Tilda Swinton Directorial Debut Gets Premiere at Sheffield DocFest

Tilda Swinton‘s feature directorial debut is up for an award at Sheffield DocFest where it will get its world premiere as part of a lineup of 48 world premieres from 56 different countries.

The U.K. documentary festival, taking place June 12-17, revealed its full program on Wednesday. Its theme for the 31st edition this year will be “Reflections on Realities.”

Swinton’s debut alongside filmmaker Bartek Dziadosz, The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze, will have its world premiere at the event in England, following them as “they travel the world to understand what it means to learn, and along the way uncover playful food for thought.”

Stand-out music documentaries at Sheffield DocFest 2024 include the world premiere of the documentary on English rock band Blur, titled blur: To the End, and the European premiere of Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound.

The event’s film program totals 109 films (80 features and 29 shorts), drawn from over 2,700 entries, including 48 world premieres, 14 international premieres, 17 European premieres, and 29 U.K. premieres from 56 countries of production. 

Titles screen in three competition sections, the International Competition, International First Feature Competition, and International Short Film Competition.

The event will also feature industry guests, including Idris Elba and sound designer Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The English Patient), who will attend for conversations.

It was previously announced that the festival will open with the world premiere of Kevin Macdonald’s Klitschko: More than a Fight, screening in the international competition section, about former heavyweight boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir, who together dominated the sport for more than a decade. Now, Vitali Klitschko is the longest-serving Mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine.

Other features include the story of an alliance between a Palestinian activist and Israeli journalist amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, and a project on the insight into Croatia’s collective psyche as the population clamors for vaccination against the COVID-19 virus.

“In planning this year’s edition of DocFest, we have reflected about where we can make a difference, how our programming can counteract false narratives and oversimplification, and how we can support our ecosystem at a time when independent journalism, co-authored narratives and deeply reflective works are critical in helping us make sense of the world,” said Annabel Grundy, Sheffield DocFest managing director.