16-27 March: Terry Gilliam to be honoured at Bradford International Film Festival

The Bradford International Film Festival has made a real name for itself on the international stage as it showcases new, ground-breaking, obscure and unusual films.

This year sees the filmmaker Terry Gilliam presented with the 2011 Fellowship Award. In a special Screentalk interview shown prior to a screening of the 1981 film Time Bandits (starring John Cleese and Sean Connery), Gilliam will discuss his rise from Monty Python animation to one of the leading fantasy cinema figures in the world.

Other Gilliam films to be shown at the festival include Feat and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys and The Brothers Grimm.

Now in its 17^th year, the Bradford International Film Festival will continue to extend Bradford’s growing reputation as the home of ground-breaking cinema. The Opening Night Gala will feature Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger starring Anthony Hopkins, whilst other highlights during the 11-day festival include Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, Yoav Factor’s Reuniting the Rubins, plus a live satellite link up with Werner Herzog and a 3D screening of Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

Another special guest at this year’s Film Festival will be Claire Bloom as part of an 80^th birthday tribute as she accepts the Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award in a Screentalk following a screening of Robert Wise’s 1963 psychological horror film The Haunting. Other Bloom films to screen during the Festival include Look Back in Anger, Richard III and Limelight.

The Widescreen Weekend is a part of the Festival you won’t want to miss, with The Bridge on the River Kwai being shown in a newly restored 4k digital cinema print – the film will be shown in an aspect ratio of 2:55.1, the first ever screening in this way. Other films featured during the Widescreen Weekend include two other David Lean films – Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, plus a 3-strip Cinerama print of How the West Was Won.

More information can be found here, whilst if you’re looking to head to Bradford for the event, find accommodation in Bradford on Hello Yorkshire.