The 16th annual Bradford International Film Festival, which will run March 18-28, is a total celebration of all forms of cinema, from classic films to modern world cinema to a tribute to Cinerama and more. But, most excitingly, is a bombastic collection of some of the best, most exciting underground films being made today.

From the Underground Film Journal’s perspective, the most thrilling screening of the entire 10-day affair is the new film by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In the U.S., Whitehead is a “lost” filmmaker from the underground’s heyday in the ’60s, being left out of most histories of the underground movement. Whitehead directed several influential films, including Wholly Communion and The Fall, before dropping out of filmmaking in the mid-’70s.

Film historian Jack Sargeant wrote extensively about and interviewed Whitehead for his wonderful book on Beat cinema, Naked Lens. Whitehead was also featured, along with South African filmmaker Aryan Kaganof, in the documentary By Any Old Light by Dionysos Andronis and Ca Ca Ca, although that doc hasn’t been seen much in the U.S.

According to the BIFF website, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts “is based around a mesmerising psychogeographical exploration of modern-day Vienna. The film incorporates a record of the subversive underbelly of the city into poetic meditations on conspiracy theory, eco-terrorism, time and cinema (the story of Carol Reed‘s film The Third Man is retraced).”

Fittingly, the screening of Whitehead’s return will be preceded by another film by Dionysos Andronis, called Pandrogeny Manifesto, which features gender-bending artist Genesis P-Orridge and his wife Lady Jaye, filmed before her untimely death in 2007.

In addition to the Whitehead screening, there are loads of fantastic underground films from the U.S. screening at BIFF, many of which I’ve written about many, many times on the Underground Film Journal.

The one film that has totally taken the world by storm is Zach Clark‘s Modern Love Is Automatic, the outrageous S&M sex comedy that has screened at numerous underground film festivals at home and abroad. Now, it’s England’s turn to be shocked and thrilled by this absolutely brilliant comedy.

Then, there are three can’t miss underground documentaries. First, there’s the unbelievable-but-it’s-all-true The Man Who Would Be Polka King by Joshua Brown and John Mikulak about disgraced polka ponzi schemer Jan Lewan. Then, from Australia, there’s Kenta McGrath‘s mesmerizing Three Hams in a Can, an oblique travelogue about three noise musicians on tour in Japan. Lastly, speaking of Japan, is Jessica Oreck‘s absolutely lovely Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, about Japan’s love affair with the lowly beetle and other creepy crawlies.

If you haven’t gotten the picture by now, the BIFF lineup is absolutely epic. So, without further ado, here’s the full lineup. You can find details for all the films, plus ticketing information and more at the official Bradford International Film Festival website.

March 18

9:00 p.m.: Perrier’s Bounty, dir. Ian Fitzgibbon

March 19

1:00 p.m.: Eccentricities of a Blonde Haired Girl, dir. Manoel de Oliveira

1:30 p.m.: Donkey, dir. Antonio Nuic

2:30 p.m.: Fish Eyes, dir. Wei Zhang

2:45 p.m.: New Muslim Cool, dir. Jennifer Maytorena Taylor

4:15 p.m.: Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno, dir. Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea Annonier

4:30 p.m.: Perpetuum Mobile, dir. Nicolás Pereda

5:30 p.m.: Redland, dir. Asiel Norton

6:30 p.m.: And Then Came Lola, dir. Ellen Seidler, Megan Siler

7:30 p.m.: Bonecrusher, dir. Matthew F. Fountain

8:00 p.m.: Around a Small Mountain, dir. Jacques Rivette

8:30 p.m.: Crying with Laughter, dir. Justin Molotnikov

8:30 p.m.: Vincere, dir. Marco Bellocchio

8:30 p.m.: Crying With Laughter, dir. Justin Molotnikov

March 20

10:15 a.m.: “BIFF 2010: Shine Short Film Award”
Crescendo, dir. Pierre Terrade, Didier Woldemard
Death of a Double Act, dir. Christine Entwhisle
La Preda (The Prey), dir. Francesco Apice
The Man With All the Marbles, dir. Hans Montelious
An Ode to Modern Democracy and the Hairdresser, dir. Matt Strachan
Toshi, dir. Jon Gilbert
Under God, dir. Richard Farmer
When the Hurlyburly’s Done, dir. Alex Eslam, Hanna Maria Heidrich
Yellow Cake, dir. Nick Cross

