MANCHESTER’S premiere film festival have announced their lineup for 2017 including films from Timothy Spall, Star Wars’ alumni Oscar Isaac and more.

The festival returns to the city for its sixth year running and 2017 is set to be the biggest year to date for  the four day event, set to take place the Manchester Odeon Printworks venue from the 2nd to 5th of March.

The festival sees films starring iconic actors such as Cillian Murphy, Dame Helen Mirran and Timothy Spall alongside rising stars and upcoming talent, such as Oldham-born, ascendant Olivia Cooke who stars in “Katie Says Goodbye,” a hotly tipped film from director Wayne Roberts.

As always, there are three main strands of film screened at the festival. This years themes are: “Rising Stars,” “Be Who You Are Say What You Feel,” and “Women in Film.”

The festival features a range of different styles of film including a range of experimental cinema, documentaries, narrative and short films, spearheaded by “Lightning Face” staring Star Wars: Episode VII’s Oscar Isaac and director Ben Price’s “Taubman” staring Jack P Shepherd.

Olivia Cooke in Katie Says Goodbye
Olivia Cooke in Katie Says Goodbye

Festival Director Neil Jeram-Croft explained why he’s particuarly looking forward to audience reactions to the world premiere of “Das Wassup,” a documentary focused around a group of lesbian rappers who form a group named “Yo Majesty,” and their exploits as they tour Europe and the UK whilst experiencing, highs, lows, breakups and makeups

He’s also looking forward to Stef Dawson’s (The Hunger Games) comedic turn in director Alicia Slimmer’s “Creedmoria,” a film about breaking out of the cracks what society considers “normal” and saving oneself, along with the Alfie Boe documentary which he says might “surprise  and upset  some people,” it’ll certainly be interesting to see the stresses that even talents such as the world famous tenor singer face.

Tickets are available here at various rates.

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