Scotland’s Sands film festival has set the lineup for its fifth edition, which will run from April 17 – 19.
Led by Festival Director Ania Trzebiatowska and produced by the Byre Theatre at the University of St Andrews, Sands runs across three days in St Andrews, Scotland. The event was founded by the Russo Brothers’ independent studio AGBO.
Headline events from this year’s programme include an on-stage Q&A session and musical event with the veteran BAFTA and Grammy award-winning composer Craig Armstrong (Ray, The Great Gatsby). Titled An Afternoon with Craig Armstrong, the event will see Armstrong in conversation with Edith Bowman about his career and creative process. The event will also feature live music performed on stage by St Andrews music scholars.
The festival will once again mount its signature “This Much I Know…” series, where leading industry professionals discuss their current practice and the contemporary marketplace. This year’s guests include John Sloss, founder and CEO of Cinetic; AGBO Chief Creative Officer Angela Russo-Otstot; and production designer James Price. Price’s credits include Poor Things, which earned him both an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Production Design, as well as titles such as Bugonia, The Iron Claw, Speak No Evil, and The Ipcress File.
Elsewhere, veteran screenwriter and filmmaker Charlie Kaufman will travel to St Andrews to take part in an onstage session titled Moving Pictures: The Poetry of Cinema and Vice Versa alongside poet Eva H.D. about the relationship between film, poetry, and the creative unconscious.
Pioneering film theorist and filmmaker Laura Mulvey, best known for her seminal essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, will visit Sands to introduce a screening of her rarely-seen 1982 indie feature Crystal Gazing, followed by an extended Q&A with Professor Glyn Davis. Sands founder Joe Russo will also return to the event for an in-depth conversation with Angela Russo-Otstot about filmmaking, studio development, and the evolving landscape of global storytelling.
The festival will open with a curated programme of talks exploring how artificial intelligence, social media, and emerging technologies are reshaping creative practice. The event will close with Rohan Kanawade’s 2025 feature Cactus Pears. Other titles set to screen include Tony Benna’s documentary André Is an Idiot, Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s Academy Award-nominated Cutting Through Rocks, and Zamo Mkhwanazi’s Laundry (Uhlanjululo).
“Sands is a celebration of storytelling and its power to bring people into shared emotional and imaginative spaces, creating moments of connection where films become catalysts for conversation, understanding, and inspiration,” Trzebiatowska said in a statement.
Joe Russo added: “As we reach our fifth edition, I’m struck by the sense of intention, the care in programming, and the generosity of the artists. I’m excited to see where the conversations lead from here.”
