Guests

Lesley Riddoch Lesley is one of Scotland's best-known commentators and broadcasters. With three decades of journalism and radio under her belt, she now runs her own independent radio and podcast company and advocates for new solution

Denise Mina Best-selling author Denise has won multiple awards for her crime fiction, including the acclaimed Garnethill trilogy and more recently, The Long Drop and Conviction. A frequent contributor to radio programmes such as Saturday

Stuart Wilson Stuart is an Oscar and BAFTA nominated sound recordist and engineer who has worked on some of Hollywood's biggest epics and with some of the most distinctive directors of our day, such as Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderso

Zara Balfour Zara is an award-winning director, producer and writer with 18 years experience in all forms of documentary, specialising in films about the world we live in and people and cultures worldwide. She will be introducing her fir

Vicki Lesley Vicki brings her first independent documentary, The Atom: A Love Affair to the festival for only its second public screening. After a busy career in the television industry, Vicki left to concentrate on the crowdfunding and

Christopher Hird Christo is an old friend of Cromarty Film Festival, as well as a leading figure in UK independent documentary-making. With Dartmouth Films, he has pioneered new ways of funding, producing and distributing documentaries i

Sanne Jehoul This year, our popular short film selections will be curated by Sanne from Glasgow Short Film Festival. Sanne is a colleague of Matt Lloyd, our usual programmer, and brings the same passion and care to the selection.

Lawrence Sutcliffe Lawrence is our Doctor of Film. He possesses a worryingly thorough knowledge of every obscure Scottish or Scottish-themed film out there. We feared that there was no more couthy nonsense to be discovered, but never dou

Cat Bruce & Keith Duncan Cat and Keith return to Cromarty to run another fantastic hands-on animation workshop. Cat is an award-winning animator and director based in Edinburgh and a wonderful teacher of ingenious animation technique

Gregor Fisher A well-loved Scottish comedian and actor, Gregor is perhaps best known for his long-running portrayal as a philosophical Glasgow alcoholic in the TV series Rab C. Nesbitt. He has also worked widely in film, notably in those

Molly Dineen One of Britain's most acclaimed documentary filmmakers, Molly is known for her intimate and probing portraits of British individuals and institutions. Her work includes The Lie of the Land (2007) examining the decline of

Jackie Kay Jackie is one of Scotland’s finest writers. She has published six collections of poetry for adults (her first, The Adoption Papers, won the Scottish Arts Council Book Award) and several for children, along with an award-

Michael Radford Michael is no stranger to Cromarty. He directed his first feature, Another Time, Another Place, here in the town and its surrounds. Since those early days he has directed such critically acclaimed films as White Mischief

Callum Macrae Callum is a film-maker and writer whose work often deals with human rights agendas and frequently focuses on the voiceless and marginalised. An Emmy, BAFTA and Grierson nominee, he headed the Channel Four team nominated in

Gary Pollard Gary Pollard is a film sculptor and artist of over 30 years’ experience. His career began with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop on Labyrinth and Little Shop of Horrors. Specialising in sci-fi and fantasy, he has gone o

Cat Bruce Cat is an award-winning animator and director, born and raised in Carrbridge and based in Edinburgh. She studied animation at Edinburgh College of Art and won a Scottish BAFTA for No Place like Home (2016). Cat has also worked

Keith Duncan Keith is musician, vocalist, sound engineer and sound designer who runs a thriving studio in Edinburgh’s Summerhall, designing sound for live action, animation, music promos and documentary. His work has screened at ev

Christo Hird Christo is a leading figure in UK independent documentary-making. With Dartmouth Films, he has pioneered new ways of funding, producing and distributing documentaries in the UK as well as promoting the work of new and emergi

Matt Lloyd Our shorts screenings become more popular every year, primarily because of the careful curation by Matt from the Glasgow Short Film Festival. He’ll be presenting selections of international and Scottish shorts, and also

Lawrence Sutcliffe Lawrence is our Doctor of Film. He knows more about sprockets than most. This year, Lawrence has trawled the film bins for some more couthy, camp nonsense, and archive gems. When has he ever failed us?

Jason Connery Jason is an actor and director, well known for his role as Robin Hood in the mid-eighties. He has gone on to star in a myriad of roles and is now directing feature films. We will be showing Tommy’s Honour which Jason

Rex Pyke Rex has been immersed in the film industry all his life. An editor, a director, a producer, Rex was responsible for project managing and creating the wonderful Akenfield. He was stupid enough to employ Don Coutts, but only once!

