Because we believe in quitting while you’re ahead, Imagine traditionally screens a list of audience favourites on the last festival day, during The Best of Imagine. This year, The Best of Imagine will take place on Sunday 3 November. With your help – thanks for voting! – we selected five binge-worthy titles to be screened back to back in LAB111. This is the list. Tickets can be booked through the programme schedule.
Bird (Andrea Arnold, UK) – 11:30 – 13:30
A modern fairy tale and moving portrait in one, about a girl who wishes to get away from her violent surroundings. Twelve-year-old Bailey lives in a derelict squat in North Kent with her single father Bug and her brother Hunter. All seems grim, until she meets a mysterious stranger. Director Andrea Arnold’s latest, following social realist stories like American Honey and Fish Tank, is a love letter to our imagination.
Escape From the 21st Century (Li Yang, China) – 14:00 – 15:40
China, 1999. Three teenagers stumble upon some chemical waste which gives them a superpower: when they sneeze, they travel back in time, allowing them to manipulate the past. But what should the past then look like? Escape from the 21st Century is a lot, in the best of ways. Director and screenwriter Li Yang switches between characters and timelines at breakneck speed, using an overwhelming amount of VFX, animation and other visual fireworks.
The Devil’s Bath (Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala, Austria, Germany) – 16:15 – 18:15
New period nail-biter from the directing duo behind Goodnight Mommy and The Lodge. When Agnes marries Wolf, she finds herself in an emotionally cold household with an overbearing mother-in-law and a husband who prefers the company of other men. It isn’t long before this prison begins to overwhelm Agnes, whose sensitive melancholy turns into a tragedy threatening to engulf everyone around her.
A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg, US) – 19:00 – 20:55
Imagine 2024’s ultimate mindfuck film. Edward has acting ambitions but suffers from neurofibromatosis, a condition which has left his face covered in tumours. Experimental treatment changes his life, and Edward starts over with a sleek new face. When his neighbour bases a play on his life, he auditions. But he wasn’t counting on competition.
Oddity (Damian McCarthy, Ireland) – 21:25 – 23:05
Darcy is a blind medium with genuine abilities, who runs an occult antique shop where she collects cursed and haunted items. A mysterious encounter propels her to start investigating the unsolved murder of her twin sister in a remote mansion in the Irish countryside. A path of terror awaits, supported by an otherworldly wooden doll. Oddity, directed by Damian McCarthy, whose scary debut film Caveat played at Imagine a few years back, is without doubt one of the scariest films of the year.
