30 April - 9 May, 2004
AMC Great Northern, Cornerhouse, and other venues

The 3rd Commonwealth Film Festival returns at the end of April with its most ambitious programme to date: twice as many screenings as last year, international film-making collaborations, a unique series of public debates, and a host of new strands, premieres, gala presentations and parties throughout the 10 day celebration. 30 April - 9 May, 2004
AMC Great Northern, Cornerhouse, and other venues

The 3rd Commonwealth Film Festival returns at the end of April with its most ambitious programme to date: twice as many screenings as last year, international film-making collaborations, a unique series of public debates, and a host of new strands, premieres, gala presentations and parties throughout the 10 day celebration.Once again Manchester will become the focus for film-makers and film-making from across the 71 nations of the Commonwealth, in what is now one of the largest film festivals in the UK.

Among the 250+ features, shorts and documentaries showing in the festival will be special screenings of Guy Maddin's controversial The Saddest Music in the World (with special guest Maria de Medeiros), the European premiere of Jason Xenopoulos's Critical Assignment, the first ever high-budget pan-African action movie, the UK premiere of Scott Smith's Falling Angels (starring Oscar-nominee Miranda Richardson), the international premiere of Fire Fighters by Sri Lanka's Somaratne Dissanayake and the European premiere of Benjamin Ratner's directorial debut, Moving Malcolm, a relationship comedy starring Elizabeth Berkeley and John Neville.

The festival will open on Friday 30th with the UK Premiere of Ntshacheni Wa Luruli's award-winning The Wooden Camera (15) followed by a gala reception at the Manchester Town Hall hosted by the South African High Commmision and Her Excellency, Lindiwe Mabuza. Director Ntshacheni Wa Luruli, who learnt his craft working as assistant to the likes of Spike Lee, will be present on the evening. The closing film on Sun 9th May will be Maqbool (15) - Vishal Bhardwaj's retelling of Macbeth set in the criminal underworld of Mumbai, starring Om Puri (East is East), Naseerudin Khan (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) and Irfan Khan (The Warrior). Director Vishal Bhardwaj and star Irfan Khan will be in attendance at the festival.

The Festival remains the largest single platform for Indian, Australian, Canadian and South African films in Europe. Among this year's highlights will be Sue Brooks' award-winning Japanese Story which, set against the desolation of the Australian outback, features a career-best performance from Toni Colette; Manish Jha's A Nation Without Women which rivals Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen for its sensitive handling of potentially incendiary material; and Rolf de Heer's disturbing psychosexual thriller Alexandra's Project. Many films are presented in specialist strands and this year they range from 'Womenwealth' to 'QueerScreen', 'Once Upon A Time' (new fables and fairytales) to 'Karmacoma' (looking at the odds faced by children and teenagers throughout the Commonwealth). Numerous directors will be on hand to introduce their films including Partho Sen Gupta with his film Let the Wind Blow, Murali Nair for Arimpara: The Story that Begins at the End and Vishal Bhardwaj for a gala presentation of Maqbool a modern, Indian take on Macbeth.

Shorts will again play a key role in the festival, with a programme twice the size of last year's, showing two to three screenings a day. These include a special programme of shorts for children and a new strand of gay and lesbian short films.

The programme of debates and masterclasses has also been extended with speakers from across the film-making and other arts discussing such issues as 'diversity' in a Commonwealth context, distribution and how to compete in the global marketplace, international co-production, and the question of whether there actually is such a thing as 'a Commonwealth Culture'. There will also be a screenwriting masterclass hosted by the Head of BBC's Northern Exposures, Melanie Harris, and a presentation on the recent explosion of low budget film-making in Nigeria, by Fidelis Duker, director of the Abuja International Film Festival.

The festival is also actively promoting local new work with 'North by North West' it's showcase of the region's best new shorts and 'Kino Cabaret', a week-long Quebec-Manchester film-making challenge. Salford University and the BBC are kindly supporting this year's Audience Awards designed to recognize and financially support the careers of individual filmmakers.

Extracts from the shorts programme will be broadcast through the BBC's Big Screen in Exchange Square, and a host of other venues throughout the city will be engaged for parties, public events and film/music tie-ins.

Whichever way you look at it, for 10 days Manchester will be alive with the buzz of intelligent, independent, international film-making. So sit back, book the week off, and break out the popcorn.

For more information and film times go to /www.commonwealthfilm.com