Margaret Matheson Margaret is one of the UK’s most highly thought of film producers. The “go to” problem solver. She has produced a huge body of work, from Abigail’s Party to Scum to Sid and Nancy to Katie Morag.

Orla O'Connor Orla is one of the most active and creative casting directors working out of Scotland. A daughter of Ireland and all that that entails! Orla has recently been responsible for casting Shetland, Iona, What We Did On Our

Mike Day Mike Day is a Scottish director and cinematographer. Mike was listed as one of '10 Filmmakers To Watch in 2012', by Independent Filmmaker magazine. Mike is showing his second documentary The Islands and The Whales which

Christo Hird Christopher Hird is a leading figure in UK independent documentary-making. With Dartmouth Films he has pioneered new ways of funding, producing and distributing documentaries in the UK, as well as promoting the work of new a

Iain Smith Producer of numerous Hollywood hits, Iain is the most constructively critical and articulate member of the Scottish film community. A great practitioner and thoughtful man, we are very grateful for his guiding hand and attenda

Karen Krizanovich Karen has been a supporter of the festival for years. We are grateful for her support. She is a great journalist, critic, and cultural commentator. Karen is going to run a screening about the role of women in the film i

Lawrence Sutcliffe Lawrence is our Dr of Film. Knows more about sprockets than most. Lawrence has trawled the film bins for some more couthy camp nonsense. When has he ever failed us?

Allan Mackay Allan is the Gaelic and Acquisitions Curator at the swanky new National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive. Well worth a visit if you are in Glasgow - or online. Every year, he packs his boot with interesting tapes f

Matt Lloyd Our Shorts screenings become moe popular every year, primarily because of the careful curation of Matt from the Glasgow Short Film Festival. Join us for a dram on the opening evening at the Lighthouse to watch some brilliant

Neville Gabie With a background in sculpture, Neville is an internationally renowned artist whose projects have taken him from the London Olypmic Park to Antarctica via Achiltibuie!

Ross Hogg Ross is an animation filmmaker based in Edinburgh. Ross focuses on creating dexterous, hand-crafted animation using a variety of materials celebrating the vibrancy and physicality of the medium. He recently added to his colle

Will Anderson & Ainslie Henderson Will is a BAFTA winning writer/director, and to top it off, he's from just along the road in Alcaig. Will got off to a pretty good start when his first short film ‘The Making of Longbird&rs

Iain Smith As perennial as the Cromarty Rose: Iain and his partner Karen Krizanovich have been coming to CFF, supporting and helping us with ideas and suggestions for years. Thanks for that! Iain is undoubtedly the most high profile Scot

Kevin Macdonald It’s not surprising that Kevin ended up in the film industry as a creative and well reviewed director, his maternal Grandfather was the famous producer/director Emeric Pressburger. Unusually, Kevin has moved comfort

Jenny Beavan How wonderful to welcome Jenny to Cromarty! She is a BAFTA and Oscar winning costume designer, famously causing a Twitter storm after being called ‘a bag lady’ by Stephen Fry at the BAFTAs. Jenny has an extraordi

Jon Snow Thank goodness for Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow. His news programmes are often a beacon of hope in the trough of tv news and opinion. His enthusiasm and knowledge shine through the screen and make it almost palatable to hea

Christopher Hird Unwittingly, radical producer and journalist Christopher Hird has joined the Cromarty Film Festival as a returning guest. Welcome again Christo and thanks for your support. Christo first came to Cromarty to show a wonder

Andy Harris Andy Harris is one of those creative and generous people who have been sharing their talent and expertise within the Scottish film industry for a long time now! As production designer it’s Andy’s job to interpret

Michel Faber Although originally born in The Hague, Michel has been living in Scotland for the last twenty-five years. Michel rightly sees himself as a man of no particular nationality although we are proud of his connection to the Highl

Robin Haig We are delighted to welcome Robin Haig, the director and co-writer of Hula, the BAFTA winning short who will be here to screen her film and chat with Lawrence about it. Starring Bly- the Duff it was largely shot in and around

Matt Lloyd Every year our Shorts screening is becoming increasingly popular. This is due to our relationship with Matt who amongst other things is programmer for the Glasgow Short Film Festival. We have found a larger venue to please our

Lawrence Sutcliffe Lawrence is our very own, Inverness based, Professor of Film and Grand Wizard of Cinema! Lawrence has an encyclopædic knowledge of cinema from the obscure to the even more obscure. Each year Lawrence programmes o

Allan Mackay For the last ten years Allan Mackay from Scottish Screen Archive has been struggling up the a9 with a wee box of archive delights. This year is no different. Thank you Allan for your loyalty and support.

