Miranda Richardson and Bill Forsyth to appear at Shetland film festival

MIRANDA Richardson, one of Britain’s leading actresses, and Bill Forsyth, the director of Local Hero, are to headline this year’s Screenplay Film Festival on Shetland.

They will be taking part in question and answer sessions during the festival which runs from 31 August to 9 September.

The festival, now in its sixth year, is again being curated by acclaimed film critic Mark Kermode of BBC’s Culture Show and the film historian Linda Ruth Williams.

The themed series of movies will pay homage to Scandinavian film makers, including André Øvredal’s Trollhunter, the Ingmar Bergman classic The Seventh Seal, Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, and Magnus Martens’ The King of Devil’s Island.

The festival is being staged at the new Mareel cinema and arts centre in Lerwick for the first time and the documentaries to be screened at the festival will include Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light, and Anthony Baxter’s award winning film You’ve Been Trumped, dealing with the Trump golf resort development at the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire.

Screenplay will open with the 30th anniversary release of the legendary Chariots of Fire.

Kathy Hubbard, Shetland Arts’ development manager, said: “With school screenings and outreach activities going on over the whole period, this will be ten days in which to glue your eyes to the big screen and celebrate film making and cinema in all its glorious diversity.”