Warsaw, December 13, 1981. Martial law shuts down the country. Overnight, a country turns into a prison. Taxis have been replaced by tanks. Citizens are treated like criminals. And visiting British Professor Joan Andrews finds herself trapped. After witnessing the murder of a young student by the secret police (the “Crows”), Joan herself becomes the target.

Revered filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon) returns to the silver screen with HER PRIVATE HELL. As a strange mist unleashes an elusive darkness, a young actress (Sophie Thatcher) and an American GI (Charles Melton) find their lives intertwined in a hypnotic, neon-drenched moodscape where memory, reality, and survival collide.

The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.  Iñárritu's latest - shot entirely in VistaVision - features standout performances from Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller and Michael Stuhlbarg. Think Iñárritu crossed with Dr. Strangelove and you're on the right track.

A timeless celebration of wonder, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory remains one of cinema’s most enchanting fantasies. When the elusive confectioner Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) announces that five golden tickets hidden within his chocolate bars will grant their finders access to his mysterious factory—and a lifetime supply of sweets—the world is swept into a frenzy. Among those dreaming of discovery is the kind-hearted Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), whose modest circumstances make the prospect seem impossibly distant. What follows is a journey into a world where rivers flow with chocolate, inventions defy belief and every corner conceals a new surprise. Anchored by Wilder’s unforgettable performance, this remains a beloved classic 55 years on.

This year marks the centenary of Lotte Reiniger’s landmark masterpiece The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Inspired by the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, Reiniger’s pioneering feature is presented alongside three further fairy-tale films, offering a rare opportunity to experience the full breadth of her imagination. Created entirely by hand from intricately cut card silhouettes and animated with remarkable precision using sheets of lead beneath the camera, these films conjure worlds of astonishing invention. Witches, enchanted kingdoms, courageous princes and radiant princesses emerge in a dazzling interplay of shadow, colour and light.

Screening on 35mm, followed by a Q&A with the film's producer (and IIFF Executive Producer), Richard Johns. E. Elias Merhige’s Shadow of the Vampire inhabits the liminal space between cinematic myth and historical fiction, reimagining the making of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu as a dark fable of artistic obsession. As Murnau pursues absolute authenticity, the boundaries between performance and reality begin to dissolve with the arrival of the enigmatic Max Schreck. Willem Dafoe’s extraordinary portrayal of Schreck, alongside John Malkovich’s fiercely driven Murnau, anchors a film steeped in gothic wit. Both homage and provocation, Shadow of the Vampire remains a cult classic of contemporary cinema and a richly atmospheric meditation on ambition and the monstrous price of immortality through film.

Producer in attendance.

Screening on VHS. Emerging from the restless energy of New York’s underground arts scene, Variety stands as one of the defining independent works of the 1980s. Written by the iconoclastic Kathy Acker and directed with remarkable precision by Bette Gordon, the film follows Christine (Sandy McLeod), who takes a job at a pornographic cinema in Times Square. What begins as an ordinary act of employment evolves into a provocative journey through desire, fantasy and self-discovery. Refusing easy categorisation, Variety turns the gaze back on itself, offering a radical exploration of female voyeurism rarely seen on screen. Sensual, unsettling and hypnotic, it lingers like a half-remembered dream of a vanished New York—a film in which looking becomes longing, and the city itself seems to stare back.

John Huston’s elegiac anti-western The Misfits, Marilyn Monroe’s final completed film, marks the centenary of the screen icon’s birth. Written by Arthur Miller, the film unfolds across a stark, sun-scorched Nevada landscape, where broken-hearted cowboys, drifting dreamers and fractured marriages collide in a world already slipping into the past. Tender, melancholy and quietly strange, The Misfits dismantles the mythology of the American West to reveal lives haunted by promises that could never be fulfilled. At its centre, Monroe gives one of her most affecting performances—fragile, luminous and deeply human, carrying within it the ache of everything that might have been.

