When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue one of their own's daughter.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film is inspired by Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel ‘Vineland’ set in ‘a zone of blessed anarchy’ in Northern California. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a civil rights activist who joins an anti-government group to combat an “alt-right” white supremacist organisation, with Sean Penn playing the leader. Part political satire, part black comedy and part action blockbuster, the film is shot in glorious Vista Vision with breathtaking cinematography bathed in golden-hour natural light. With a cast to die for which also includes Benicio Del Toro and Regina Hall, the film also marks the sixth feature film collaboration between Anderson and composer Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), whose score oscillates between high tension and playful mischief, grounding the more chaotic moments with sonic weight.

USA 2025 Paul Thomas Anderson 170m

In Neo Sora's narrative feature debut, the threat of natural disaster and citizen unrest provides justification for incursions into personal freedoms by the Japanese government and education authorities.

Despite being close childhood friends, as Yuta (Hayao Kurihara) and Kou (Yukito Hidaki) approach the end of school, their contrasting responses to the darkening mood around them, both at school and in the national political arena, expose differences of which neither had previously been aware. This is a delicate portrait of late adolescence, suspended between pleasurable distractions and creeping anxieties about what comes next. A careful tonal balance is struck between the bittersweet, elegiac qualities of an end-of-school drama, with compassionate observation of the approach of maturity and the volatile microcosm of an educational institution that becomes like a prison, pointing to broader political implications in the outside world. Debuting in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival, ‘Happyend’ is a first step into features for Neo Sora, who made last year’s stirring documentary tribute to his late father, Ryuichi Sakamoto (Subtitles).

Japan/USA/Singapore/UK Neo Sora 2024 113m

The true story of John Davidson; diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome at a young age which alienated him from his peers, he struggled with a condition few people had witnessed.

At age 15, John Davidson (Robert Aramayo) faced and overcame many hardships from adolescence and early adulthood, as a result of what was a little known and entirely misunderstood condition in 1980’s Britain. Targeted as insane by his peers, Davidson lived with a condition few had ever witnessed, as he attempted to live a ‘normal’ life against the odds. Written and directed by Kirk Jones (‘Waking Ned’, ‘Nanny McPhee’), this is a heart-warming film that will surely prove popular with filmgoers. The supporting cast includes some of Britain’s best: the always brilliant Maxine Peake (The Theory of Everything), Shirley Henderson (‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’, ‘Trainspotting’), and Cannes Best Actor Award winner & Golden Lion winner Peter Mullan (‘War Horse’).

UK 2025 Kirk Jones 120m

A beautiful, heart-warming – and often funny - story that seeks to explore the fragile interplay between grief, human connection and the redemptive power of kindness.

Anne (Sarah-Jane Potts) is grieving the loss of her partner to the point of becoming mute.  She takes herself to the Canary Islands to spread his ashes, and just maybe, get her voice back, along with her place in the world. After an unwelcoming arrival, she finds herself wandering the streets until a chance encounter with another troubled traveller, Bill (David Ganly), offers an unexpected opportunity which could heal or crumble each of their lives. Potts has a magnetic screen presence, anchoring the film with a blend of vulnerability and resolve, portraying Anne as both fragile and fiercely determined to reclaim her life. It is hard to believe that this is the work of a first-time director (Millson is better known as an actor), achieving here a wonderful film with echoes of ‘Aftersun’ and ’45 Years’. Winner of Best Feature Film at the 2025 London Independent Film Festival and Berlin Indie Film Festival, "This is a magical film. It's got heart, soul and hope. And it’s laced with jeopardy." Irvine Welsh.

UK 2025 Joseph Millson 88m

Met Opera

Following triumphant Met turns in ‘Roméo et Juliette’, ‘La Traviata’ and ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’, Nadine Sierra summits another peak of the soprano repertoire as Amina, who sleepwalks her way into audiences’ hearts in Bellini’s poignant tale of love lost and found.

Sun 19 Oct 14:15

Tue 21 Oct 19:30

50th Anniversary 4K Restoration

This is not only one of Stanley Kubrick’s finest and most influential films, but has been named as one of the greatest films ever made in polls including Sight & Sound. Celebrating 50 years in 2025.

In Kubrick’s own adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about the exploits of an 18th century Irish adventurer, Ryan O’Neal stars as Redmond Barry (later Barry Lyndon) and Marisa Berenson is Lady Lyndon. Only a cinema screen can do justice to the stunning visuals of ‘Barry Lyndon’ which won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, Art Direction/Set Decoration, Music and Costume Design. Inspired by painters such as Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth, the film has a beautiful, painterly look, enhanced by filming in natural or historically accurate light sources, some lit only by candlelight. Pure cinema, simply unmissable.

UK/USA 1979 Stanley Kubrick 184m

A Palestinian refugee living on the fringes of society in Athens gets ripped off by a smuggler and sets out to seek revenge.

Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late. This is a gripping and uncompromising film, but ultimately sympathetic at the same time… which is a tough balance to strike. The film differs from the others in this Palestinian strand, as it is the only drama, depicting the lives of Palestinian refugees outside of Palestine. (Subtitles)

Palestine 2024 Mahdi Fleifel 105m

A beautifully filmed, heartfelt adaptation of Niall Williams' best-selling novel.  Two young people are made for each other, but as fate and  power of true love pull them together, so too does life threaten to tear them apart.

Nicholas (Fionn O'Shea) and Isabel (Ann Skelly) are made for each other, but fate does not always choose the easiest path to true love. Nicholas' father, William (Pierce Brosnan), comes home one day to shatter his family's modest life, when he tells them that in a moment of divine intervention, God has instructed him to dedicate his life to painting. He quits his job and sets off for the coast, leaving his shell-shocked wife and son to fend for themselves. Meanwhile Isabel and her family live a charmed existence on a small neighbouring island, their house full of music and poetry. When tragedy strikes, the music stops, and Isabel's parents (Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne) decide in their grief to send Isabel to a convent school on the mainland. The young lovers embark on their own individual journeys of heartache and misplaced love, before fate contrives to pull the threads of their lives together. Filmed in Donegal and Antrim by cinematographer Damien Elliott, certainly makes the locations glimmer. The skies and seas are azure blue, the beaches are golden, and the sun never seems to dim, lending the film a beautiful fairytale quality.

UK/Ireland 2024 Polly Steele 125m

A husband-and-wife rediscover nature’s beauty and a renewed sense of vitality in this heartstring-pulling adaptation of a true-life tale.

Fifty-somethings Ray Winn and her husband Moth (Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs) receive a bad health diagnosis and court-ordered to vacate the only home they’ve known as a family due to insurmountable circumstances. They decide to walk the South-West Coast Path – the longest (630 miles) uninterrupted footpath in England – from Minehead to Poole along the Devon, Cornwall and Dorset coast armed only with a tent, limited supplies, very few clothes and the travelogue that inspired this trek. Helene Louvart’s excellent cinematography is a real highlight with filming locations including Padstow, Clovelly, Ilfracombe and some of the most beautiful rugged coast in the country, but do see if you can spot the scenes filmed at our very own West Wittering. This portrait of loss, humanity and rebirth is adapted from Raynor Winn’s personal memoir, with Anderson and Isaacs’ intimately textured performances standing out.

