“You have to show audiences that there are films out here worth their time,” veteran programmer and curator Ania Trzebiatowska says when quizzed on her role as Artistic Director of Scotland’s Sands International Film Festival.
Trzebiatowska’s philosophy appears to be bearing fruit as Sands, which ended its fourth edition on Sunday, clocked a 35% rise in attendees across its 2025 edition.
The event opened on April 25 with a preview of James Griffiths’s buzzy feature The Ballad Of Wallis Island. The flick hit Sands after its debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Universal will release the film in UK cinemas on May 30. The festival closed with John Maclean‘s survival thriller Tornado, featuring Tim Roth, Slow Horses’ Jack Lowden, and Japanese star Kōki. In between, Sands hosted buzzy Q&A session with Joanna Lumley, casting director Kharmel Cochrane, and Sundance Programming head Kim Yutani.
Below, Trzebiatowska shares how she and her colleagues have achieved the rare feat of creating a growing community around a new film event, her curatorial goals, and plans for the future.
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DEADLINE: Ania, this is the fourth edition of Sands. How do you feel it went?
ANIA TRZEBIATOWSKA: I feel it went well. People seem to be happy, which is great.
DEADLINE: What marks a successful edition for you guys at Sands?
TRZEBIATOWSKA: The goal has always been to deliver a festival that celebrates filmmaking alongside the filmmakers themselves. So you have an audience that can watch films and feel like they can engage with the filmmakers and talk with them outside the traditional Q&A environment. We want to make people feel like they are part of something. This year, we had a 35% growth in terms of audiences, which is huge. I’ve been saying this to myself from day one: You have to earn this community’s trust. You have to show audiences that there are films out here that are worth their time, and that takes a while.
Sometimes you can get restless and think the connection should be happening sooner. But we needed to become more embedded in this community. That led to us making slightly different choices. This edition had a combination of local and international talent. We closed the festival with a Scottish film and opened with a comedy that people were curious to see, and it was perfect for this specific community.
DEADLINE: While at Sands, I discovered that the city of St Andrews no longer has a full-time cinema. Their longtime cinema has been bought and gutted by an investment group led by Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake. That adds more significance to your work with Sands. Is that something you were thinking about while programming the event?
TRZEBIATOWSKA: I can’t say I was thinking about it much while programming because that’s a lot of pressure. But it was why I thought more about trying to screen a mix of things that are intriguing and exciting out there right now. The past year has been an incredible year for docs, and that’s why this programme reflected that. I was also determined to open with a comedy. The world is a pretty grim place right now, and if we can do something to make it a little bit nicer for everyone to start, then why not?
DEADLINE: Sands is obviously your second job. You’re also a full-time programmer at Sundance. That’s a heavy workload. Do you still feel you can carry on leading Sands?
TRZEBIATOWSKA: This is something that I was thinking a lot about during our curatorial conference, just the sustainability of it all, and the way that we work in the business. And how little we sometimes look after ourselves. But I love this festival and I’m proud of all the work that the team has done. It is my second job, but there’s also this whole team at The Byre Theatre, our central venue, who operate year-round. They have a whole theatre programme. They screen films and offer a Panto season, so Sands doubles their workload, too. But they’re all so great and make our guests at the festival feel so welcome, so it’s not just me doing this kind of work. And then we have all the interns and our student curators. Everyone’s invested in this festival. So sure, I’m really tired, but it feels good to pull this off, and I’m excited for the next edition. It’ll be our fifth year.
DEADLINE: Do you have anything special planned for next years anniversary?
TRZEBIATOWSKA: I really want to continue to do what we do, and hold on to the things that work, and now I have a better sense of what works. But I am definitely having conversations with people about coming to the festival, directors I would love to host, just because I think they will be a great fit for us in terms of what they represent and the kind of festivals they like. So I do have plans.
I would love to have another music event because the Alan Silvestri conversation we had last year was special. But it has to be the right thing. Everything has to be fairly organic. I don’t want to force anything into existence.
DEADLINE: After four years and record attendance you’ve clearly figured out the magic formula. But is there anything you’ve learned that doesn’t work?
TRZEBIATOWSKA: Overprogramming, trying to do too much at once. It just doesn’t work. Sometimes you just get ambitious or excited because you can do something. But there are other factors to think about, like capacity, and St. Andrews can only accommodate so much. So that was a big learning curve. Also, comparing yourself with others in the sense that we should be this because others are doing that. Or stressing over things like premier status. It really all about playing the best films.