1:00 p.m.: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, dir. Tim Burton

1:00 p.m.: Perpetuum Mobile, dir. Nicolás Pereda

1:45 p.m.: Crying With Laughter, dir. Justin Molotnikov

2:45 p.m.: The Man Who Would Be Polka King, dir. Joshua Brown, John Mikulak (Read the review)

3:30 p.m.: Scandal, dir. Michael Caton-Jones

3:45 p.m.: Constantin and Elena, dir. Andrei Dascalescu

4:30 p.m.: Modern Love Is Automatic, dir. Zach Clark (Read the review)

6:00 p.m.: “International Shorts: Programme 1”
I Love Lakers, dir. Liang Ying
Medicine, dir. Liang Ying
Condolences, dir. Liang Ying
Ozean, dir. Dietmar Brehm
Instax: Camera Girls, London 1966, dir. Dietmar Brehm
Verdrehte Augen : Videoversion-2, dir. Dietmar Brehm

6:00 p.m.: Shooting Dogs, dir. Michael Caton-Jones

7:30 p.m.: The Red Rooster, dir. Terry Miles

8:00 p.m.: White on Rice, dir. Dave Boyle

8:00 p.m.: Home From Home, dir. Sung-Hyung Cho

8:30 p.m.: Dirty Dancing, dir. Emile Ardolino

March 21

12:00 p.m.: Dirty Dancing, dir. Emile Ardolino

1:00 p.m.: The Witches, dir. Nicolas Roeg

2:00 p.m.: The Breakfast Club, dir. John Hughes

2:15 p.m.: Modern Love Is Automatic, dir. Zach Clark (Read the review)

3:45 p.m.: Heppy’s Daughter, dir. Bob Geoghegan

4:00 p.m.: Three Hams in a Can, dir. Kenta McGrath (Read the review)

6:00 p.m.: The Constant Gardener, dir. Fernando Meirelles

6:00 p.m.: Animal Heart, dir. Séverine Cornamusaz

6:15 p.m.: Presumed Guilty, dir. Roberto Hernández, Geoffrey Smith

7:30 p.m.: The Man Who Fell to Earth, dir. Nicolas Roeg

8:00 p.m.: Splinters, dir. Maciej Pieprzyca

8:00 p.m.: The Necessities of Life, dir. Benoît Pilon

8:30 p.m.: Reel Injun, dir. Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, Jeremiah Hayes

8:30 p.m.: Bluebeard, dir. Catherine Breillat

March 22

2:00 p.m.: Reel Injun, dir. Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, Jeremiah Hayes

2:00 p.m.: Presumed Guilty, dir. Roberto Hernández, Geoffrey Smith

2:30 p.m.: Bluebeard, dir. Catherine Breillat

4:00 p.m.: “International Shorts: Programme 1”
I Love Lakers, dir. Liang Ying
Medicine, dir. Liang Ying
Condolences, dir. Liang Ying
Ozean, dir. Dietmar Brehm
Instax: Camera Girls, London 1966, dir. Dietmar Brehm
Verdrehte Augen : Videoversion-2, dir. Dietmar Brehm

4:15 p.m.: River’s Edge, dir. Tim Hunter

4:45 p.m.: The Woman With the 5 Elephants, dir. Vadim Jendreyko

6:00 p.m.: Dogtooth, dir. Giorgos Lanthimos

6:15 p.m.: Highly Strung, dir. Sophie Laloy

6:45 p.m.: Donkey, dir. Antonio Nuic

8:00 p.m.: 1984, dir. Michael Radford

8:15 p.m.: New York, I Love You, dir. Various

8:30 p.m.: The Unworthy, dir. Renate Güenther-Greene

8:45 p.m.: Bad Timing, dir. Nicolas Roeg

March 23

10:30 a.m.: Puffball, dir. Nicolas Roeg

12:45 p.m.: The Unworthy, dir. Renate Güenther-Greene

1:00 p.m.: Bad Timing, dir. Nicolas Roeg

1:00 p.m.: Love and Death on Long Island, dir. Richard Kwietnowski

1:45 p.m.: Dogtooth, dir. Giorgos Lanthimos

2:45 p.m.: 45365, dir. Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross

3:30 p.m.: No-one Knows About Persian Cats, dir. Bahman Ghobadi

4:00 p.m.: Red Poet, dir. Matthew Furey

4:45 p.m.: Pump Up the Volume, dir. Allan Moyle

5:15 p.m.: The Mosque in Morgantown, dir. Brittany Huckabee

5:45 p.m.: The Search, dir. Pema Tseden (aka Wanma Caidan)