Filmmaker Rustin Thompson journeys across the American West in search of a vanishing institution: the small-town movie theatre. Along forgotten highways and through fading communities, he encounters abandoned cinemas, theatres slipping into disrepair, and the devoted few determined to keep their screens alive. Both elegy and celebration, The Last Picture Shows captures a cinematic landscape at a crossroads, where memory and modernity collide. Yet beneath its melancholy lies a profound sense of hope. These theatres remain more than buildings: they are places of wonder, contemplation and shared experience—oases of belonging in an increasingly fragmented world, and enduring reminders of cinema’s power to bring us together.

Set against the windswept isolation of wartime Orkney, BAFTA-nominated director Richard Hawkins’ acclaimed period satire uncovers one of the Second World War’s most improbable stories. In 1943, a disparate group of artists, soldiers and civil servants are brought together to undertake a clandestine government experiment: the production of a series of adult films intended to bolster morale among troops on the front line. As the project unfolds, personal histories, wartime scars and conflicting ambitions begin to surface, exposing the fragile boundaries between duty, desire and propaganda. At its centre are a disgraced soldier, an aspiring actress and an exiled filmmaker whose interrupted careers and bleak futures converge in unexpected ways. Blending sharp humour with poignant insight, the film explores the psychological cost of war and the enduring power of cinema as both escape and instrument. Elevated by a superb ensemble cast, it is a richly textured reflection on resilience, sacrifice and the human need for connection in times of upheaval.

Edinburgh, 1810. Teachers Jane Pirie and Marianne Woods open a boarding school, seeking an independent life together. Their world shifts when a wealthy aristocrat enrols Jane Cumming, her “illegitimate” 15-year-old granddaughter from India. An outsider at first, Jane slowly becomes entwined with the teachers’ lives, especially during a summer spent in their care. As affection deepens, professional boundaries blur and an unconventional household forms. But Jane’s growing need for intimacy strains the fragile balance. Feeling excluded, she demands to return to her grandmother. A devastating accusation follows, turning their lives into an existential struggle, resulting in a decade-long legal battle that scandalises Scottish establishment. Based on true events.

Following The Velvet Queen, award-winning photographer Vincent Munier once again finds extraordinary beauty in the overlooked, inviting us to slow down, pay attention and discover the wonders hiding in plain sight. Delving deep into the woodland realms, where lynxes, bears, deer, owls, capercaillies, and other river creatures roam, Munier not only seeks to pay tribute once again to the visual splendour of nature but also to capture the forest’s poetic sounds. The whispers of the woods are echoing the whispers passed from Munier’s father to himself, and now to his own son. This becomes a heartfelt declaration of Munier’s love for his father, intertwining familial bonds with the untamed beauty of the natural world.

Set against the backdrop of a politically charged Paris in 1968, Moi-même is a remarkable cinematic excavation that bridges generations and artistic movements. Conceived by acclaimed theatre visionary Lee Breuer and a group of collaborators who would later form the groundbreaking experimental company Mabou Mines, the film follows thirteen-year-old Kevin as he navigates the chaotic and often absurd process of trying to make a film of his own. Shot as an unscripted silent satire, the project was abandoned before completion and remained unseen for decades. In the final year of Breuer’s life, filmmaker Mojo Lorwin returned to the original footage, restoring and reimagining the material in a unique collaboration between father and son separated by more than half a century. Featuring a rare cameo by Jean-Luc Godard, documentary glimpses of student demonstrations outside the Sorbonne, and early appearances by future members of Mabou Mines, the film captures a pivotal moment when artistic experimentation and political upheaval were inseparable. Part rediscovered artefact, part contemporary creation, Moi-même transforms unfinished material into a meditation on memory and creative persistence. Playful and self-reflexive, it reflects on the ambitions of youth, the afterlife of abandoned projects and the enduring influence of the revolutionary ideas that shaped a generation of artists. 

Director in attendance.

This enduring coming-of-age classic transforms the familiar setting of a suburban high school into a poignant exploration of identity and belonging. Over the course of a single Saturday detention, five students find themselves confined together under the watchful eye of an authoritarian principal. What begins as a clash of stereotypes gradually evolves into something more profound, as each reveals the fears, pressures and vulnerabilities hidden beneath carefully constructed personas. Through humour, honesty and unexpected connection, The Breakfast Club dismantles assumptions about adolescence and social division, offering a timeless reflection on the search for acceptance and self-definition.

