In the run up to the Leeds International Film Festival, Matt Bradshaw gives us his insider knowledge on what it takes to run a successful film event, as well as his top picks from this year’s listings.

Often a misconception about cultural celebrations like film festivals is that they just ‘happen’, some spontaneous screenings, a bit of sponsorship and a dollop of enthusiasm and we’ve filled almost a calendar month full of art-films. Add the odd horror film and a bit of manga and that expectation or idea that it’s like an annual shrub, blossoming brightly and briefly, giving a bit of colour to our lives is a hard one to shake. For the last 28 years the City of Leeds has been blessed with the early October sprouts and buds in the form of cinema guides, popping up among the fertile grounds of its bars and businesses, exciting the pollinating public who will go on to eagerly feast on its November blooms.

And as the Leeds International Film Festival grows bigger each passing year it’s easy to overlook that this seasonal feast of box-office nectar isn’t just an inevitable, it’s actually much, much more than that. Indeed the festival has not only survived for this long, in a hostile climate of plummeting cinema attendances and device-driven culture but it’s actually thrived mainly due to the green fingered efforts of its enthusiastic volunteers and a very forward thinking Leeds City Council who’ve laid down some incredibly strong roots that’s for sure.

My first dealings with the festival came from getting to know Alex King, who at first I knew just as a regular in Jumbo Records. Alex is the perfect example of why LIFF has become such a big festival (the largest in England outside London), he exudes a blend of passion and pragmatism, enthusiasm, and considering he’s made such a success of the festival in recent years, a down-to-earth charm that makes you immediately at ease.

We were chatting casually one day about film when he happened to mention his involvement with the festival. Now perhaps that this conversation was contained within the four walls of the North Bar made inevitable the slightly inebriated meeting of cultural minds and as we talked into the night about our favourite music films and dream gigs, the drinks flowed and the visions of massive music-film festivals headlined by long forgotten bands gave way to a slightly more realistic vision. We had decided to try and help organise a film screening or two. Eventually out of those after-hours, off the clock consultations me, Alex and my work-mate Adam had the seeds of something special.

The ease in which this happened is to me a great example on why LIFF is so strong. However, putting on a film as part of the festival isn’t just a matter of picking a film, a venue and an ice-cream, so the fact that Alex would gamely help to track down some obscure piece of archive footage from the BBC or ITV, or the rights to show some long-lost music film or even show us the line-up of brand new music-films and talk us through one’s that he thought would fit perfectly with the shop, well this to me is another solid reason why LIFF works so well.

It uses the massive enthusiasm around Leeds film buffs and enables them to experiment and dig out a patch for themselves to grow what they will.On the flip-side our part in this was to talk to record labels and often the artists themselves to organise a discount music campaign or live-performance around the screening once the film had been chosen.

Those first screenings have helped Alex and us to hook-up with local and international DJ’s and artists, bands and record labels and has helped both of us benefit from making some of the music screenings that little bit more special. That’s the real strength of the festival, it’s very much like a sturdy greenhouse, where thanks to people like Alex, it’s been able thrive and foster the perfect climate to grow into what it is now. When you think that Alex and the other organisers and volunteers have taken the time and effort to do things like this with others, it shows how much they must love their work.