7:00 p.m.: Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts, dir. Peter Whitehead
Screening with:
Pandrogeny Manifesto, dir. Dionysos Andronis

7:30 p.m.: Crackie, dir. Sherry White

8:00 p.m.: Eureka, dir. Nicolas Roeg

8:15 p.m.: The Calling, dir. Jan Dunn

March 24

10:30 a.m.: New York, I Love You, dir. Various

1:00 p.m.: The Man Who Fell to Earth, dir. Nicolas Roeg

1:15 p.m.: A Taste Of Honey, dir. Tony Richardson

1:30 p.m.: The Calling, dir. Jan Dunn

2:00 p.m.: China Town, dir. Lucy Raven

3:45 p.m.: Midnight Express, dir. Alan Parker

4:30 p.m.: “International Shorts: Programme 2”
Last Stop (Siste stopp), dir. Eilif Bremer Landsend
Atlantiques, dir. Mati Diop
Final Destination (Destination finale), dir. Philip Widmann (Read the review)
1110 Wien George-Washington-Hof, dir. Christoph Weihrich
Palmes d’Or, dir. Siegfried A. Fruhauf
Lost World (Letûnt világ), dir. Gyula Nemes

5:30 p.m.: Eccentricities of a Blonde Haired Girl, dir. Manoel de Oliveira

6:00 p.m.: The Last Action, dir. Micha? Rogalski

6:15 p.m.: No-one Knows About Persian Cats, dir. Bahman Ghobadi

7:00 p.m.: Anna May Wong – Frosted Yellow Willows: Her Life and Legend, dir. Elaine Mae Woo

7:30 p.m.: Prima Primavera, dir. Edélenyi János

8:00 p.m.: Welcome to the Dollhouse, dir. Todd Solondz

8:15 p.m.: L’Affaire Farewell, dir. Christian Carion

8:30 p.m.: Perrier’s Bounty, dir. Ian Fitzgibbon

March 25

10:30 a.m.: The Field, dir. Jim Sheridan

2:00 p.m.: Toto, dir. Peter Schreiner

3:00 p.m.: China Town, dir. Lucy Raven

3:45 p.m.: Rebel Without a Cause, dir. Nicolas Ray

4:30 p.m.: Fluke, dir. Keményffy Tamás

5:15 p.m.: Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinémathèque, dir. Jacques Richard

6:00 p.m.: L’Affaire Farewell, dir. Christian Carion

6:30 p.m.: Park Shanghai, dir. Kai Kevin Huang

6:30 p.m.: The Man Who Fell to Earth, dir. Nicolas Roeg

6:30 p.m.: One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur, dir. Curt Worden

7:45 p.m.: Nurse.Fighter.Boy, dir. Charles Officer

8:00 p.m.: Victoria Day, dir. David Bezmozgis

8:00 p.m.: “Bradford City of Film Shorts”
Where You From?, dir. Nick Ahad
Enid Loosens Up, dir. Abbe Robinson
Made in Bradford: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years, dir. Jonjo McColgan
Made in Bruddersford, dir. Shanaz Gulzar
Angels of Bradford, dir. Jean McEwan
Sounds Like Bradford, dir. Various

8:30 p.m.: Four Lions, dir. Christopher Morris

8:30 p.m.: Cipher presents… The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari, dir. Robert Weine

8:30 p.m.: Vortex, dir. Gytis Lukšas

9:00 p.m.: New Denmark, dir. Rafaël Ouellet

March 26

10:00 a.m.: This Is Cinerama (3-Strip Cinerama), dir. Merian C. Cooper, Michael Todd, Fred Rickey

11:00 a.m.: Manhattan, dir. Woody Allen

11:00 a.m.: Vortex, dir. Gytis Lukšas

3:15 p.m.: “International Shorts: Programme 2”
Last Stop (Siste stopp), dir. Eilif Bremer Landsend
Atlantiques, dir. Mati Diop
Final Destination (Destination finale), dir. Philip Widmann
1110 Wien George-Washington-Hof, dir. Christoph Weihrich
Palmes d’Or, dir. Siegfried A. Fruhauf
Lost World (Letûnt világ), dir. Gyula Nemes