A cinematic love letter to the machine that shaped modern filmmaking, Her Name Was Moviola explores film editing through Academy Award-winning editor Walter Murch. Invented in 1922, the Moviola became the dominant editing machine in English-language cinema for much of the 20th century. Murch and collaborators reconstruct a Moviola editing suite, revealing how individual shots become a cohesive cinematic language. Using two scenes from Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, reverse-engineered from digital files onto 35mm film, they demonstrate painstaking frame-by-frame editing craft. Part technical masterclass, part cinematic history, Her Name Was Moviola celebrates the craft at the heart of filmmaking.

Director in attendance.

Celebrated as Canada’s first queer film, David Secter’s debut is a quietly assured portrait of friendship, desire and the ache of unspoken longing. Set against the University of Toronto in the 1960s and filmed through a snowbound winter, Winter Kept Us Warm follows Doug, a charismatic campus star, as he becomes increasingly drawn to Peter, a shy, bookish freshman. Tender and understated, the film captures the fragile intensity of a love that cannot quite find its voice. First screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966, this landmark returns in a new 4K restoration, reaffirming its enduring place in queer cinema history.

Just prior to Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, producer/director/co-writer and cinematographer Russ Meyer first unleashed his singular vision of full-throttle violence and vengeance with this 1965 shocker: When a trio of psycho bikers launches a sexual assault and murder spree in a desert town, the local veterinarian (Alex Rocco of The Godfather fame in his screen debut) teams with a rage-ravaged vixen (the incredible Haji in her own first film role) to settle the score. Steve Oliver (Werewolves on Wheels), Lane Carroll (The Crazies), Timothy Scott (The Farmer) and Russ himself co-star in this “slick, violent and well made” (Variety) Meyer milestone, scanned in 4K from the original negative restored by The Museum of Modern Art in association with The Russ Meyer Trust.

Amid the cultural chaos of 1968 and armed with a budget of only $70,000, Russ Meyer transcended sexploitation by crafting this “bosomacious melodrama” (Time Magazine) about racism, communism, bush pilots, draft dodgers, and a ferociously free-spirited wife named Vixen (the incredible Erica Gavin of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Caged Heat). Despite attempts at censorship that included one of the first-ever X ratings and 23 separate U.S. prosecutions for obscenity, it became one of the year’s top-grossing movies, forever transformed independent film, and remains the creative template for Meyer’s unapologetic vision of American cinema. Vixen is now scanned in 4K from the original negative restored by The Museum of Modern Art in association with The Russ Meyer Trust.

Bringing together a distinguished group of filmmakers and industry voices, this wide-ranging conversation explores one of the defining questions facing every filmmaker: how do you finance a film? Acclaimed director Sophie Fiennes joins filmmakers Claire and Anthony Bueno alongside producer and creative strategist Adam Gee for an insightful discussion on the realities of raising money for projects of every scale. From self-financing and crowdfunding to grants, investment and alternative funding models, the panel examines the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities that accompany each route. An essential event for emerging and established filmmakers alike, offering practical insight into turning creative ambition into a sustainable production.

Acclaimed non-fiction filmmaker (and IIFF Patron), Sophie Fiennes, will be joined by members of Cheek By Jowl for a Q&A following the film.

In 2021 Sophie Fiennes joined forces with Cheek By Jowl to create the first in-depth documentation of the acclaimed theatre company’s unique process and philosophy. The end result is a richly detailed and thrilling celebration of the company’s vital method of creating theatre. Fiennes operated as a single shooter with the camera harnessed to her body, offering audiences immersive and privileged access into Cheek By Jowl’s work. After receiving its UK premiere at the 2024 Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), Acting went on to premiere internationally at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in November of that year.

Director in attendance.

Amidst the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War, somewhere in Germany, a mysterious soldier appears in a secluded protestant village. Small and quiet, his face disfigured by a scar, this stranger declares himself the heir of a long-abandoned farmstead and produces a document to support his claim to the suspicious villagers. With time, he overcomes their doubts and shows himself to be a hard-working, God-fearing man, becoming part of the community in a quest for acceptance made up of impossible deceit. The true and twisted tale of a deceiver of land and folk, who, defying her birth as a woman, comported herself as a man and committed many a wicked deed.

