The Color Purple (12A)

A woman’s painful journey of self-realisation sees her face prejudice, abuse and sexual violence in this musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel, featuring jubilant and defiant songs in the face of challenging themes.

“A joy to watch” BBC ★★★★

Nominated for 1 Academy AwardBest Supporting Actress (Danielle Brooks)

Directed by Blitz Bazawule
With Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks
2hr 20 mins // US 2023

Peppa’s Cinema Party (U) – Extra Screenings Added!

Come on everybody it’s time for Peppa’s Cinema Party! This year Peppa Pig celebrates her 20th anniversary and to mark such a HUGE occasion she is throwing the MOST EPIC PARTY EVER – and all of her friends are INVITED! (That’s YOU!) Featuring the voices of Katy Perry as Ms. Leopard and Orlando Bloom as Mr. Raccoon in an episode of the 3-part Wedding Party story, the whole family can enjoy 10 never-before-seen Peppa Pig episodes!

And with 5 brand new songs, as well as 11 interactive entertainment shorts with Peppa and her friends playing, dancing and singing in the real world, you and your little ones will be moving and grooving with Peppa in a whole new way! So grab your coat and jump into your boots, let’s be on our way to the Peppa Cinema Party!

65 mins

Migration (U)

Illumination, creators of the blockbuster Minions, Despicable Me, Sing and The Secret Life of Pets comedies, invites you to take flight into the thrill of the unknown with a funny, feathered family vacation like no other in the action-packed new original comedy, Migration.

“This handsome tale of two ducklings perfectly fits the half-term bill” Telegraph ★★★★

Directed by Benjamin Renner
Voiced by Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks
1hr 30 mins // US 2023

The Boys in the Boat (12A)

The Boys in the Boat is a sports drama based on the #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction book written by Daniel James Brown. The film, directed by George Clooney, is about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This inspirational true story follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world.

Directed by George Clooney
With Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner
2hrs 4 mins // US 2023

All of us Strangers (15)

One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal), which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life.

As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.

“It shimmers and it aches” Telegraph ★★★★★

“A beautiful romance ” Guardian ★★★★★

Times ★★★★ Little White Lies ★★★★

Directed by Andrew Haigh
With Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal
1hr 45 mins // US 2023

Priscilla (15)

The iconic Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) returns with PRISCILLA, a deeply felt and ravishingly detailed portrait of love, fantasy and fame. Starring Golden Globe nominee Cailee Spaeny and Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi, Coppola’s film presents the unseen story of Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s long courtship and turbulent marriage. Their romance is a great American myth that spans decades and oceans, from the army base where they met to his dream-world estate at Graceland.

Faithfully adapting Priscilla’s own memoir, and anchored by Spaeny’s Venice Best Actress winning performance, this is a mature and masterful cinematic feast for the senses that sees Coppola at the very top of her game.

“Is this already the best film of 2024?” The i ★★★★★

Guardian ★★★★ Telegraph ★★★★ Times ★★★★

Directed by Sofia Coppola
With Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi
1hr 53 mins // US 2023

The Holdovers (15) *Extra Screening added

From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

“Hilarious and heartfelt, it’s a tale to be treasured” Empire ★★★★★

Guardian ★★★★ Times ★★★★ Telegraph ★★★★

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Paul Giamatti) and Best Supporting Actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph)

Directed by Alexander Payne
With Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph
2hrs 10 mins // US 2023

*Please note, an extra screening has been added for Thursday 22 February at 7.30pm in place of the cancelled Live & Local show. Due to resurfacing works, the car park will be closed for this screening.

One Life (12A)

One Life tells the true story of Sir Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, a young London broker played by Johnny Flynn, who, along with Trevor Chadwick (played by Alex Sharp) and Doreen Warinner (played by Romola Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia, rescued 669 children from the Nazis in the months leading up to World War II,. Nicky visited Prague in December 1938 and found families who had fled the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Austria, living in desperate conditions with little or no shelter and food, and under threat of Nazi invasion. He immediately realised it was a race against time.

How many children could he and the team rescue before the borders closed? Fifty years later, it’s 1988 and Nicky (played by Anthony Hopkins) lives haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England; always blaming himself for not doing more. It’s not until a live BBC television show, ‘That’s Life!’, surprises him by introducing him to some surviving children – now adults – that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and grief he had carried for five decades.

“Anthony Hopkins is stirring as the ‘British Schindler’ who saved 600 Jewish children” Telegraph ★★★★

Directed by James Hawes
With Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Flynn
1hr 50 mins // UK 2023

Extra Screening: Seaside Special (12A)

A love letter to Britain from our friends in Europe, Jens Meurer’s funny, bittersweet and loving Seaside Special visits the town of Cromer, Norfolk as it prepares for its annual end-of-pier variety show during the summer of 2019.

With the show due to be performed twice a day for three months, we meet the performers, the team pulling it together, and the townsfolk who will flock to each show day after day. In the background Brexit is hitting its stride, and as we see the talent and the passion driving the show, we also witness a microcosm of a Britain in flux. All shot beautifully on 16mm film, Seaside Special is affectionate and funny filmmaking reflecting the eccentricities of classic English entertainment while the country sets out to leave its European neighbours.

“Vivid and richly affectionate” Guardian ★★★★

Read what our Film Programmer Jeremy had to say here…

“A humorous, melancholic time-capsule of a rather unique moment in time — the dying days of the UK’s decades old relationship with Europe. Yet there’s little anger or divisiveness here. For want of a better term, it’s keep calm and carry on. ” Filmhounds ★★★★

Directed by Jens Meurer
1hr 33 mins // GER 2023

Catch-up Screenings: The Miracle Club (12A)

Set in 1967, The Miracle Club is a heart-warming film that follows the story of three generations of close friends, Lily (Maggie Smith), Eileen (Kathy Bates), and Dolly (Agnes O’Casey) of Ballygar, a hard-knocks community in Dublin, who have one tantalizing dream: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes, that place of miracles that draws millions of visitors each year. When the chance to win presents itself, the women seize it.

However, just before their trip, their old friend Chrissie (Laura Linney) arrives in Ballygar for her Mother’s funeral, dampening their good mood and well-laid plans. The women secure tickets and set out on the journey that they hope will change their lives, with Chrissie joining in place of her mother. The glamor and sophistication of Chrissie, who has just returned from a nearly 40-year exile in the United States, are not her only difficult traits. Old wounds are reopened along the way, forcing the women to confront their pasts even as they travel in search of a miracle. Deep wounds from the past can only be healed by the curative power of love and friendship.

Telegraph ★★★

Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan
With Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith
1hr 30 mins // UK 2022