UK 2024 Marianne Elliott 115m

In this 5-Star (Peter Bradshaw – The Guardian) thriller – a late addition to the Autumn Season - a lone traveller through snowbound northern Minnesota interrupts the kidnapping of a teenage girl.

Hit by a blizzard, a grief-stricken loner (Emma Thompson) gets lost among backroads near a Minnesotan lake and stops for help at a remote cabin in the woods. Here she discovers a young woman (Laurel Marsden) kidnapped by a desperate couple (Judy Greer and Marc Menchaca). Isolated and without phone service, this unlikely hero realizes she is the woman's only hope of survival. The film has old-school barnstorming brashness, some edge-of-the-seat tension, a streak of sentimentality, a dash of broad humour and a flourish of the macabre. Emma Thompson is once again as reliable an actress as you could have wished, thoroughly believable as the lovable Barb, a graceful grieving widow capable of heroic actions.

USA 2025 Brian Kirk 97m

Jeunes Mères

The Dardenne Brothers’ latest ensemble drama centres around a group of girls under the care of a ‘maternal assistance’ home in Liège and representing very different instances of children bringing children into the world.

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne got their start making short documentaries set in working-class housing projects. They then brought that same observational approach with them to their fiction features, reflected in the long-take handheld camerawork, gritty street-level locations and casting of non-professional actors that have become their signature.  The two-time Palme d'Or winners’ new film centres upon five young women in a home for young expectant mothers, working for a better life for themselves.  Far from bleak or depressing, the uplifting script evokes a real sense of community, as the characters support one another, taking turns preparing meals, and stepping in when one of them is overwhelmed. ‘Young Mothers’ celebrates an institution where supportive yet firm social workers are available around the clock to serve as exactly the kind of role models its residents lacked in their own lives. This must-see slice of social realism received a 10-minute standing ovation in Cannes this year. (Subtitles)

France/Belgium 2025 Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne 105m

National Theatre

A searing new play from the team behind Prima Facie

Jessica Parks is smart, compassionate, a true maverick at the top of her career as an eminent London Crown Court Judge. At work she’s changing and challenging the system one case at a time. But behind the robe, Jessica is a karaoke fiend, a loving wife and a supportive parent.

While managing the impossible juggling act faced by every working mother, an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance. Can she hold her family upright?

Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) makes her National Theatre debut as Jessica. Writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin reunite following their global phenomenon Prima Facie with this searing examination of modern masculinity and motherhood.

120m

Tickets £19.50

Thu 4 Sep 19:15

Sun 7 Sep 15:15

Following in the footsteps of his bumbling father, Detective Frank Drebin Jr. must solve a murder case to prevent the police department from shutting down.

This reboot of the ‘Naked Gun’ franchise is a lot of fun: amiably ridiculous, refreshingly shallow, and a true guilty pleasure! Seamlessly reviving the mile-a-minute patter of sight gags, puns and general buffoonery, it is a relentless comedy delivered with a smirk. Beth (Pamela Anderson) turns up at Det. Drebin’s (Liam Neeson) office. Her brother has been killed in the suspicious crash of an Edentech electric vehicle, with a trail that leads all the way back to the company’s CEO Richard Cane (Danny Huston). Mostly, she is a femme fatale who is even sillier than Priscilla Presley but her comic timing is impeccable, and her breathy throwaway delivery is a delight. Neeson is having a blast, sending up his hyperviolent screen persona of recent years, and his scenes with Anderson are bliss. With so much horror and despair in the world, we all need a little escapist fun and this is it!

USA 2025 Akiva Schaffer 85m

50th Anniversary Remaster

When a massive killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Long Island, it's up to the local police chief, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.

Adapted from Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name,‘Jaws’ catapulted Spielberg’s burgeoning career into the stratosphere and was the cause celebre of 1975, heralding what many believe was the first real ‘blockbuster’. It earned its place in cinema history from the very opening sequence where you see nothing, but fear everything, thanks to John Williams’ menacing score which simply alternates between two notes signally impending doom. Made for just $9 million it went on the gross $470 million worldwide. With largely non-A-listers, the shark was the star of the show but it was the performances of Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw which give the film such humanity. ‘Jaws’ was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and deservedly went on to win three of them.

1975 USA Steven Spielberg 122m

NT Live

Five-time Olivier Award winner Imelda Staunton (‘The Crown’) joins forces with her real-life daughter Bessie Carter (‘Bridgerton’) for the very first time, playing mother and daughter in Bernard Shaw’s incendiary moral classic.

Sun 26 Oct 13:00

Wed 29 Oct 13:15

Sat 1 Nov 18:00

When Mary finds herself in a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the household grapples with the threat of social disgrace.

The global phenomenon returns to the cinema screen for the final time as the Crawley family and their staff enter the 1930s. They must embrace change with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future. While we will surely miss the presence of the great Maggie Smith as late Dowager Countess Violet Crawley, the film nevertheless boasts a stellar cast which includes Hugh Bonneville, Penelope Wilton, Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle, Allen Leech, Phyllis Logan and Jim Carter. They will be joined for the finale by Joely Richardson, Dominic West, Simon Russell Beale, and the magnificent Paul Giamatti. Book your seat for the final bow!

UK 2024 Simon Curtis 123m

This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between a Palestinian activist Basel Adra and an Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham. Best Documentary Oscar Winner 2025!

For half a decade Palestinian activist Basel Adra has been filming the destruction of his community of Masafer Yatta by Israel’s occupation. He began filming at the age of 15 to gather physical evidence. For its many images of despair, the film still offers a stirring vision for what could be – Israelis and Palestinians working together in the name of justice, collaborating toward a world where both are free. ‘No Other Land’ won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2025 and Best Documentary at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival. Tragically, just last month, a consultant on the film, Awdah Hathaleen, was killed during an attack by Israeli settlers in the South Hebron hills. (Subtitles)

Palestine/Norway 2024 B. Adra, H. Ballal, Y. Abraham, R. Szor 92m

An Associated Press team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion.

This is a film about accelerating conflict and journalists under extreme duress, desperately seeking a Wi-Fi signal amid the ruins to make the world aware and about the spiritual toll that comes from bearing witness. Unflinching lenses capture the sickening collective realisation that ordinary people are being targeted. Photojournalist Mstyslav Chernov’s sobering narration describes the circumstances behind grey-faced medics attempting to resuscitate injured babies and the shattered despair of parents whose children have been shelled while playing football. The deadened manner of Chernov’s voiceover contrasts starkly with the frantic urgency of the images on screen. A harrowing, vital documentary which demands to be seen.

Ukraine/USA 2023 Mstyslav Chernov 97m

Musical

Get ready for the ultimate rock experience as ‘Bat Out of Hell’ roars onto the big screen this Halloween!

Thu 30 Oct 20:15

Critics are simply raving about this new Kathryn Bigelow (‘The Hurt Locker’) film, where a nuclear missile is headed for the American Midwest, but no one knows which country launched it.

