Winstone to star at film festival

The 18th BIFF will also celebrate the life of animation giant Chuck Jones, the man behind Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and Daffy Duck, on the centenary of the director’s birth.

Winstone, who has starred in movies including Sexy Beast, Nil By Mouth and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, will make an appearance at the festival which will include a retrospective of the actor’s career.

This year’s BIFF, which runs for 11 days from April 19 to 29 and is centred around the city’s media museum, will see Winstone, one of Britain’s most respected screen actors, take part in a Screentalk in Bradford on April 21.

This year’s is the first festival to be programmed by joint directors Tom Vincent and Neil Young.

Mr Young said: “The US has got Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges and Brian Dennehy and we’ve got Ray Winstone. When you look back through the films and TV he’s made over the last five decades and all the outstanding directors he’s worked with – Scorsese, Spielberg, Minghella, and all the way back to Alan Clarke – you start to realise what a unique contribution this man has made.”

Early tickets are now available on 0844 856 3797.