The Manchester International Crime and Justice Film Festival : May- June 2026 – Book Now!
The 2026 Manchester International Crime and Justice Film Festival curated by Manchester Met university’s Policy Evaluation and Research Unit.
The Manchester International Crime and Justice Film Festival 2026
8 Films : Thursday 7th May – Friday 19th June 2026
Welcome to the 2026 festival sponsored by the School of Sociology & Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University and curated by the university’s Policy Evaluation and Research Unit.
Since 2019 we’ve had a consistent mission – screening great films which provoke debate and provide an alternative take on crime, justice and punishment in the 21st century.
This year’s programme brings you an eclectic mix of international crime classics and lesser-known gems from a century of cinema, with settings ranging from the Scottish islands to the south of Chile. Our experts will be on hand to introduce the movies and to answer your questions at Q+A sessions after each screening. Selected screenings will also feature short films documenting creative projects delivered in prisons, in partnership between artist Faye Claridge, learners from each establishment and our partner Novus.
Screenings will take place at Grosvenor East Building, the university’s Arts and Creative Hub. Grosvenor East is on the corner of Oxford Road and Cavendish Street, five minutes walk from Oxford Rd train station. We also have a joint screening with our partners at Instituto Cervantes Manchester.
We look forward to welcoming old friends and new audiences alike, from the UK and internationally.
See you at the movies!
Your festival team: Kevin Wong, Gavin Bailey, Anton Roberts, Katie Hunter, Phil Edwards and Benedicte Brahic
Film notes by Phil Edwards
Films in the Festival:
ALL FILMS ARE FREE – BOOKING ADVISED
A Man Escaped (U)
Un condamné à mort s’est échappé, ou Le vent souffle où il veut
Director: Robert Bresson, Year 1956, Duration: 102 minutes, French with English subtitles
Thursday 7th May, 5.30–8.00pm
Fontaine, a member of the French Resistance, is captured by the Nazis and held in Montluc military prison. Through the weeks and months that follow, his determination to escape never wavers.
Bresson’s austere direction has been cited as an inspiration by directors ranging from Paul Schrader to Yorgos Lanthimos.
“A sublime example of economic filmmaking.”
Kim Haery, film critic and editor of CINE21
“Bresson’s hero’s ascetic, single-minded dedication to escape is almost mystic, and the fortress constitutes a world as impersonal and as isolated as Kafka’s…. It’s a marvellous movie.”
Pauline Kael, film critic
Post-screening discussion with Jamie Bennett of HM Prison and Probation Service, Annette So of prison charity Hardman Trust and Isabelle Vanderschelden, co-founder of FILTA (Film in language teaching association).
Crime Documentaries
(No Cert – suitable for general audiences)
Filmmaker Louise Malkinson in conversation with Rebecca Askew
Tuesday 12th May, 5.30–7.00pm
Louise Malkinson is a TV documentary maker whose work deals with complex and difficult material, often centring on crime and criminal justice. After 2011’s Strangeways, hailed by Broadcast as an “unflinching portrait of a normally hidden world”, Louise went on to produce and direct The Detectives: Murder on the Streets and to produce two award-winning follow-up series, The Detectives: Fighting Organised Crime and The Detectives: Taking Down an OCG.
All three series were made with the co-operation of Greater Manchester Police, who granted the film-makers an unprecedented level of access.
In a wide-ranging discussion illustrated with clips from her work, Louise will be talking to Rebecca Askew about the challenges and rewards of documentary filmmaking on the criminal justice frontline, and the issues that her work has helped bring to light.
Scouting, Skating, Hanging Around: Youth on Film
(No Cert – suitable for general audiences, but not suitable for young children)
Event with Will McTaggart (North West Film Archive) and Glyn Potts
Saturday 16th May, 12.00–1.15pm
Society’s relationship with its young people is complicated. We all want young people to flourish, but there’s also a permanent undercurrent of concern about boys and girls’ involvement in crime, as victims and perpetrators. This double-edged relationship – care combined with apprehension, even suspicion – comes through clearly in film portrayals of young people’s leisure activities.
Will McTaggart of the NWFA has curated a selection of clips drawn from the last 100 years, including girls skateboarding in Cumbria, the Salford Lads Club enjoying the fresh air of Aberystwyth and a Chaplinesque fable about the Scouts. Will, together with Glyn Potts, CEO of Greater Manchester Youth Federation and Kevin Wong of the Festival team, will explore these films’ depictions of young people, their aspirations and how society responds to them.