If the missile is not intercepted, it will hit its target in 18 minutes. The film unfolds within that time frame, with events relayed from multiple points of view, including that of a young major stationed in the Pacific (Anthony Ramos), a disillusioned and unprepared deputy advisor (Gabriel Basso), a Secretary of Defence who can barely reckon with the current reality (Jared Harris), and the President himself (Idris Elba), fairly new to the job when the crisis hits. This is a potent and ingeniously constructed film. Bigelow has made a modern-day real-world thriller (or perhaps horror!) film, that is unsettling for all that it does not show.

USA 2025 Kathryn Bigelow 112m

L'Histoire de Souleymane

A Paris food delivery cyclist and asylum seeker named Souleymane has two days to prepare his story for a make-or-break interview to secure legal residency.

This propulsive, suspenseful, visceral and yet moving depiction of the immigrant experience, is seen through several significant days in the

life of Souleymane (Abou Sangare), as he prepares for the interview that will determine his future. He must not only deal with those who profit from the refugee situation such as asylum interview ‘coaches’ and food delivery permit ‘sharks’, he must also decide on whether the truth or a fabricated version of his story will suit his situation best. The kinetic hand-held camera energetically tracks Souleymane through the streets of Paris, building nail-biting tension. The film has been rightfully rewarded with prizes at many European Film Festivals, including right here in Chichester (Audience Award Winner). Non-professional actor Abou Sangare as Souleymane is a true revelation and a name to look out for in the next few years. (Subtitles)

France 2024 Boris Lojkine 93m

Halloween Week Screenings

A brilliant but egotistical scientist brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

Baron Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is rescued from a monster on the ice by the crew of a ship of polar explorers. He is a man with a tale to tell of how he got there: starting at the very beginning with a childhood overshadowed by an evil father (Charles Dance) and a grief that drives an ambition to conquer death itself. Funded by Herr Harlander (Christoph Waltz) for his own ends, combined with the blasts of a passing lightning storm, Victor creates his fabled monster (Jacob Elordi). Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro (‘The Shape of Water, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’) adapts Mary Shelley's classic tale about a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

Mexico/USA 2025 Guillermo del Toro 149m

Special Halloween Event

This reimagining of the iconic 'Nosferatu' (1922) features the music of Radiohead’s 'Kid A' (2000) and 'Amnesiac' (2001) albums. This will be a Halloween to remember with one of the classics of silent cinema coupled with one of the best bands of recent times.

Fri 31 Oct 20:15

In this surprisingly light and dreamy film, considering the subject matter, a young addict living on the streets of London is given a shot at redemption, but his road to recovery soon curdles into a strange odyssey from which he may never escape.

On the streets of London, Mike (Frank Dillane) is hustling to get by. Roadside evangelizers won't let him sleep in peace, his slippery friend won't pay up the money he stole, and before long, he finds himself in trouble with the law. As he struggles to reintegrate into society, shuffling between gigs as a line cook and a trash collector, he must balance a newfound sense of community with his own itch for self-destruction. There is an unexpected levity and moments of arresting beauty to be found in this distinctive directorial debut from the actor Harris Dickinson (‘Triangle of Sadness’). Winner at Cannes 2025 in the Un Certain Regard section and Best Actor for Dillane.

UK 2025 Harris Dickinson 99m

We commemorate one of Hollywood’s leading men, Robert Redford (18 Aug 1936 – 16 Sep 2025), with one of his most famous films. The true story of fast-draws and wild rides, train and bank robberies, a torrid love affair and a new lease on outlaw life in a far-away land.

In 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) lead a band of outlaws. When a train robbery goes wrong, they find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heels, so Butch comes up with the idea of escaping to Bolivia. The dream-team pairing of Newman and Redford is one of many reasons why this revisionist western is such a treat. It’s light-hearted and likeable, a cool, 1960s spin on a genre that at the time had become a little tired. William Goldman wrote the entertaining screenplay and won one of the film’s four Oscars. The others were for Cinematography, Music and another for Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s evergreen song ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’.

USA 1969 George Roy Hill 110m

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

In this ultimate film about cinema, a famous film director returns to his hometown for the funeral of the local theatre’s film projectionist. He reminisces about his life as a young boy falling in love with cinema.

Young Salvatore Di Vita (Salvatore Cascio) discovers the perfect escape from life in his war-torn Sicilian village: the Cinema Paradiso movie house, where projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) instils in the boy a deep love of films. When Salvatore grows up, falls in love with a beautiful local girl (Agnese Nano) and takes over as the Paradiso's projectionist, Alfredo must convince Salvatore to leave his small town and pursue his passion for filmmaking. Guiseppe Tornatore's love letter to cinema, now accepted as a modern classic, was incredibly rejected by Italian audiences when it first opened back in late 1988. Winner of the jury prize at Cannes and the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1990. (Subtitles)

Italy 1988 Giuseppe Tornatore 125m

The Untold Stories from Gaza

A collection of 22 short films made in Gaza. Initiated by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, the project was born to give a voice to 22 Gazan filmmakers to tell the untold stories of the current war on film.

This film is particularly important given the restrictions on news reporting in Gaza. Shortlisted for the 2025 Academy Awards, it is the latest example of a sub-genre that has boomed over the last decade – the ‘insider testimony’ feature in which people living in conflict zones record their own experience outside the formal restrictions of standard documentary and news coverage conventions. ‘No Other Land’ in this Palestinian strand is another example. Surprisingly what features markedly little here is a sense of rage, or a focus on a precise political context. For all of its bleakness, this is an extremely hopeful film. (Subtitles)

Palestine 2024 Various Directors 112m

This French and Spanish co-production shared the jury prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and has been selected as Spain’s official Oscars’ entry for 2026.

Luis (Sergi Lopez) is traveling through southern Morocco with his son, Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona). They are searching for his daughter, who has been missing for five months, last seen at a dance festival in the desert. As the pair travel from party to party, they hear of a semi-mythical rave near the border of Mauritania. Descending into the scorched terrain as a not-so-distant global conflict encroaches, Luis and Esteban are soon drawn into a primal landscape in which they must walk a tightrope between heaven and hell. Part existential road movie, part apocalyptic sci-fi, ‘Sirât’ mixes a bit of ‘Zabriskie Point’ and ‘Fury Road’ and shakes them up. Some of its images are indelible, in the same way Antonioni’s were in 1970, but director Laxe’s major weapon here is his outstanding sound design. ‘An energising film - a project determined to wake us up’. Hollywood Reporter. (Subtitles)

Spain/France 2025 Oliver Laxe 115m

Sign up for the next CineCircle to discuss films seen at New Park.

Choose a warming drink, a glass of wine or beer at Brasserie Blanc.

TICKETS ARE FREE, but bookings are essential as we have limited numbers.

Brasserie Blanc, Chichester

A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.

The fearless Italian film-maker Luca Guadagnino (‘Call Me By Your Name’, ‘Challengers’) stampedes through the culture wars in this extraordinary tale of tested loyalties and difficult truths on the Yale University campus of the 2020s. A gripping psychological drama about literature professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts), a woman who has spent decades battling systemic misogyny and is on the cusp of gaining a career-topping tenureship. One night, however, after a boozy college soiree, the model student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) accuses Alma’s best friend, philosophy professor Hank (Andrew Garfield), of sexual assault. The performances throughout are immense, skilfully portraying the tension of the situation, but this could well be Roberts’ performance of her career and will almost certainly be rewarded with an Oscar nomination.

