‘Tilda Swinton: Between Worlds’ celebrates the shapeshifting talents of actress Tilda Swinton, a muse and loyal collaborator to some of contemporary cinema’s greatest auteurs. This film programme spotlights five of her career-defining partnerships from the past four decades—each as surprising and daring as the last.

This selection, drawn from over fifty films, highlights Swinton’s extraordinary versatility and range, demonstrating her ability to effortlessly navigate different cinematic and psychological worlds. Her on-screen personae are united by their emotional complexity and unconventionality, with her magnetic performances elevating each film and inviting audiences to explore her characters’ powerful interior realms.

Tilda Swinton (b. 1960, United Kingdom) has lent her striking presence to a remarkable array of films, from low-budget arthouse offerings to international blockbusters. She began her career in theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company before making her feature-film debut in Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio (1986). Swinton collaborated with Jarman on seven more films before his untimely passing in 1994. Over the course of her career, she has established ongoing partnerships with renowned filmmakers such as Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Bong Joon-ho, Joel and Ethan Coen, Luca Guadagnino, Joanna Hogg, Jim Jarmusch, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Swinton has received numerous accolades for her work, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film and Television Award (BAFTA) for Best Supporting Actress in Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton (2007), as well as BAFTA nominations for Best Leading Actress in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and Best Supporting Actress in Joel and Ethan Coen’s Burn After Reading (2008). In 2020, she was honoured with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 77th Venice International Film Festival, the same year the New York Times ranked her as one of the greatest actors of the twenty-first century.

Off-screen, Swinton is committed to arthouse film exhibition, collaborating with filmmaker Mark Cousins to support mobile cinemas in Scotland. In 2022, she received the International Federation of Film Archives annual award for her advocacy of film heritage, public support of film archives, and promotion of restored films.