THE cast list for next week’s Keswick Film Festival reads like a Who’s Who of A-list acting talent.

Bill Nighy, Hugh Laurie, Annette Bening, Susan Sarandon, Florence Pugh, Tilda Swinton, Sir John Hurt, Bruno Ganz, Greta Scacchi, Lindsay Duncan, Tom Hiddleston, Kate Winslet, Mark Addy, Tara Fitzgerald, Peter Capaldi, Dev Patel, Ben Whishaw and Sam Neill, to name but a few, are all on screen.

And there are stunning performances from actors such as Song Kan-Ho in Parasite and Adèle Haenel in Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

The second-only screening of Ken Russell’s Dance of the Seven Veils is gaining national attention, with Lisi Tribble Russell recently being interviewed about it for Radio 4’s The Film Programme and a forthcoming piece in Sunday’s Observer.

The tale of how the film came to be banned for 50 years would make a film script on its own. Saturday, February 29, at the Theatre by the Lake will be a very special evening for film fans as Lisi introduces the Seven Veils, along with some of Ken Russell’s rarely-seen short films.

Business has been brisk at the Box Office, particularly in the light of Parasite’s success at the Oscars and the excellent crop of films now on release, such as The Personal History of David Copperfield.

Festival Director Ian Payne said: “From our opening film, the uplifting British movie The Runaways to the emotions of Sunday’s closer Blackbird, the Keswick Film Festival really does have films to make you laugh, make you cry, bring you to the edge of your seat and once or twice, make you want to hide behind the seat! It will be a great weekend.”

Keswick Film festival runs from February 27 – March 1 at the Alhambra and the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick and at Rheged, Penrith. Full details are on www.keswickfilmfestival.org