USA 2025 Luca Guadagnino 139m

Une Affaire de Principe

Brussels, 2012. After the Health Commissioner's abrupt dismissal shrouded in secrecy, MEP José Bové and his team launch an investigation into the matter.

The European Commissioner for Health, John Dalli (Maurizio Marchetti), is accused of corruption and trading in influence in a scandal related to the tobacco industry. French Member of the European Parliament José Bové (Bouli Lanners), maverick politician and prominent figure in the environmental party, suspects a setup by the tobacco manufacturer Swedish Match, potentially involving the President of the European Commission, José Barroso (Joaquim de Almeida). Standing alone against all odds, he decides to investigate and unravel this story, which shook the foundations of the entire European institution. Based on a true story. Cast includes Thomas Vandenberghe, Céleste Brunnquell and Lisa Loven Kongsli. ‘An intense and breathless political thriller’. Le Dauphine Libéré. (Subtitles)

France 2024 Antoine Raimbault 95m

A charismatic criminal, while on the run from the police, hides on the roof of a toy store. There, he adopts a new identity and becomes involved with an employee, beginning a relationship as unlikely as it is risky.

Based on an unbelievable true story, we follow Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), an Army veteran and struggling father who turns to robbing McDonald's restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname: Roofman. After escaping prison, he secretly lives inside a Toys "R" Us for six months, surviving undetected while planning his next move. But when he falls for Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a divorced mom drawn to his undeniable charm, his double life begins to unravel, setting off a compelling and suspenseful game of cat and mouse as his past closes in. This is a fun film, made even better with the undeniable chemistry between Tatum and Dunst.

USA 2025 Derek Cianfrance 126m

In the first of four ‘Melodramas’ this season, we present King Vidor’s 1937 classic where a working-class woman is willing to do whatever it takes to give her daughter a socially promising future.

When working-class Stella Martin (Barbara Stanwyck) meets and marries the wealthy Stephen Dallas (John Boles), they quickly have a daughter named Laurel (Anne Shirley). Stella and Stephen struggle to stay happy as their class differences become a problem, and when they inevitably separate, Laurel is caught in the middle of the divorce. To give Lauren the best chance in life, Stella must make a huge and very painful sacrifice. This is a fascinating character portrait of a woman striving to improve her place in the world and making some poor choices along the way. Many critics are convinced that Stanwyck should have earned an Oscar for what is arguably her finest performance.

USA 1937 King Vidor 106m

Royal Ballet & Opera

65 years after its premiere, The Royal Ballet presents Frederick Ashton’s ‘La Fille Mal Gardée’, conducted by Jonathan Lo and with music by Ferdinand Hérold.

Sat 8 Nov 15:00

L’Etranger

Sixty years after Luchino Visconti, François Ozon has adapted a monumental work of literature for the screen – ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus.

In 1930s Algeria, apathetic Frenchman Meursault (Benjamin Voisin) shows total indifference to life. His daily life is soon disrupted by his neighbour, Raymond Sintès, who draws Meursault into his shady dealings. Until one blisteringly hot day, a tragic event occurs on a beach. Ozon has said: “The themes in the book could hardly be more topical: an emotionally absent hero detached from the world, confronting our mortality, the individual’s quest for meaning in an increasingly alienating world.” Shot in moody, period-appropriate black and white, this was one of the highlights at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. Cast includes Rebecca Marder, Swann Arlaud, Pierre Lottin and Denis Lavant. ‘A crackling yet tasteful erotic charge’. Screen Daily. (Subtitles)

France 2025 François Ozon 120m

Met Opera

With its enchanting setting and spellbinding score, the world’s most popular opera is as timeless as it is heartbreaking. Franco Zeffirelli’s picture-perfect production brings 19th-century Paris to the Met stage as

Puccini’s young friends and lovers navigate the joy and struggle of bohemian life.

Sun 9 Nov 13:15

Tue 11 Nov 19:00

Exhibition on Screen

Mystery, intrigue, beauty, passion, murder – shine a new light on Caravaggio in this dramatic biography.

Five years in production, this is the most extensive film ever made about one of the greatest artists of all time. Featuring masterpiece after masterpiece and with first-hand testimony from the artist himself on the eve of his mysterious disappearance. Caravaggio’s masterpieces are some of art’s most instantly recognisable. No one else uses his signature blend of dramatic light, intense naturalism and bold, striking figures. His incredible paintings have captivated audiences for centuries. But there lies a deeper mystery - one that still beckons us to explore. What do these masterpieces reveal about the man behind the brush? The intriguing self-depictions within his works - sometimes disguised, sometimes in plain sight - offer a rare window into his psyche and personal struggles. Join us as we unravel the story of one of history’s most brilliant, complex and controversial figures.

UK 2025 David Bickerstaff/Phil Grabsky 100m

Tickets £15

Tue 11 Nov 14:15

Thu 13 Nov 16:00

Sun 16 nov 15:30

Mon 17 Nov 18:00

La Divine

Sumptuous, rapturous and full of drama, Sarah Bernhardt’s life is here to be experienced in all its theatrical glory – just as La Divine intended.

Bernhardt (Sandrine Kiberlain) is larger than life and a cyclone of contradictions. The original theatre diva, her world is blinding stage lights, opulent wealth and delicious scandals. Ruled by fleeting fancies and sweeping emotions, she even holds court from her sickbed. And what better time to revisit her groundbreaking 19th-century stardom than in recovery from surgery? Guillaume Nicloux’s decadent biopic is an experience like no other: from exotic menageries to consuming affairs, La Divine is as showstopping as she is capricious. ‘Shines the spotlight on a figure as eccentric as she was visionary, still regarded today as a legend of world theatre’. Sortir à Paris. (Subtitles)

France 2024 Guillaume Nicloux 98m

Comedy

One 85-year-old Man, five Countries, 16 Cities, 23 shows, six weeks. Will he make it home … or is this the end of the road?

Thu 13 Nov 20:30

A celebration of the iron-willed women who maintained the 1984/85 Miners' Strike as they fought for the future of their communities.

This is the inspiring story of working-class women who found themselves at the forefront of a battle against the British state. From Scotland down to Kent, women from the coalfields shed light on their experiences of the year long struggle and how they became the backbone of the Strike. With many still active today, their actions reshaped the landscape of political activism for working-class women. Raising money to support striking workers, picketing, collecting food for food parcels, organising, speaking at rallies, and feeding hundreds of hungry families every day at the strike centres were just some of the things the women did to sustain the strike. ‘There have been plenty of films about the Miners’ Strike, but we believe there is space for a film dedicated to women who contributed so much’. says director Daniel Draper.

UK 2025 Daniel Draper 98m

A music biopic focusing on Bruce Springsteen's journey crafting his 1982 album ‘Nebraska’, which emerged as he recorded ‘Born in the USA’ with the E Street Band.