Austria's official entry to the 99th Academy Awards. Released in the UK on 5 Feb 2027.

Content advice

Contains scenes of sexual violence.

Contains transphobic attitudes and language.

It's the first BIG IIFF Film Quiz, an evening of cinematic knowledge and spirited competition. Hosted by Ipswich Film Society’s David Clare, expect friendly rivalry, challenging questions and prizes worthy of the silver screen. Whether you’re a devoted cinephile or simply in it for the fun, gather a team of up to four and put your film knowledge to the test.

Fresh from its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Barbara Forever is an expansive, immersive exploration of the life, work, and ongoing cultural impact of filmmaker Barbara Hammer – a pioneering artist who lived boldly, created urgently, and transformed cinema through her singular vision. Her films were an extension of herself: sensual, experimental, and unapologetically lesbian, rooted in a profound desire for connection and an insistence on telling her own story. Driven by her canon of over eighty films, a vast collection of unreleased archival materials, and extensive audio interviews, Brydie O’Connor’s portrait allows for Hammer’s voice and images to shine through, becoming both a tribute and an extension of her legacy.

Both a loving portrait of a larger-than-life personality and a vivid record of New York’s 1970s downtown demimonde, this captivating documentary follows Tally Brown - cabaret chanteuse, underground film star, and a staple of Andy Warhol’s Factory - as she takes filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim on a tour through the grit and glamour of the city that made her. Capturing Brown’s mesmerising performances (including her breathtaking bilingual cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”) as well as her social world among fellow queer cult icons like Holly Woodlawn, Divine, and Taylor Mead, Tally Brown, New York is an essential snapshot of a scene that has passed into legend. Restoration by the Deutsche Kinemathek.

Screening on 35mm. Few films have expanded cinema’s philosophical horizons as profoundly as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Following the discovery of a mysterious object beneath the lunar surface, the film traces humanity’s encounter with the unknown, mediated by HAL 9000, an apparently infallible intelligence whose serene logic reveals far-reaching ethical tensions. Across vast temporal and cosmic scales, Kubrick contemplates evolution, consciousness, technological agency and the limits of human knowledge. Almost 60 years after its release, the film remains an enigmatic meditation on origins and the possibility of meaning. This rare presentation screens from the only 35mm print in the UK, offering an opportunity to encounter Kubrick’s masterpiece in its original photochemical form. (incl. interval)

Nothing else has ever looked or felt like director René Laloux’s animated marvel La Planet Sauvage, a politically minded and visually inventive work of science fiction. The film is set on a distant planet called Ygam, where enslaved humans (Oms) are the playthings of giant blue native inhabitants (Draags). After Terr, kept as a pet since infancy, escapes from his gigantic child captor, he is swept up by a band of radical fellow Oms who are resisting the Draags’ oppression and violence. With its eerie, coolly surreal cutout animation by Roland Topor; brilliant psychedelic jazz score by Alain Goraguer; and wondrous creatures and landscapes, this Cannes-awarded 1973 counterculture classic is a perennially compelling statement against conformity and violence.

John Waters’ gloriously grotesque second feature erupts in a carnival of depravity, where robbery, murder and blasphemy become the stuff of outrageous spectacle. Made on a shoestring budget in Waters’ native Baltimore, Multiple Maniacs is a gleefully anarchic assault on the peace-and-love idealism of its era, replacing flower power with filth, fury and fearless irreverence. At its centre is the Cavalcade of Perversion, a travelling sideshow populated by a troupe of misfits whose shocking proclivities are surpassed only by their magnetic leader: Divine, towering, outrageous and utterly unforgettable. Equal parts provocation and performance, the film remains a delirious testament to Waters’ singular cinematic vision.

