Founded in 1987, it is held in November in various venues throughout Leeds, including Hyde Park Picture House and Cottage Road Cinema.

[2] LIFF features five programme sections: Official Selection, Retrospective, Cinema Versa, Fanomenon and Short Film City.

[4] The Official Selection hosts special previews and screenings of some of the most anticipated and acclaimed films of the year, as well as showcasing new discoveries from international independent filmmaking.

Every year, LIFF shows a broad array of retrospective programmes, giving audiences the opportunity to watch forgotten gems as well as celebrated classics on the big screen.

Cinema Versa is dedicated to the documentary and inspired by the underground festival aesthetic, showcasing low budget, independent features.

It presents new genre films, cult-subject documentaries, animated features, rarely-screened classics and movie marathons.

[7] The Leeds International Film Festival 2020 took place online, due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Retrospective strand ran under the title "Time Frames", featuring films that take place within 24 hours.

The official selection opened with Ruben Östlund's Palme d'Or-winning The Square and closed with Martin McDonagh's comedy-drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which also won the Audience Award.

The Fanomenon strand opened with Yorgos Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer and closed with Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here.

The festival opened with Jim Jarmusch's drama Paterson, screened with the Spanish short film Timecode, and closed with the German comedy-drama Toni Erdmann.

It opened with John Crowley's period drama feature film Brooklyn, which for the first time in the history of LIFF was joined by an opening short film, Sanjay's Super Team, and closed with Todd Haynes's historical drama Carol.

The festival opened with James Kent's First World War drama Testament of Youth, which was filmed primarily in Yorkshire, and closed with the UK premiere of Alejandro González Iñárritu's black comedy Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).

Moreover, LIFF's Louis le Prince International Short Film Competition and the World Animation Award have been Academy Awards-qualifying since 2012.

The festival opened with a screening of Tom Hooper's The King's Speech, which also won the Audience Award for best Feature Film.

The 21st Leeds International Film Festival, held 7–18 November 2007, had five sections: Official Selection, Fanomenon, Cinema Versa, Nexus and a Kazuo Hara Retrospective.

The 18th Leeds International Film Festival was held 28 October to 7 November 2004 and opened with a screening of Finding Neverland, directed by Marc Forster.

The 17th Leeds International Film Festival was held 2–12 October 2003 and opened with Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things.

The 15th Leeds International Film Festival was held 27 September to 12 October 2001 and opened with a screening of Crush, directed by John McKay.

Purely Belter, a British comedy drama film directed by Mark Herman was shown at the Opening Ceremony.

The 13th Leeds International Film Festival took place 7 to 23 October 1999 and opened with a screening of Fanny & Elvis by Kay Mellor.

The festival's theme was Science Fiction and the film screened at the Opening Gala was Tim Hurran's Girl’s Night.

The 10th anniversary edition of the Leeds International Film Festival was held 3–18 October 1996 and opened with a screening of Brassed Off, directed by Mark Herman.

The 7th Leeds International Film Festival took place 14–29 October 1993 and opened with a screening of The Secret Garden, directed by Agnieszka Holland.

The 5th edition of the Leeds International Film Festival was held 11–26 October 1991 and had BODY and MIND, as well as ‘MAN’ and MACHINE as its central themes.

The second Leeds International Film festival was much bigger than the first and coincided with the centenary of Louis le Prince's first moving picture taking in 1888.

Now in its 16th year, the festival features a programme of new and unseen cinema for young people from around the world, as well as classic screenings, moving-image related workshops and masterclasses.