Keswick Film Festival

John Hurt

We are delighted that John and his film producer wife, Anwen Rees-Myers will be joining us. We are showing a number of his films including The Naked Civil Servant the Thames Television film about Quentin Crisp that perhaps brought him to the forefront as an actor. Well known for television, film, stage and voice-over he is extraordinarily prolific. Among other honours, he has received a Golden Globe Award and three BAFTA Awards, with two and six nominations respectively, as well as two Academy Award nominations. He will be introducing a number of his films as well as being 'In Conversation'.

Alex Etel

Alex's first role was the main character in Danny Boyle's Millions (screened at Keswick Film Festival in 2009), a baptism of fire indeed! From there it was lead in The Water Horse, onto TV for a part in Cranford, back on screen for From Time To Time and now one of the leads in our family presentation Ways To Live Forever. At just 17 he already has an amazing pedigree so come along and meet him.

Tony Britten

Our opening film In Love with Alma Cogan is a delightful first feature film directed by Tony Britten set in Cromer with original music, starring Roger Lloyd Pack and Niamh Cusack. We welcome Tony to the Festival to introduce his film. Best known for the UEFA Champions League Anthem which last year alone was played more than 7 million times across 22 countries, Tony is a prolific composer and arranger of film, opera and theatre music.

Mustafa Gündogdu

Mustafa Gündogdu is from North Kurdistan (Turkey), a place with a history of anti-Government uprisings. In the late 90s he developed his interests in filmmaking in Istanbul, later moving to London in 2000, where he works for the Londonbased Kurdish Human Rights Project. Mustafa is coordinator of the London Kurdish Film Festival and has been involved in a number of other film festivals on Human Rights and Kurdish cinema. He is also advisor and a founding member of the New York Kurdish Film Festival, launched in 2009 and has published several articles on Kurdish cinema in academic journals and books.

The Lancaster Millennium Choir

After last year's success providing their unique musical accompaniment to the silent film Frankenstein, Andy Whitfield and The Lancaster Millennium Choir are back for 2012 as part of our 'Sounding Good' theme with Funny Walks with Wagner. A performance of Libretto and songs alongside a compilation of old films.

Tony Palmer

We are delighted to welcome Tony Palmer, founder presenter of Kaleidoscope on Radio 4 and Night Waves on Radio 3 and now often on Front Row. He will be introducing two of his almost 100 films on composers from the Beatles to Britten. We will be showing Wagner on Sunday in the Theatre by the Lake Studio, and Bird on a Wire the 70's film about Leonard Cohen on Saturday in the Alhambra.

"One of the great, and uncompromising, poets of television" Sight & Sound

"Tony Palmer…a clear seeing, visionary artist, pursuing with precision and perfection the image which draws him onwards." Yehudi Menuhin

Clare Sambrook & Rachel Seifert

Two guests as part of our 'Doing Good' theme in partnership with the Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group. Clare is a novelist, journalist and coordinator of the unfunded citizens' campaign End Child Detention Now. Clare is a coeditor of openDemocracy's Our Kingdom. In 2010 she won both the Paul Foot Award and the Bevins Prize for outstanding investigative journalism for stories exposing the government's burial of medical evidence that detention harms children, and government's cosy relations with the companies running the "detention estate".

Rachel is a documentary filmmaker, with a particular interest in international social issues. She produced the The Kids Britain Doesn't Want and has recently directed a feature length documentary filmed across Latin America exposing the human costs of the war on drugs (Cocaine Unwrapped) which is currently informing new debates on drugs on both sides of the Atlantic.