Written and directed by esteemed experimental filmmaker Christina Hornisher, and beautifully captured by camera operator Jean-Pierre Geuens, Hollywood 90028 offers a vivid time capsule of 1970s Los Angeles in the bleak story of an aspiring cameraman turned serial murderer. Mark (Christopher Augustine) is a disturbed loner who toils in the sub-basement of the movie business as a cameraman shooting porno films for swinish boss Jobal (Dick Glass). When Mark pursues a romantic interest in Michelle (Jeannette Dilger), a model who he films in one of Jobal's sleazy movies, the grim reality behind the fantasy leads the frustrated cinematographer to shoot a different kind of Hollywood ending. The film's only UK release was on VHS as Insanity.

A beautiful blend of pop culture and B-movies, Explorers features childhood film debuts from Ethan Hawke (Before Sunrise) and River Phoenix (Sneakers), as well as an epic score by Jerry Goldsmith (Alien). Inspired by his vivid flying dreams and elaborate electrical grids, 8th-grader Ben convinces his friend Wolfgang to build a matching circuit board from Ben's hazily-sketched diagrams and the board eerily begins to program itself...

Screening on 35mm. Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds transforms the occupied landscapes of wartime France into a thrilling meditation on cinema, memory and revenge. At once a revisionist war epic and a celebration of the power of the moving image, Tarantino’s film explores cinema as both refuge and weapon, capable of shaping collective memory and rewriting the past itself. Anchored by Christoph Waltz’s unforgettable performance as Colonel Hans Landa, Inglourious Basterds remains one of the defining films of the twenty-first century. This special screening is presented on 35mm, offering audiences the rare opportunity to experience its richly textured imagery as Tarantino intended.

Following the film, join acclaimed film writer Jay Glennie for an evening exploring the stories behind some of cinema’s most celebrated films. Known for his deeply researched, richly illustrated making-of books on films including Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter and Tarantino's own Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, Glennie has built a reputation for uncovering the people, personalities and creative battles behind the screen. Jay will remain on-stage to sign copies of his new book, The Making of Inglorious Basterds following the conversation.

The IIFF concludes by turning its gaze towards the future of cinema with the Young Filmmakers Awards. Showcasing works from emerging filmmakers across Suffolk, the programme offers a platform for new voices whose creativity, curiosity and distinctive perspectives reflect the vitality of contemporary filmmaking. Bringing local talent into dialogue with an international festival, the evening embodies IIFF’s commitment to fostering connections between regional storytellers and the wider cinematic community. Across fiction, documentary and experimental forms, these films reveal the promise of a generation already shaping its own creative language. The presentation culminates in the first IIFF Young Filmmaker of the Year Award, honouring the filmmakers whose work points towards cinema’s future horizons.

Written and directed by Academy Award® winner Sofia Coppola (2003, Best Writing, Lost In Translation), MARIE ANTOINETTE is an electrifying yet intimate re-telling of the turbulent life of history's favourite villainess. Kirsten Dunst portrays the ill-fated child princess who married France's young and indifferent King Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman). Feeling isolated in a royal court rife with scandal and intrigue, Marie Antoinette defied both royalty and commoner by living like a rock star, which served only to seal her fate.

Set against the backdrop of mass protests in Paris, Case 137 follows Stéphanie, a meticulous internal affairs investigator working on the case of a teenager severely wounded by police fire. As she searches for the truth her inquiry collides with institutional resistance and pressure mounts as the case takes a personal turn when she discovers the victim is from her hometown.

Please note: there are only 5 mins of trailers before this film.

Censored for more than half a century, Ken Russell’s visionary masterpiece returns to the big screen fully restored in 4K and cut to Russell’s direction - the first publicly released version of the film as intended by the filmmaker. Unveiled at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, the definitive version arrives 55 years after the film’s original release. Starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, Ken Russell's The Devils remains a landmark exploration of religious persecution, hysteria and institutional corruption.

When bratty 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) acts out the night before a family trip to Paris, his mother (Catherine O'Hara) makes him sleep in the attic. After the McCallisters mistakenly leave for the airport without Kevin, he awakens to an empty house and assumes his wish to have no family has come true. But his excitement sours when he realizes that two con men (Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern) plan to rob the McCallister residence, and that he alone must protect the family home.

Please note there are only 5 mins of trailers with this screening. Please arrive for the advertised time to avoid disappointment.

