This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Leeds International Film Festival and the milestone of 400 years since Leeds received its first Royal Charter, starting its journey to becoming a city. As part of our celebrations at LIFF 2026, which runs from 29 October to 15 November, we’re delighted to be presenting our largest programme yet at Cottage Road Cinema, with previews of some of the most acclaimed and anticipated independent films of the year.

We have many audience members who discover the cinema for the first time during LIFF and they are always taken aback by the size of the auditorium in the historic building. I miss the giant capacities of cinema auditoria like at the former Odeons in Leeds and Bradford city centres, with around 1000 seats. But Cottage Road has one of the largest capacities among independent cinemas in Yorkshire where it’s a special experience seeing a great film in a sold-out screening.

We expect that many screenings of LIFF 2026 films at Cottage Road Cinema will sell out, and we recommend booking early: tickets are currently still available for all screenings. I have picked out a few film highlights to mention here. Opening our Fanomenon genre section on 29 October is Wicker, a fantasy comedy romance starring Olivia Colman as ‘Fisherwoman’ whose perfect wicker husband (played by Alexander Skarsgard, a former Leeds student) becomes the source of much village jealousy. Wild Horse Nine (1 November) is the new film from LIFF favourite Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), a gripping dark comedy thriller set shortly before the 1973 coup in Chile, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rocwell. The best-selling film at LIFF so far and a sensation at Cannes Film Festival in May, epic Spanish melodrama La Bola Negra (5 November) celebrates the enduring legacy of poet and playwright Federico García Lorca.

The latest film from another LIFF favourite filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda (Shoplifters) and shot on 35mm in a small town in Northern Japan, Look Back (8 November) portrays the growing emotional and creative bond between two teenage girls who dream of becoming manga artists. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, Fjord (also on 8 November – see it with Look Back in a LIFF double bill) is a gripping and thought-provoking drama about a Norwegian woman (Renate Reinsve) and her devout Romanian husband (Sebastian Stan) who relocate with their five children to a remote, close⁠-⁠knit coastal town. One of the last films to be added to the LIFF 2026 line-up and we’re delighted to present it at Cottage Road Cinema, Elsinore (12 November) is the deeply emotional and stirring true story of gifted Scottish actor Ian Charleson, searingly played by Andrew Scott who is joined by an all-star cast including Olivia Colman, once more.

The LIFF 2026 line-up at Cottage Road Cinema also includes an extra screening of a film we have just added due to audience demand. The History of Concrete is the feature debut of cult documentarian John Wilson who is a master at finding absurd hilarity in the mundane.

We will be introducing many film screenings at Cottage Road and we look forward to welcoming you. A huge thank you to Charles Morris and Gary Benn at the cinema for their support of LIFF.

You can view the line-up of all the LIFF 2026 films screening at the cinema, plus information about a unique tarot card reading experience in the foyer lounge before Wicker, on this link.

— Chris Fell
Director of Leeds International Film Festival