Released between the seminal 1980 double album ‘The River’ and the definitive leap to superstardom four years later with ‘Born in the U.S.A.’, ‘Nebraska’ was a bold career move and not the fresh crop of Top 10 singles for which Columbia Records likely was hoping. A thematically dark acoustic collection built from a DIY recording, it was inspired by Flannery O’Connor stories, Terrence Malick’s ‘Badlands’ and Springsteen’s unaddressed childhood trauma. Jeremy Allen White (‘The Bear’) gives a raw, internalized performance as The Boss, with Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham and Odessa Young co-starring. What the film and White’s agonized, internalized performance amply convey is the state of mind from which one of the most important albums in the Springsteen canon - the one he considers his best - materialized.

USA 2025 Scott Cooper 120m

Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone combine once more (‘Poor Things’) in this dark comedy where two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company.

The title refers to a myth about the emergence of bees, and our seething antihero Teddy (Jesse Plemons), is a beekeeper, devastated by the progressive diminution of the honeybee population. He blames this on eco-devastation caused by a pharmaceutical conglomerate run by dead-eyed corporate ice queen Michelle (Emma Stone), who he sets out to kidnap with his trusting, innocent cousin (Aidan Delbis). This film buzzes with virtuoso mischief, and looks spectacular, thanks to the sheer richness, the stinging clarity and the eye-searing colours on show.

Ireland/UK 2025 Yorgos Lanthimos 120m

Something to Offend Everyone

A look back at the career of one of the most subversive directors of the last 50 years. This is the cinema of the absurd at its most outrageous, in the tradition of Buñuel and Billy Wilder.

Sat 15 Nov 10:30

Alphonse lives in an empty building, except for his police captain neighbour. When the man who has killed Alphonse's wife appears, the three men will be thrown in a series of events in a surrealist world.

A blackly surreal procession of amoral and/or illegal acts proceed haphazardly from Alphonse’s (Gérard Depardieu) discovery of his lost penknife embedded in a dying Métro traveller, and his subsequent alliance with his wife's murderer (Jean Carmet) and a police inspector Morvandieu (Bernard Blier), producing a cherishably Buñuelian depiction of the far-from-discreet crimes of the bourgeoisie. This is a rigorously absurd contemporary film noir which presents every character, incident and situation known to the genre, but none of the customary explanations, motivations or consequences. Screened in tribute to Bertrand Blier who died earlier this year. (Subtitles)

France 1979 Bertrand Blier 93m

A well-meaning but rather inept angel (named Gabriel of course) meddles in the lives of a struggling gig worker and a wealthy venture capitalist.

Working-class LA film professional Arj (Aziz Ansari) is coping with miserable hardship, constantly searching for purpose and happiness. His luck changes when he is hired by Jeff (Seth Rogen), a venture capitalist residing in a luxurious Hollywood Hills mansion. Unbeknownst to Arj, he is being watched by Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), an angel who dreams of bigger things, as his current job is to save people from texting-and-driving accidents. Gabriel engineers a life swap between Arj and Jeff to prove to Arj that the high life is not all it seems… but the trial doesn’t go quite as the angel had hoped. This film may be about economic inequality, and the way in which friends, love and togetherness beget the hope that gives life meaning. But what makes it really work, and indeed succeed as a very funny comedy, is Reeves’ charmingly loopy “budget guardian angel”.

USA 2025 Good Fortune 98m

Grosse Fatigue

A renowned entertainer's life is turned upside down by a cunning doppelganger who threatens to destroy their hard-earned success and legacy through a series of calculated moves.

The story of a film star whose life comes undone when he is upstaged by a look-alike intent on the star's very persona. The actor gets enmeshed in a web of fantastic predicaments before he can see clear through the usurper's designs. A fight to the death ensues between the two men. Screened in tribute to Michel Blanc who died earlier this year. Cast also includes Carole Bouquet, Philippe Noiret, Josiane Balasko, Christian Clavier, Marie-Anne Chazel, Guillaume Durand and Charlotte Gainsbourg. (Subtitles)

France 1994 Michel Blanc 86m

Les Pires

A film crew descend on a working-class French town, with thought-provoking and sometimes darkly funny results. The challenges of street casting are explored in this drama about a film within a film.

Flemish director Gabriel (Johan Heldenbergh) is casting in the Cité Picasso housing project in the suburbs of Boulogne-sur-Mer near Calais. His film is about a pregnant teen and her younger brother, and he is looking for ordinary non-actor local residents. The neighbours are surprised that he only seems to cast “les pires” - what they consider to be the worst ones, or the hoodlums. But there is raw talent in Lily (Mallory Wanecque) and hot-headed Ryan (Timéo Mahaut). ‘This is a fascinating look at the filming experience which will appeal to anyone who appreciates Andrea Arnold’s style of filmmaking’. Deadline. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Lise Akoka & Romane Gueret 99m

The story of Jean-Luc Godard making ‘Breathless’, told by American director Richard Linklater (‘Before Sunrise’, ‘Boyhood’) in the form and spirit of the times.

This is a playful, black-and-white making-of story for Godard’s New Wave classic ‘À Bout de Souffle’ that captures a revolutionary moment in cinema history with reverence and a touch of cheek. Styled as a mischievous declaration of love for the 1959 cult film, but also for a pivotal period of cinema that Linklater nostalgically revisits right down to techniques characteristic of the era. More than the portrait of a man and his art, the film evokes a prolific period in film, symbolised by freedom of voice, improvisation, and an attachment to everyday poetry. “It’s the story of a personal revolution of cinema led by a man, and by everyone around him”, the filmmaker says. The cast includes Guillaume Marbeck (Jean-Luc Godard), Zoey Deutsch (Jean Seberg), Aubry Dullin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), Adrien Rouyard (François Truffaut) and Antoine Besson (Claude Chabrol), with the film paying tribute to their accomplishments with infectious admiration. ‘An enchanting ode to the rapture of cinema’. Variety. (Subtitles)

France/USA 2025 Richard Linklater 105m

A hilariously dark and unconventional love story, following two people on the edge of life who find purpose and romance through an unlikely connection, escaping the darkness in search of some sunlight.

In New Mexico, Roy (Shenoah Allen), a dysfunctional Radio host is pulled from the noose by Monkey-clad Jane (Nina Conti, who also writes and directs), who is escaping a controlling relationship with her dead mum's toyboy husband. Together they dig up the grave of Roy's dad to retrieve the watch they hope will fund a new life built on a shaky dream. This is beauty and the beast in reverse. Love grows between Roy and Jane, who finds a ballsy new voice from within the fur but feels she can't come out until she is truly loved. From the mind of brilliant British comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti, she directs her first film and has succeeded in creating something truly heart-warming and genuine.

UK 2024 Nina Conti 96m

Daniel Day-Lewis returns to our screens in an exploration of the complex and profound ties that exist between brothers, fathers and sons.