Brian Henson directs his late father's creations in the Dickens classic, the greatest festive tale ever told. Kermit plays Bob Cratchit opposite Michael Caine's Scrooge in this bright, playful adaptation. With Miss Piggy as Mrs. Cratchit it's a family affair on the snowy streets of London this Christmas!

Please note: No ads or trailers play before the screening on 22 November and the film starts at the advertised time. There will be a full programme of ads and trailers for the screening on 20 December.

In 2005, Eleanor Coppola filmed her daughter Sofia directing Marie Antoinette at the Palace of Versailles, the first production ever granted access to the palace. For two decades, eighty hours of footage went unseen. Now, twenty years after the film's release and in fulfillment of her mother's wish, that footage becomes a film of its own. MAKING MARIE ANTOINETTE follows the making of this landmark production, Milena Canonero's costume work, and what it took to direct at 34, watched the whole time by her own mother.

Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris and Lee are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ. Amongst the Island’s iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris’s newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.

Three American doctors volunteer in Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals. The humanitarian catastrophe they witness compels them to carry their fight far beyond the wards and back to Washington. personal portrait of childhood, family fractures, and the fragility of recollection. 

Please note: there are only 5 mins of trailers before this film.

Winner: Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival Amnesty International Award and the Audience Award
Honourable Mention: CPH:DOX HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD

In her first English-language role, Italian star Monica Vitti incarnates the British comic-strip heroine Modesty Blaise blending Barbarella-style allure with Bond -style espionage capers. Joined by a cockney sidekick (Terence Stamp), Modesty sets out to thwart a diamond-theft scheme hatched by super-villain Gabrielle (Dirk Bogarde). But forget the plot, it’s the least important part - instead immerse yourself in the riot of colour, Vitti’s outfits and the outrageous sets and props. Modesty Blaise is not a film you would immediately identify with the exiled American director Joseph Losey (whose 1967 film Accident, more typical of his work at that time, is also available to book as part of the tour), but he crafts a visually playful pop-art fantasy that puts the swing into the Swinging Sixties.

Featuring a pre-recorded introduction by filmmaker Edgar Wright. Based on Milanese sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani’s iconic popular 1960s comic, Danger: Diabolik is a stylish cult classic riffing off the Bond phenomenon, now newly restored. Legendary Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis employed celebrated craftsman of Italian giallo Mario Bava, who brought his distinctive colourful visual style and technical ingenuity to the project. Throw in Ennio Morricone’s wildly experimental score, which combines elements of psychedelia, disco, funk, free jazz, and rock opera, and you have a Pop Art masterpiece. Whilst the film suffered by comparison to De Laurentiis’ Barbarella, it has since become a cult classic for its wonderfully inventive Pop Art visual conceits, with musicians like Fatboy Slim and the Beastie Boys borrowing its campy spy-fi aesthetics. A 4K restoration by Paramount Pictures in collaboration with Kino Lorber at Paramount Post Services, from the original 35mm camera negative. With thanks to Park Circus.

Josh O’Connor (The Crown; Challengers) leads the cast in this searing revival of Clifford Odets’ knockout American classic. 1930s New York, at the height of the Depression. Joe Bonaparte is a gifted young violinist with a future in music, until a chance at fame and fortune lures him into the brutal world of professional boxing. He must confront what he’s willing to sacrifice, who he’s willing to become and how to find his place in a world that demands he choose a side. Brought to life with a live string quartet and filmed live from the Almeida Theatre. Olivier Award-winner Sam Yates (Vanya) directs this propulsive drama exploring ambition, identity, and the high price of success.

Content warnings:

This production may include flashing lights, which may impact customers with photosensitive epilepsy.

