Tomorrow night, the 19th Bradford International Film Festival opens with Mike Winterbottom’s new film The Look Of Love, starring Steve Coogan as nude revue and soft porn publisher Paul Raymond.

It’s the start of 11 days and nights dedicated to the pleasure and business of cinema in particular and film in general, with scores of feature films from all over the world and the annual Shine short film competition.

One of the highlights of the coming weekend is the Lifetime Achievement Award to Sir Tom Courtenay and theshowing of two of his films – One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich and the comedy Billy Liar.

As in previous years, venues other than the three cinemas in the National Media Museum will be used for film shows. These include Bradford Cathedral on the 19th when there will be a 90-minute programme of short documentary films from the Yorkshire Film Archive.

“This year our festival will be shared farther and wider across the city than ever before thanks to special city centre programmes and to Bradford UNESCO City of Film,” say the festival’s co-directors Tom Vincent and Neil Young in a festival programme note.

This year’s festival includes a tribute to Indian cinema, a prize for the best European feature film as well as three live acts including movie critic Mark Kermode and his band The Dodge Brothers.

The film festival ends with a full programme on April 21 including the results of the Shine competition in the afternoon and a screening of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, starring Riz Ahmed, Kiefer Sutherland, Kate Hudson and Om Puri, at 8pm.