Festival Introduction

There is something intrinsically uplifting about finding a little gem, and the feeling, one assumes, is the same for film festival directors (guilty, m'lud) and discerning punters alike. Film festivals are like that: treasure troves (one hopes) stuffed with an array of glittering jewels to be picked up, pocketed and re-examined at a later date under the microscope of memory and conversation. The fun of the job – the thrill of the job – is in mining the never-ending rich seam of international cinema. True, our selection committee has to wade through rivers of bilge to reach this equivalent of MacKenna's Gold but it ain't like working for a living. Who can possibly complain that watching films is a tough call? Not us.

Regular attendees and supporters of the Bradford Film Festival will notice a few changes this year. Chief among them is that our brochure has finally metamorphosed into an industry-style catalogue. What's more, we're charging for it. We felt that, after more than 10 years, the festival had more than come of age and justified a chunky brochure that fully did justice to the array of films and events that are packed into the festival fortnight. Consequently all new films being presented at BFF2006 receive a page to themselves. In many ways that highlights the unanimity of our approach but also ensures that some smaller films that might otherwise be over-shadowed by larger cousins receive a fair crack of the whip.

This year we were delighted to welcome to the BFF fold journalist and critic Neil Young, who spent much of 2005 globetrotting across Europe to pillage the best of the fests in Ljubljana, Cottbus, Vienna, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Linz and Izola as our international consultant. Neil's labours were amply rewarded and evidence of his sterling work can be seen throughout the festival's line-up. We were also impressed by the work of Kerry Glover, the Los Angeles-based writer and photographer who provided images of the Hollywood handprints that became our identity this year. Go, girl!

As the world of film moves ever onward and upward, embracing new technology and developments, there will come a time when the word ‘film' will itself become redundant as more and more moviemakers switch to digital. And if film itself becomes a museum piece, what price the ‘filmmaker', the projectionist and the concept of the ‘film' festival itself? Only time will tell. In 2006, many of the offerings in the Bradford Film Festival will be presented on video and, occasionally, DVD. Film is dying. If we wish to avoid dying with it then our only option is to adapt, adjust and acclimatise.

Our world is changing. Film is changing. Festivals are changing. It is progress and it is unstoppable. They said talkies would never last. They were wrong – as ‘they' generally are. And as the 21 st century looms before us, we can look forward to a new world of cinema. I commend it to you, and hope you enjoy exploring that new world during the 16 days of the 12 th Bradford Film Festival.

Artistic Director Tony Earnshaw