Sea Change showcases a handpicked selection of the best new films from women directors from across the globe including –

• Opening night screening of The Rugged Isle: A Shetland Lyric, a poignant 1934 ‘story documentary’ about crofting life by the pioneering Scottish filmmaker Jenny Gilbertson.  directs this poignant “story documentary” about crofting families in Shetland. Jenny’s husband-to-be plays Johnny: a young man torn between his duty to home and his love for Enga, with the promise of a new life in Australia. Hailed by John Grierson – father of the British documentary movement – as “one of the best descriptions of life in the country anybody has yet made”, this tender and beautiful dramatisation of Shetland life surpasses the bounds of both fiction and non-fiction filmmaking.  Accompanied live by a new music score from award-winning Fair Isle multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson, with Shetland-born Catriona Macdonald – considered one of the world’s leading traditional fiddle players. (Originally commissioned by HippFest Silent Film Festival).

• Amy Liptrot, author of the phenomenally successful The Outrun, will attend the festival to introduce a screening of the book’s big screen adaptation starring two-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan. Set in an otherworldly Orkney, The Outrun is a brutally honest drama about addiction and recovery, strength and survival, mental health and the ability of the sea, the land and of people to restore life and renew hope.

• Shallow Grave star Kerry Fox will introduce a closing night screening of Fanny and Elvis, in conversation with Allison Gardner, CEO of Glasgow Film. Writer-director Kay Mellor‘s first film is an odd-couple romantic comedy, starring Fox as a middle-class romantic novelist and Ray Winstone as a tough car salesman who meet when her clapped-out VW Beetle.  Kerry will also introduce a screening of Jane Campion’s classic 1990 biopic An Angel At My Table and lead a special industry workshop on working with actors. 

• Screening top new UK independent films from female talent including Daisy-May Hudson’s Lollipop, a gripping drama about a mother’s desperate fight to reclaim her children after a prison sentence derails her life and Motherboard, BAFTA-winner Victoria Mapplebeck’s epic look at solo motherhood, shot across 6 iPhones and 20 years. We’re delighted that Victoria will be on Tiree to introduce the film in person. 

• Big screen showings of some of the best international films of the last twelve months, showcase the rich diversity of women behind the camera: Bob Trevino Likes It, Tracie Layman’s autobiographical comedy-drama about two strangers meeting on Facebook, starring John Leguizamo and Barbie Ferriera; Holy Cow, Louise Courvosier’s French charmer about an 18 year old who aims to become an unlikely award-winning cheese-maker following his father’s death; Sister Midnight, Karan Kandhari’s genre-bending black comedy about an unhappy bride in an arranged marriage going feral on the streets of Mumbai; Vermiglio, Maura Delpero’s richly-detailed drama of family secrets in the wartime Italian countryside.

• A focus on women in Scottish animation, with leading Scots animators Vicki Haworth and Orkney-borne Selina Wagner visiting the festival to showcase their award-winning animated shorts and lead hands-on workshops for both adults and young film-fans. Vicki will also be introducing a showing of the family-friendly Danish comedy drama Vitello, on which she was the UK animation director. 

• Sea Change Film Festival takes place at venues across the island including An Talla, community hall, the 19th century Hynish Centre (originally built to house the workers building Skerryvore Lighthouse and Screen Argyll’s screening room in  Crossapol. 

Sea Change 2025 is run by the Tiree-based Screen Argyll and funded by Screen Scotland. Film Hub Scotland fund the Screen Argyll Network.