Featuring a pre-recorded introduction by composer Sven Grünberg. An anonymous tip starts a traditional whodunnit which quickly segues into a surrealistic farce and moves from film noir to science fiction in the mysterious and enigmatic Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel. Based on a book and screenplay by the Russian brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the film is a classic of fantasy cinema that blurs the lines between genres. Underlaid with the psychedelic synthesiser sounds of Estonian composer Sven Grünberg, what starts as a traditional whodunnit segues into a surrealistic farce, moves from film noir to science fiction. Thematically and stylistically moving between Thomas Mann’s novel Magic Mountain and Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) and with intense modernistic interiors and glistening shots in deep snow Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel creates an enigmatic atmosphere. The restoration was based on a new 4K scan of inter-positive elements held by the National Archives of Estonia. With thanks to the Embassy of Estonia in London.

LA BOLA NEGRA tells the story of three men whose lives are intimately connected through desire, pain and inheritance, across three different eras – 1932, 1937, and 2017. Rich with Lorca's poetry and suffused with desire, grief and hope, it is an intimate love story and a sweeping exploration of memory, inheritance and queer history, honouring those whose lives and loves were too often forced into silence.

WINNER - Best Director, Cannes Film Festival

WINNER - People’s Choice Award, Toronto International Film Festival

WINNER - Audience Award, San Sebastian Film Festival

Spain’s Official Entry for Best International Film at the Academy Awards

The Puppet Folk Experience is proud to present a “most sensational” festive tribute show, bringing acoustic mayhem, heart and humour to audiences this Christmas.

Featuring two lifelong Muppet fans and a cast of lovingly handcrafted puppet characters, the duo celebrates the music and magic of The Muppet Christmas Carol alongside beloved songs from the classic frog-hosted television series—all performed through live puppetry and banjo music.

Expect warmth, comedy, audience interaction and plenty of festive surprises in a unique live show made with genuine affection for the world’s most celebrated puppet performers.

It’s time to light the lights and get things started this Christmas!

Please note: this event is a live performance and does not include a film screening.

Running order

• 7.00pm – Doors
• 7.30pm – The Puppet Folk Experience (two sets with an interval)
• 8.50pm – Meet the puppets & photo opportunity
• 9.00pm – Finish (approx.)

(Please note timings may be subject to change.)

Perfect for

• Families and children
• Parents and grandparents who grew up with The Muppets
• Anyone looking for a special shared Christmas outing

Please note

• This is a fully seated event.
• Children must be accompanied by an adult.
• Photos and filming may take place during this event for promotional purposes.

FATHERLAND centres on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) - actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them across a Germany in ruins - from US dominated Frankfurt to Soviet controlled Weimar. Returning home after sixteen years of exile in the US, Thomas Mann has to face not only a divided fatherland, but also a deep fracture within his own family. With FATHERLAND, Pawlikowski picks up where he left off with his award-winning Ida and Cold War, exploring – in his elliptic, distilled style - the themes of identity, family, love and guilt amid the turmoil and confusion of post-war Europe.

A blend of kitchen-sink realism, dark comedy and 1960s British New Wave aesthetics, the film follows Billy Fisher (Tom Courtenay), a bored and irresponsible young man living with his nagging working-class family in Northern England. Despising his dead-end job as a funeral parlor bookkeeper and drowning in his own web of romantic entanglements - having secretly proposed to two different women simultaneously - Billy spends much of his time mentally retreating to "Ambrosia," an imaginary country where he is a heroic military ruler. When his former girlfriend Liz (Julie Christie) - a happy-go-lucky, free spirit - suddenly returns to town, she offers him a chance to leave his problems behind and start a fresh life in London. However, as the pressures from his family, his boss and his furious fiancées reach a tipping point, Billy must decide whether to embrace the frightening reality of a new beginning or remain trapped in his endless fantasies. 

Beset with personal and professional problems, George Bailey finds his previously happy life falling apart around him on Christmas Eve. Seeing no way out, George considers suicide from the edge of a bridge, but Clarence, his guardian angel, intervenes and shows George what his beloved hometown of Bedford Falls would be like without him. One of the most beloved festive films of all time returns to King Street.

On Christmas Eve, tough New York detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) arrives in Los Angeles with the aim of reconciling with his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), at her employer's Christmas party. When the party is disrupted by a group of heavily armed criminals led by the charismatic Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), McClane evades capture and begins a one-man war against the hostage takers. Outmanned, outgunned and ill-equipped, McClane calls in the help of a local beat cop in his crusade against Gruber.