Sheffield-born ex-soldier Sergeant Ray Stoker (Day-Lewis) is the latest towering creation by the three-time Best Actor Oscar-winner. In the hope of abandoning his former life, Ray heads off into the woods. Soon, his estranged brother Jem (Sean Bean) arrives to try to coax him back out. Forced to confront their painful upbringing, they try to process their separate journeys as a result of generational and lived trauma. Featuring tremendous performances from Day-Lewis – who also co-wrote the screenplay – alongside Bean, plus Samantha Morton as Jem’s wife and newcomer Samuel Bottomley as his son. This psychological drama features wonderful cinematography and sees Ronan Day-Lewis impressing with his directorial debut.

UK 2025 Ronan Day-Lewis 121m

1970: three men wander into a museum in broad daylight and steal four paintings. When holding onto the art proves more difficult than stealing them, the ringleader is relegated to a life on the run.

Celebrated filmmaker Kelly Reichardt (‘First Cow’) directs an unforgettable Josh O'Connor in this, her latest Cannes triumph. In a sedate Massachusetts suburb circa 1970, unemployed family man and amateur art thief J.B Mooney (O’Connor) sets out on his first heist. With the museum cased and accomplices recruited, he has an airtight plan. Or so he thinks. This may be a heist movie about a novice thief with a dumb plan. But Reichardt pulls it off like clockwork: This film is stupendously smart. A brilliant look at the folly of man, rich in textured detail, this sly depiction of an era subverts long-held illusions and confronts disillusionment. ‘Reichardt’s quietist, observational style is unexpectedly successful at creating a super-naturalistic depiction of an art gallery robbery’. Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian).

USA 2025 Kelly Reichardt 110m

Our Fund Raising Film Quiz!

Our popular annual film quiz A Mind for Movies returns this winter - and on a Saturday night!

The Quiz will be hosted by Walter Francisco (Head of Programming) and Patrick Hargood (Education Officer).

Get a group of 6 together, bring your quiz partner, or join another table and make some new friends -  everyone is welcome!  

It's a fun-night of multiple choice, great film clips and lots of laughs! Cheese and biscuit platters will be provided as before.

Sat 22 Nov

Doors open at 18:30 for a 19:00 start

Assembly Rooms (North St, Chichester)

Tickets £24

Book at table of 6 for £144.00

Met Opera

Strauss’s elegant romance brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th-century Vienna to Chichester Cinema in a sumptuous production that “is as beautiful as one could hope” (The New York Times).

Sun 23 Nov 14:15

C’est Si Bon

The tumultuous love story between two cinema stars at the height of their glory: Yves Montand (Roschdy Zem) and Simone Signoret (Marina Foïs).

Soulmates bound by an unshakable love; Signoret loved him more than anything else, he loved her more than anyone else. They were the most famous couple of their time, but haunted by her husband’s affair with Marilyn Monroe and bruised by all those that followed, Signoret always refused the role of victim. What they knew was that they would never leave each other. Immersed in the charm of old Paris - with its smoky cafés, bohemian nights and timeless romance - the film captures the spirit of a lost era. Director Diane Kurys’s filmography began with films inspired by her family history and her own adolescence, later shifting to biographical films. The common thread running through the filmmaker’s work is, precisely, mad love against all odds.

(Subtitles)

France 2025 Diane Kurys 118m

Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol

This is the life of Marcel Pagnol, a playwright, novelist and filmmaker who grew up in a middle-class household in Marseille and became one of the world's most inventive and prolific artists from the 1930's to the 1950's.

In Sylvain Chomet’s animation, Pagnol at 61 appears very close to giving up on his career, so a younger Marcel comes to the rescue. When asked to write a memoir, Pagnol simply can’t do it - not without the help of hope and optimism personified in the figure of young Marcel. Like most biopics, the animation pays tribute to its subject, making Pagnol a man at ease with the times, embracing the medium of cinema when his theatre colleagues were too sceptical to try. From the director of the wonderful ‘Belleville Rendez-Vous’. ‘A gorgeous, decidedly dewy-eyed heritage hagiography’. Screen. (Subtitles)

France/Belgium/Luxembourg 2025 Sylvain Chomet 90m

The sun-dappled beauty of the Provence countryside belies dark

motivations, in Claude Berri’s monumental pastoral tragedy, written by Marcel Pagnol.

When the naively idealistic tax collector Jean Cadoret (Gérard

Depardieu) unexpectedly inherits a family farm, he leaves the city for a

new life in the agrarian community where his mother, Florette, grew up.

His neighbours, however, the scheming Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) and his

proud uncle César ‘Le Papet’ Soubeyran (Yves Montand), have

plotted to divert the flow of water away from Jean’s land. Cast also includes Emmanuelle Béart, Hippolyte Girardot and Elisabeth Depardieu. (Subtitles)

France 1986 Claude Berri 130m

Royal Ballet & Opera

An enchanting ballet by The Royal Ballet’s Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton that will transport you into an ethereal world where a sprinkling of fairy dust makes dreams come true.

Tue 25 Nov 19:45

Sun 30 Nov 14:15

Manon of the Spring

From the pen of Marcel Pagnol comes this story of a shy, beautiful shepherdess, who plots vengeance on the men whose greedy conspiracy to acquire her father's land caused his death years earlier.

Jean's daughter Manon (Emmanuelle Béart) has grown up into a beautiful and free-spirited young shepherdess on her father's Provence farm. But when she learns the tragic truth about her father's demise, Manon plots her revenge on the dim-witted Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) and the scheming Le Papet (Yves Montand). Her plot is complicated by Ugolin, who has fallen in love with her - but Manon's retribution will not be deterred. The timeless story has majestic pacing over the affairs of four generations. It is the award-winning sequel to ‘Jean De Florette’ but is totally self-contained and can be watched without seeing its predecessor. (Subtitles)

France 1986 Claude Berri 124m

National Theatre Live

Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden (‘Slow Horses’, ‘Dunkirk’) is joined by Emmy and BAFTA-winner Martin Freeman (‘The Hobbit’, ‘The Responder’) in the critically acclaimed and subversively funny new play by David Ireland.

Thu 27 Nov 20:15

Sat 29 Nov 15:45

La Femme du Boulanger

A small village rejoices at the arrival of a new baker. But when his young wife runs off with another man, he is unable to keep baking and the village is thrown into disarray.

Shortly after middle-aged baker Aimable (Raimu) settles down in a new village in Provence, his young and beautiful wife Aurelie (Ginette Leclerc), runs away with an attractive young shepherd. The combination of his wife's desertion and the townspeople's initial mockery of his predicament causes the baker to close his shop in despair. Faced with the dire possibility of life without Aimable's breads, the townspeople attempt to persuade his unfaithful wife to come back. There is an undercurrent of tragedy, a steadfast air of dignity that is at once the secret of the film’s funniest scenes, the quality that prevents it from toppling into farce and makes ‘The Baker's Wife’ a true comedy and a delightful one. (Subtitles)

France 1938 Marcel Pagnol 133m

In this comedy/drama, a choral society's male members enlist in World War I, leaving the demanding Dr. Guthrie to recruit teenagers. Together, they experience the joy of singing while the young boys grapple with their impending conscription into the army.