Drew Wright aka Wounded Knee & Hamish Brown Drew is a singer-songwriter, musician and experimental vocalist and has worked with Hamish, a composer, producer and musician, to compose the recently acclaimed soundtrack to the silent doc

Perhaps best known for her role of Ella Cotter in Rab C Nesbit. Barbara is a consummate actress on television/film and theatre. She started her career as Woman feeding baby in a graveyard in the cult film The Wicker Man. Since then she

Iain Smith Iain Smith comes from Glasgow and graduated from the London Film School in 1971. He worked in London for several years before returning to Scotland to make My Childhood, the first of the award winning trilogy by the late Bill

Ian Stephen Ian Stephen was born in Stornoway in 1955, and still lives there. His poetry and short stories have been published internationally since 1979. His first poetry collection was Malin Hebrides Minches, a collaboration with the p

Bob Last Bob first worked in the music business establishing the label Fast Product. This brought Human League and the Mekons to prominence in the post-punk era of the late seventies. He went on to manage abc and Heaven 17 through the ei

Karen Krizanovich Karen has been a friend and supporter of the Festival for the last few years. She is a writer, journalist, researcher and broadcaster, voice-over artist, and at one point, she was even an agony aunt in a popular magazin

Christopher Hird Christopher Hird established Dartmouth Films in 2008 to pioneer new ways of funding, making and distributing independent documentaries and supporting the work of new and emerging filmmakers. His previous career had inclu

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson is well known for his work on 300 (2006), Knowing (2009), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) amongst other films. In Mad Max Fury Road, Jackson was aided by a team of highly skilled digital effects people, wi

Will Anderson Will Anderson is a BAFTA winning Writer/Director and Animator from the Scottish Highlands. Currently living in Edinburgh, Will specialises in design & character animation for film and television. Will has worked in many

Matt Lloyd Matt Lloyd has directed Glasgow Short Film Festival for seven years, in which time it has grown from a modest two day event into Scotland’s leading international short film festival. He was short film programmer of Edinb

Lawrence Sutcliffe Lawrence is the Highland Council's Film Officer, offering advice and support to film, television and commercial projects wishing to shoot in the Highlands. His interest in film is also a personal one and he graduat

Duncan Cowles His short films The Lady with the Lamp, Soft Toffee, Radio Silence and Directed by Tweedie have been selected for various film festivals at home and internationally. Duncan was recently nominated for a BAFTA Scotland New

Andy Mackinnon Filmaker Andy Mackinnon has been living on North Uist for 15 years. He originally went to work with Lochmaddy Arts Centre, Taigh Chearsabhagh on a collaborative Documentary feature called Passing Places. He just stayed!

Bill Forsyth Probably the man most credited for having put modern Scottish cinema on the International film stage. Bill was originally a Documentary Film-maker and now known for his quirky off-beat features. Director of a catalogue of

Iain Smith Iain Smith comes from Glasgow and graduated from the London Film School in 1971. He worked in London for several years before returning to Scotland to make My Childhood, the first of the award winning trilogy by the late

Greg Hemphill

Patrick Doyle

Edwyn and Grace Collins

Virginia Heath

Grant Keir

Matt Lloyd

Lawrence Sutcliffe

Mark Cousins

Ford Kiernan

Colin Monie

Kieran Parker

Mairi Hederwick

James Mavor

Stephen Doughty

Tony Benn

Rhona Cameron

Paul Laverty

Michael & Maria Start

Carl Summersgill

Ian Rankin

Chris Young

Kenny Glenaan

Edi Stark

Sergio Casci

Derek Adams

Brian Etheridge

David Hayman

Iain Smith Producer

Douglas Mackinnon

Karen Krisanovich

Willie Campbell

A L Kennedy

Sanjeev Kholi

Paul McGuigan

Gillies Mackinnon

Andrea Calderwood

Ricky and Lorraine

Charles Kennedy

Kevin MacNeil

Johnny Meeres

Anthony Farquhar-Smith

Duncan Petrie

Martin Stephenson

Michael Caton Jones

David Mackenzie

Kirsty Wark

Janice Forsyth

Gus Wylie

Karen & Donald

Robert Livingston

Garard Rochford

Janet McBain

Eddi Reader

John Byrne

Ali Smith

Joe Gibb

Colin Marr

Iain MacdonalD

Jean Urquhart

Lorraine Mann

Joel Mason-Houck