The Sands International Film Festival wrapped Sunday evening, concluding the Scottish event’s milestone fifth year on the circuit. 

The festival opened on April 17 with a UK preview of John Carney’s latest feature, Power Ballad. Starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, the musical comedy arrived at Sands following its debut at SXSW and a homecoming screening at the Dublin Film Festival. The festival closed with Rohan Kanawade’s buzzy Sundance title Cactus Pears.

Headline speakers present at this year’s festival included composer Craig Armstrong, who sat for an in-depth conversation with Scottish broadcaster Edith Bowman about his creative process, accompanied by a live performance of his most famous scores by local music scholars. Charlie Kaufman joined his longtime collaborator Eva H.D. on stage for a lengthy and revealing career Q&A, and Sands co-founder Joe Russo returned to the festival via Zoom, from the production of Avengers: Doomsday, for a discussion on creativity with Angela Russo-Otstot, Chief Creative Officer at the Russos’ AGBO. 

The festival has also once again reported record audience figures. 2026 box office revenue, the festival said after Sunday’s closing ceremony, had risen nearly 50% on the previous year. 

“This year feels like a real step forward for Sands,” Ania Trzebiatowska, Artistic Director of Sands, told Deadline. “We’ve seen audiences not only return but engage more deeply with the programme – reflected in a significant increase in box office income and a real sense of trust in what we’re building here.” 

Below, Trzebiatowska speaks with Deadline about shepherding Sands into its fifth year, how she and her team have developed a diverse local audience for the festival, and her plans to further embrace a multidisciplinary approach to programming moving forward.

DEADLINE: Ania, I remember the first time we spoke, you said you weren’t interested in really growing the festival’s size. But I just saw the audience and box office figures for 2026, and Sands continues to grow every year. 

ANIA TRZEBIATOWSKA: The thing is, we’ve stayed the same in terms of the festival’s size. We’ve just been able to earn the audience’s trust and get them to come out to see what we’re showing. I’ve said this before, but I can get impatient because I want everyone to experience these incredible speakers and films. But people have been coming; it’s just that you always want more. I don’t think we ever wanted to be any bigger. This size works really well for us. It’s just a question of becoming a larger part of the community. And this year felt like that was finally happening. Something shifted.

DEADLINE: It did feel different in St Andrews this year. I was at the talk John Sloss did and saw some young people from the local area with their parents, which I thought was great. Just young local people interested in cinema and coming out to learn something. 

TRZEBIATOWSKA: You can’t please everybody, and that’s not the goal here. The goal is to create something where everyone can find things they’re intrigued by. But it really does feel like the town has accepted us a bit more now, and it’s because you can see the festival presented differently within the town itself. So all kudos to my colleagues, Jan and her marketing team. They really made an effort to make us visible in town. I think that helps a lot, too. People no longer can say, Oh, we didn’t know this festival was happening. 

DEADLINE: You’re now five years in. That’s a big achievement. How are you feeling?

TRZEBIATOWSKA: I’ve been thinking about it through filmmaking metaphors. We’ve gone from being this hopefully promising newcomer to now being more established. We’ve made our two features, and now people are genuinely excited about what we’re going to make next. I will always feel like I have to prove myself. The world is a complicated place right now, so it’s always good to be a little bit cautious. And that goes for growth as well, which is why I didn’t want us to become something above the scale we can handle as a team, but as a town as well. 

Also, what’s been really nice this fifth year is seeing students returning to volunteer or visit. That is one of the biggest compliments we can get. I also want to stress just how much I appreciate Joe showing up for us on Saturday. It blows my mind that someone as busy as him can still prioritize showing up for us at a time when he couldn’t be any busier. He’s working on one of the biggest films ever, and he’s in a different country, and yet he still makes an effort. 

DEADLINE: Are you still working in the same way with the students working as your programmers?

TRZEBIATOWSKA: Yes, so I shortlist films for them, and each week, they watch around two films, and then we meet online to talk about them. It’s a two-to-three-month process, and along the way, we decide what they love and how it could come together as a programme. They usually choose about six films out of our lineup.  

DEADLINE: This year’s opening screening with Power Ballad was so great. It felt similar to last year, with The Ballad of Wallis Island, and that screening seemed to really help launch Wallis Island. 

TRZEBIATOWSKA: I agree. I think there’s something about showing a film in a community environment. There’s something very fitting about that, and it really works. I love Power Ballad. I wasn’t worried about it at all. I was just thrilled to see how well it would play. It was a pretty special screening. And having Gary Clark there was perfect, especially with him being from Dundee. It was really meaningful. 

DEADLINE: What’s next?

TRZEBIATOWSKA: I’ve already started planning for next year. It was so exciting to feel the shift in the community this year. We’ve really been accepted. And there was also a sense of ownership from the Byre Theatre. I love that this has become a festival that the Byre runs and is proud of as a team. It’s an incredible team. And I love them so much. They do this on top of their other year-round work, and it’s a lot of work, so it’s also a lot to ask of them, but they see the value it adds to the community. I would love for us to continue growing those numbers. I’d also love to continue mixing different art forms. I love that we had Craig Armstrong speaking, with students performing his music. That was one of the most beautiful moments. And then the amazing Charlie Kaufman and Eva H.D conversation on poetry. I had a bit of an out-of-body experience during that session. So I’d love to experiment a little bit more across disciplines.