1916. As war rages on the Western Front, the Choral Society in Ramsden, Yorkshire has lost most of its men to the army. The Choral's ambitious committee, determined to press ahead, decides to recruit local young males to swell their ranks. They must also engage a new chorus master, and despite their suspicions that he has something to hide, their best bet seems to be Dr. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) - driven, uncompromising and recently returned from a career in Germany. As conscription papers start to arrive, the whole community discovers that the best response to the chaos that is laying waste to their lives is to make music together. Director Hytner has previously given us ‘The History Boys’ and ‘The Lady in a Van’, giving us an idea of the similar crowd-pleasing tone of this film.

UK/USA 2025 Nicholas Hytner 113m

When his past and his debts start to catch up with him, a high-stakes gambler laying low in Macau encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.

Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) is a pretentious longtime guest of a hotel in Macau – China’s answer to Vegas – that he can barely afford. His performed posh accent and fake Savile Row gloves mask a working-class Irish pretender, whose luck at the Baccarat table has started to fade. Then there is the small problem of a new hotel guest (Tilda Swinton) who might just know who he really is. ‘Conclave’ and ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ director Edward Berger presents a stylised adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s novel sold by a killer central performance by Farrell. He pulls out his acting arsenal in spades, creating an unforgettably flawed yet charming man. Gorgeously shot, this is a visual spectacle that uses sunlight and plush velvet to turn up the technicolour of Macau.

Germany/UK 2025 Edward Berger 101m

The Nostalgic Imagination of Marcel Pagnol

This talk accompanies the short season of films by or based on the work of Marcel Pagnol. It will explore his major contributions to both comedy and tragedy and begin to re-read Pagnol as a major filmmaker of French national identity. Best known in the UK for the two films of 1986 ('Jean de Florette' and 'Manon des Sources') directed by Clauide Berri, Pagnol's cinematic imagination continues today to strongly shape French heritage cinema. Pagnol repeatedly offers viewers a 'certain nostalgic idea of France' that appears timeless and unchanging. This talk is presented by Professor Hugo Frey (University of Chichester), author of 'Nationalism and the Cinema in France' (2014) and co-author of 'The Look of the 1960s' (2025).        

Sat 29 Nov 10:30

Vie Privée

The renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.

Jodie Foster stars (in a French-language role!) as Lilian Steiner, who becomes concerned when a patient has missed a third straight session. After speaking to the deceased’s husband (Mathieu Amalric) and daughter (Luàna Bajrami), the events take a turn for the suspicious. Foster is joined by an A-list cast including Daniel Auteuil and Virginie Efira, whilst the director plays with the duality of tones: between deliberate comedy and deep dives into a personality full of grey areas. This is immensely entertaining, blending murder mystery, romantic comedy and character study tropes into an appealingly light-hearted ride. It is also anchored by the wonderful Jodie Foster who is at her charismatic best. ‘A new landmark in Foster’s career which just continues to dazzle’. Deadline. (Subtitles)

France 2025 Rebecca Zlotowski 103m

25th Anniversary

Experience an unforgettable celebration as Westlife take centre stage at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall for a fun-filled night of nostalgia honouring 25 magnificent years of chart-topping music.

Over the years Westlife have achieved 14 UK Number 1 singles and sold over 55 million records worldwide. To mark the milestone, the band will be joined by the renowned Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, bringing Westlife’s biggest hits and fan favourites like ‘Flying Without Wings’, ‘Your Raise Me Up’ and ‘Uptown Girl’ to life like never before and with the glittering Gatsby-themed stage, this event promises a visual and musical feast for fans and newcomers alike. This is not just a concert - it's a cinematic celebration of a legendary band and their enduring legacy.

110m (No Interval)

A Hitchcock masterpiece! A bored photographer recovering from a broken leg passes the time by watching his neighbours and begins to suspect one of them of murder.

L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) sees what he believes to be a murder while gazing out of his window and decides to solve the crime himself. With the help of his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly), he tries to catch the murderer without being killed himself. He takes to watching the inhabitants across the courtyard, first with binoculars, later with his camera and gradually fleshes out the crime, drawing others into his intrigue until the film culminates in a perfect hero/villain showdown. The camera never strays from inside Jefferies’ apartment, and every shot is closely aligned with his point of view. This is perhaps the most elegant and satisfying of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers and the one which most reveals the director himself.

USA 1954 Alfred Hitchcock 112m

L’Inconnu de la Grande Arche

The story of a real-life architecture teacher from Copenhagen who surprised the world when he won an open-call competition launched by the French President.

French President François Mitterrand (Michel Fau) decides to launch an international architectural competition for the flagship project of his mandate: the Great Arch of La Défense, aligned with the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. Against all odds, Otto von Spreckelsen (Claes Bang), a Danish architect, wins the 1982 competition. Overnight, this 53-year-old man, unknown in France, arrives in Paris where he is propelled at the helm of this pharaonic project. While the architect intends to build the Great Arch exactly as he envisioned, his ideas quickly clash with realistic constraints and the vicissitudes of politics. Cast also includes Sidse Babett Knudsen and Xavier Dolan. ‘Démoustier is one of those rare French filmmakers who can blend suspense with perceptive writing and characterisation’. Hollywood Reporter. (Subtitles)

France/Denmark 2025 Stéphane Démoustier 105m

A young countrywoman searches for her mother in Belle Époque Paris while four of her 21st-century descendants piece together her story from the artifacts in her soon-to-be demolished house in the Normandy countryside in this delightful French crowd-pleaser.

A thoughtful, comic meditation on changing social mores over approximately 125 years, the epoque-shifting film re-examines some much-loved myths and images of French history, particularly from the heyday of Impressionism. Alexis Kavyrchine’s photography brings warm pictorialism to turn-of-the-century Paris but cools off in the modern sections, while Pierre-Yves Gayraud’s costuming has a lot of fun with the rustling taffeta bustles and bonnets of yesteryear. Cédric Klapisch delivers a true crowd-pleasing comedy of France past and present with irresistible appeal to old-school Francophiles. “The best film I saw at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival”. Roger Gibson. (Subtitles)

France/Belgium 2025 Cédric Klapisch 124m

The story of Lorenz Hart's struggles with alcoholism and mental health as he tries to save face during the opening of ‘Oklahoma!’.

‘You know how in marriage they say "for better or for worse"? I think, in terms of my life, I have entered the "for worse" part, and it happened so quietly I didn't even recognize it’. Richard Linklater's ‘Blue Moon’ tells the story of legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) bravely facing the future as his professional and private life unravel at the opening night party for his former partner's hit show ‘Oklahoma!’ By the time this night is over, Hart will have confronted both a world that no longer values his talent and the seeming impossibility of love. Linklater has created a beautifully executed and fascinatingly nuanced piece of work here boasting a fine, quirky and courageous performance from Hawke. Cast also includes Andrew Scott (‘All of Us Strangers’ and Margaret Qualley (‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’).

USA 2025 Richard Linklater 100m

A moving portrait of a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly changing America of the early 20th Century.

Orphaned at a young age, Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) grows into adulthood among the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest, where he helps expand the nation's railroad empire alongside men as unforgettable as the landscapes they inhabit. After a tender courtship, he marries Gladys (Academy Award-nominee Felicity Jones) and they build a home together, though his work often takes him far from her and their young daughter. When his life takes an unexpected turn, Robert finds beauty, brutality and newfound meaning for the forests and trees he has felled.