3:45 p.m.: Deep in the Valley, dir. Atsushi Funahashi

4:30 p.m.: Don’t Look Now, dir. Nicolas Roeg

4:30 p.m.: Battle of the Bulge, dir. Ken Annakin

4:45 p.m.: Paradise, dir. Michael Almereyda

6:15 p.m.: 10 Rillington Place, dir. Richard Fleischer

6:45 p.m.: Elkland, dir. Per Hanefjord

7:00 p.m.: The Blacks, dir. Goran Devic, Zvonimir Juric

7:45 p.m.: Life During Wartime, dir. Todd Solondz

8:00 p.m.: Blindness, dir. Fernando Meirelles

8:30 p.m.: Valhalla Rising, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

8:40 p.m.: Die Hard, dir. John McTiernan

8:45 p.m.: Eggshells, dir. Tobe Hooper

March 27

11:00 a.m.: Windjammer, dir. Louis de Rochemont III, Bill Colleran

11:00 a.m.: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, dir. Mel Stuart

1:00 p.m.: 10 Rillington Place, dir. Richard Fleischer

2:00 p.m.: Alien, dir. Ridley Scott

3:30 p.m.: Valhalla Rising, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

4:30 p.m.: 1, dir. Pater Sparrow

4:45 p.m.: Fish Eyes, dir. Wei Zhang

6:15 p.m.: 2001: A Space Odyssey, dir. Stanley Kubrick

6:30 p.m.: Chip on My Shoulder: The Cautionary Tale of Slapshot, dir. Ian McFarland, Anthony Moreschi

6:30 p.m.: Whip It, dir. Drew Barrymore

6:45 p.m.: It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home, dir. Kris Swanberg

7:45 p.m.: When You’re Strange: A Film about the Doors, dir. Tom DiCillo

8:00 p.m.: Green Waters, dir. Mariano De Rosa

8:30 p.m.: Repo Chick, dir. Alex Cox

9:00 p.m.: The Bad Lieutenant – Port of Call: New Orleans, dir. Werner Herzog

9:10 p.m.: 2010, dir. Peter Hyams

9:15 p.m.: Blue Bus, dir. Phil Scarpaci

March 28

10:00 a.m.: Cineramacana

12:00 p.m.: The Woman With the 5 Elephants, dir. Vadim Jendreyko

12:30 p.m.: The Alamo, dir. John Wayne

1:00 p.m.: Matilda, dir. Danny De Vito

2:00 p.m.: Sinful Davey, dir. John Huston

3:00 p.m.: Red Poet, dir. Matthew Furey

3:00 p.m.: “BIFF 2010: Shine Short Film Award”
Crescendo, dir. Pierre Terrade, Didier Woldemard
Death of a Double Act, dir. Christine Entwhisle
La Preda (The Prey), dir. Francesco Apice
The Man With All the Marbles, dir. Hans Montelious
An Ode to Modern Democracy and the Hairdresser, dir. Matt Strachan
Toshi, dir. Jon Gilbert
Under God, dir. Richard Farmer
When the Hurlyburly’s Done, dir. Alex Eslam, Hanna Maria Heidrich
Yellow Cake, dir. Nick Cross

3:30 p.m.: Performance, dir. Nicolas Roeg, Donald Cammell

4:00 p.m.: Greenberg, dir. Noah Baumbach

4:00 p.m.: Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, dir. Jessica Oreck (Read the review)

4:00 p.m.: Flying Clipper, dir. Hermann Leitner, Rudolf Nussgruber

4:15 p.m.: Jean Simmons: Rose of England, dir. Tony Earnshaw, Jim Moran

6:00 p.m.: “BIFF 2010: Shine Short Film Award”
Crescendo, dir. Pierre Terrade, Didier Woldemard
Death of a Double Act, dir. Christine Entwhisle
La Preda (The Prey), dir. Francesco Apice
The Man With All the Marbles, dir. Hans Montelious
An Ode to Modern Democracy and the Hairdresser, dir. Matt Strachan
Toshi, dir. Jon Gilbert
Under God, dir. Richard Farmer
When the Hurlyburly’s Done, dir. Alex Eslam, Hanna Maria Heidrich
Yellow Cake, dir. Nick Cross

7:00 p.m.: Shed Your Tears and Walk Away, dir. Jez Lewis

7:00 p.m.: The Phantom of the Opera, dir. Rupert Julian

8:30 p.m.: The Railway Children, dir. Lionel Jeffries

8:30 p.m.: Whip It, dir. Drew Barrymore