That Sinking Feeling (15)
Director : Bill Forsyth, Cast : John Gordon Sinclair, Robert Buchanan Year 1979, Duration : 90 minutes
Saturday 16th May, 1.30–3.30 pm
A heist movie with a difference: a group of unemployed teenagers hatch a plan to steal a vanload of stainless steel sinks. Bill Forsyth’s directorial debut was made with a minimal budget and a cast of non-professional actors, many of whom would go on to work with Forsyth on Gregory’s Girl.
“Among the happiest surprises of my years as a movie critic”
Philip French on the premiere of That Sinking Feeling
Introduced by Jonny Murray, Personal Chair of Film Theory, History and Criticism at Edinburgh College of Art and author of Discomfort and Joy: the Cinema of Bill Forsyth.
M (PG)
M: Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder
Director: Fritz Lang , Cast: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Year 1931, Duration: 110 minutes, Language German with English Subtitles
Wednesday 20th May, 5.30–8.15pm
An unnamed city is rocked by a series of murders of children. An anonymous letter warns that there will be more. The police flood the city with agents, leading the criminal underworld to start its own manhunt so as to bring the child-killer – unforgettably portrayed by Peter Lorre – to a rough form of justice.
Post-screening discussion with Dorit Fellner-Whitgreave of the University of Manchester and the Goethe Institut.
The Settlers (15)
Los Colonos
Director: Felipe Gálvez Haberle, Cast: Mark Stanley, Camilo Arancibia, Year 2023 , Duration: 97 minutes Language Spanish with English Subtitles
Wednesday 10th June, 5.30–8.15pm, Instituto Cervantes
A group of three men – two British, one Chilean and part-Indian – set out for Tierra del Fuego in the far south, aiming to stake out land granted to businessman José Menéndez for his sheep-farming concern. The indigenous people living there will simply have to be removed – by any means necessary.
“It’s a reflection on things that are happening now; on the history of Chile – 100 years ago, 50 years ago; and on what can happen to any history that isn’t written down.”
Felipe Gálvez Haberle, Director
Los Colonos will be introduced by Dr Daniela Mardones-Bravo, Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
This event is hosted and supported by Instituto Cervantes Manchester.
Z (15)
Director: Costa-Gavras, Cast: Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant , Year 1969, Duration: 127 minutes, Language: French with English Subtitles
Saturday 13th June, 1:00-4:00pm
A popular left-wing politician in an unnamed Mediterranean country is killed in a seemingly random attack. The dead man is hailed as a martyr and conspiracy theories begin to circulate. The General who heads the country’s authoritarian government sets up an inquiry into the affair; he appoints a conservative judge to chair it, trusting that he will reach the right conclusions.
Introduced by Dr Phil Edwards, MMU Research Fellow who has written and taught on political violence.
Dr Phil Edwards will be joined for the post-screening Q&A by Dr Isabelle Vanderschelden, co-founder of FILTA (Film in language teaching association)
Festival Closing Film : Limbo (12)
Screening as part of Refugee week 2026
Director: Ben Sharrock , Cast: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Kenneth Collard, Amir El-Masry, Year 2020 , Duration: 104 minutes, Language English
Friday 19th June, 5:00 – 8:00pm
On a remote Scottish island, four asylum seekers – Syrian Omar, Farhad from Afghanistan, Wasef from Nigeria and Abedi from Ghana – wait for their claims to be decided. And wait, and wait. Barred from taking paid work, they fill their days by watching DVDs, attending wince-inducing “cultural awareness” sessions and arguing among themselves.
“the humour … came from the fact that we’re always sharing the refugees’ perspective. … Sadly, the way that Western countries receive and treat a lot of refugees is absurd”
Ben Sharrock, Director
Limbo will be introduced by Dr Benedicte Brahic, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, who co-leads the university’s Migration and Interdisciplinary Global Studies Research Group (MIGS)
Benedicte will be joined for the Q&A by Susan O’Shea, who leads the university’s Music and Sonic Studies Research Group (MASSmcr) and Akash Sharma from charity Breaking Barriers, who support refugees to access meaningful employment and build a new life
Watch the Trailer HERE
