stories to be told about those challenges, ranging from The Keepers, a documentary about bee-keeping in Ireland, to Flow, an animation about a set of animals surviving in the wake of a tsunami.
The Belongings section explores people examining their own lives, and includes Mother Vera, which has just picked up the best documentary award at the London Film Festival. Shot mostly in black and white, Vera has spent 20 years at a monastery in Belarus, but explores her future through her relationship with the monastery’s horses.
The Otherwise strand explores representations of humanity, and what it is to be neurodivergent, queer or otherwise different.
This year’s festival sees the return of the annual Camera Catalonia section, with a selection this year that ranges from dark comedy in A House On Fire to a new take on lycanthropy in Werewolf.
Also making its annual return is the Short Fusion section, a set of carefully curated short films which offer an ideal opportunity for those who find making decisions on what to watch difficult!
The Family Film Festival is also returning, and this year the films that you can see for free include animation highlights Frozen 2, Brave and Encanto. Just remember: we don’t talk about Bruno, OK?
If that’s not enough, the festival is hosting the BFI’s Art Of Action season, which includes such classics as Point Break and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon making their way back to the big screen. This year’s Outstanding Contribution Award is being given to Daniel Kaluuya, so you can revisit some of his finest work including Get Out and Judas And The Black Messiah.
And if all of this is too much, don’t forget you can let the decision on what to watch be made for you with the annual Surprise Film – a closely guarded secret until the credits roll!
The 43rd Cambridge Film Festival is proudly supported once again by the Cambridge Independent. Run by Cambridge Film Trust, it takes place at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse from 24-31 October. Visit cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk/ for tickets, a brochure and more details,
