The 25th Leeds International Film Festival has announced its full Official Selection programme including Closing Gala film Shame, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender, which will close the Film Festival’s Official Selection on Friday 18th November. 

Following McQueen’s critically-acclaimed directorial debut Hunger, also starring Fassbender, Shame follows Brendan (Fassbender) who plans his life around relentless sexual encounters until a visit from his wayward sister forces him to reassess his priorities. Screening courtesy of UK distributor Momentum Pictures, Shame has already garnered much critical-acclaim for Fassbender’s intensely stunning portrayal of Brendan at its screenings at Venice and Toronto International Film Festival. The announcement adds to LIFF25’s mounting excitement following the previously announced Opening Gala screening of BAFTA and Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold’s bold new adaptation of Wuthering Heights.  

Between the two Gala screenings, LIFF25 presents an Official Selection featuring the Golden Owl Competition: twelve UK premieres demonstrating strong potential for UK arthouse distribution. Films holding their UK premieres in LIFF25’s Official Selection after winning major international awards include The River Used to be a Man which screens fresh from director Jan Zabeil’s winning of the Kutxa-New Directors Award at San Sebastian Film Festival, and Nana, awarded the Locarno 2011 Opera Prima for Best First Film. Other features in the competition showing the vast variety to be found in new international cinema include dreamlike Irish murder story The Other Side of Sleep, Australian aboriginal docudrama Toomelah, and the latest gem from the Romanian new wave, Best Intentions. 

Out of competition, preview screenings of new cinema from around the world include Take Shelter, a domestic drama/supernatural thriller blend starring Michael Shannon in his second collaboration with director Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories), and Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse, recently announced as Hungary’s Oscar nomination for this year, and winner of both the Jury Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI prize at this year’s Berlinale. Tarr’s epic Sátántangó will also screen in its full 450 minute form in the Film Festival’s retrospective selection. Two of Rotterdam’s 2011 Tiger Award winners Finisterrae and Journals of Musan will also screen as part of the Official Selection. 

Chris Fell, Director of Leeds International Film Festival said: 'We are thrilled to close the LIFF25 Official Selection with Steve McQueen's mesmerising Shame, featuring an unforgettable performance from Michael Fassbender. In a year rich with stunning new British films, Shame will be another powerful highlight of the Leeds 2011 programme that opens with Andrea Arnold's breathtaking Wuthering Heights on 3rd November.' 

The full programme of the 25th Leeds International Film Festival including the complete Official Selection programme, genre cinema strand Fanomenon, documentary strand Cinema Versa, experimental cinema section Cherry Kino, and short film competition programme Short Film City, will be officially launched at Leeds Town Hall at 8pm on Friday 7th October, and will be available in full at leedsfilm.com. 

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