Sheffield Doc/Fest celebrates 25th anniversary

The festival includes films about Australian artist Anthony Lister, the Spanish Civil War, the Skid Row area of LA and late fashion designer Alexander McQueen

Thousands of people are expected to attend the UK's largest documentary festival as it marks its 25th year.

Sheffield Doc/Fest began in 1994 showing 42 films over two days to an audience of about 2,000.

It has since grown to a six-day event screening more than 200 films that in 2017 attracted more than 39,000 people.

Opening later with Sean McAllister's A Northern Soul, it will also host talks by Sir Trevor McDonald, actress Vicky McClure and motorbike racer Guy Martin.

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Festival director Midge McKenzie and filmmaker Ricky Leacock at the inaugural Doc/Fest in 1994

Festival director Liz McIntyre, who took on the role in 2015, said: "Doc/Fest has always had a reputation of offering the festival-goer films ranging from the noisy and satirical, to smaller gems you take delight in discovering.

"But you don't have to work in docs or the media to come to Doc/Fest - it's for everyone to come along and give it a go."

Doc/Fest has hosted premieres of films by directors including Martin Scorsese and Michael Moore and in 2014 the first showing of a documentary about Sheffield group Pulp.

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker at the 2014 premiere of Pulp: A Film about Life, Death and Supermarkets

The festival will open with a screening of Sean McAllister's A Northern Soul at Sheffield's City Hall

McAllister, who in 2015 won the festival's Grand Jury Prize for his film A Syrian Love Story, said he was "honoured" to be opening the festival he first attended as a film student in 1994.

He said: "I've always tried to show at Sheffield because it is where I'm kind of rooted, it's also the best documentary festival in the UK, maybe in Europe."

• Filmmakers flock to Sheffield Doc/Fest

• Syria film wins documentary award

• Scorsese premiere for Sheffield

He said the festival lacked the "baloney and pretention" of others and was vital for young filmmakers, offering them a chance to "dance disgracefully with commissioning editors".

Hold The World with David Attenborough uses virtual reality to take people behind the scenes of the Natural History Museum

Doc/Fest also features virtual reality and interactive media projects and in 2016 became the first festival to present a Virtual Reality award.

Among the experiences, visitors can take part in an immersive history lesson with David Attenborough and hear from survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire filmed in 360 degree video.