USA 2025 Clint Bentley 102m

Tragedy, Trauma and Transgression

To accompany a season of restored classics of the genre, this talk will explore and re-evaluate a much-contested genre.

Sat 6 Dec 10:30

A cinematic tribute to one of the icons of French chanson, Charles Aznavour. Directed by Mehdi Idir, known for his work on ‘Patients’, and Grand Corps Malade, who shone with ‘La Vie Scolaire’, this musical biopic stars Tahar Rahim (‘A Prophet’) in the title role.

From his poor childhood to his rise to fame, from his triumphs to his failures, from France to Armenia to New York and other locations that marked the singer's life, the film promises to plunge viewers into the heart of the 1950s and the exceptional journey of an artist devoted to his art till the very end. Cast also includes Bastien Bouillon, Marie-Julie Baup, Victor Meutelet and Rupert Wynne-James. ‘Heartfelt, sumptuously good-looking tribute to the legendary French-Armenian singer’. France Today. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Grand Corps Malade & Mehdi Idir 134m

60th Anniversary Special

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Doors, this documentary is remastered in 4K for the first time – first released in 2009 – and follows the band through their career from their formation in 1965 to Jim Morrison’s death in 1971.

The chemistry of four artists made The Doors one of America’s most influential rock bands. With rare footage shot from their formation in 1965 to Jim Morrison’s death in 1971, news clips, and narration by Johnny Depp, the documentary follows the band through their career, providing insight into the revolutionary impact of their music. The film will feature a newly recorded performance of ‘Riders on the Storm’. Featuring John Densmore, Robby Krieger and special guests, the song will be performed in exotic locations around the world in partnership with the global nonprofit organisation Playing for Change.

USA 2009 Tom DiCillo 87m

Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant

In this second film of our Melodrama mini-season we present this 1970’s cult classic where a troubled fashion designer strikes up a romance with a much younger woman.

Margit Carstensen stars as the film’s eponymous fashion designer, a divorced whiner who falls hopelessly and obsessively in love with one of her models, Karin (Hanna Schygulla). This is dazzling in the brittle brilliance of its execution, the precision of its structure and movement, the total, hermetic self-containment of the tiny world it creates. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's most harshly stylized and perhaps his most significant film, it was a major influence on Francois Ozon’s ‘8 Femmes’. (Subtitles)

West Germany 1972 Rainer Werner Fassbinder 124m

Les Musiciens

The story of four famous soloists who form a quartet, each playing a Stradivarius, and proceed to quarrel constantly during a week of rehearsal in a castle near Reims.

Astrid Thompson (Valérie Donzelli) finally succeeds in fulfilling her father’s dream: to bring together four Stradivarius for a unique concert, eagerly expected by music lovers around the world. But Lise (Marie Vialle), George (Mathieu Spinosi), Peter (Daniel Garlitsky) and Apolline (Emma Ravier), the four virtuosos recruited for the occasion, are incapable of playing together. The rehearsals are one ego crisis after another. With no solution in sight, Astrid decides to go and find the only person who, in her eyes, can still save the event: Charlie Beaumont (Frédéric Pierrot), the composer of the score. This is hilarious and fascinating in the details it provides on how difficult it is to play chamber music. All the actors are musicians themselves, playing not only their characters but the music performed in the film. It’s a production as much for the ear as for the eye. ‘Wonderful twists in the story ... and the masterful music is a balm for the soul’. Stage and Cinema. (Subtitles)

France 2025 Grégory Magne 102m

A bailiff evicts a homeless man from a cellar, which has disastrous results and sets off a moral problem that must be resolved. Winner of Best Screenplay at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival.

Ion (Gabriel Spahiu) is a homeless former athlete in the northern Romanian city of Cluj, the capital city in Transylvania, Romania. One day, bailiff Orsolya (Eszter Tompa) knocks on the door of the basement where Ion has been squatting. An unexpected event creates a moral crisis leaving Orsolya with a monumental guilt only to be consoled with explanations and equivocations that fail to soothe her tormented consciousness. This is a bracing spiritual and ethical inquiry into the universal (and very relevant) problems involving immigration, assimilation, housing, and individual and national duty to aid those in need. Featuring a terrific central performance by Tompa, both comic and affecting, the film will bring reassurance to anyone who was worrying that European art cinema had lost its combative spirit. (Subtitles)

Romania/Switzerland 2025 Radu Jude 109m

Borgo

A prison guard moves to Corsica where she joins the staff of a prison that's not quite like any other. She befriends a young influential inmate, but once released, he gets back in touch with her for a favour.

Transferred to Corsica, seasoned prison warden Melissa (Hafsia Herzi) finds that the incredibly relaxed atmosphere of her workplace contrasts sharply with the aggressive inhabitants of the neighbourhood where she now lives with her partner Djibril (Moussa Mansaly) and their two very young children. Saveriu (Louis Memmi) - a likeable prisoner who Melissa had previously crossed paths with on the continent - helps solve some of her problems, but nothing comes for free, and Melissa soon finds herself on a slippery slope towards the mob. The perfect blend of prison film, detective movie, portrait of a woman and a deep dive into Corsican society, Stéphane Demoustier delivers an excellent feature film carried by the brilliant Herzi. ‘The best prison film since Jacques Audiard’s ‘A Prophet’ (2009)’. Le Figaro. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Stéphane Demoustier 118m

Royal Ballet & Opera

Peter Wright’s ‘The Nutcracker’ has enchanted audiences since its 1984 premiere by the Company. See it at Chichester Cinema this Christmas.

Thu 11 Dec 19:15

Sat 13 Dec 12:45

This new comedy drama from Noah Baumbach follows a famous movie actor and his devoted manager as they embark on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe.

Pampered, narcissistic movie legend Jay Kelly (George Clooney) is personable and charming, but so devoted to his career that he doesn’t notice the emotional wreckage he leaves in his wake. He will always rely on his long-suffering manager Ron (Adam Sandler) or his sardonic publicist Liz (Laura Dern) to clear up the mess. This very cleverly crafted screenplay, co-written by Baumbach and British actor-writer Emily Mortimer, balances the in-jokes with perceptive observations about status anxiety, the vapidity of celebrity culture and the fragility of family ties. George Clooney is raw and revealing and may just see an Oscar nomination coming his way.

USA 2025 Noah Baumbach 132m

In Kate Winslet’s first film as a director, we follow a group of fractured siblings who must come together under sudden and trying circumstances.

It's nearly Christmas when an unexpected turn in their mother's health thrusts four adult siblings and their exasperating father into chaos as they navigate messy family dynamics in the face of potential loss. But their quick-witted mother June orchestrates her decline on her own terms - with biting humour, blunt honesty and a lot of love.

Winslet has brought together an eye-opening A-list cast that includes Helen Mirren, Toni Collette, Stephen Merchant, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough, Johnny Flynn and Jeremy Swift.

UK 2025 Kate Winslet

La Femme la Plus Riche du Monde

In the final film of this year’s French Film Festival UK, a nonagenarian's gift of millions to a young artist sparks a scandal, leading her daughter to uncover alleged political corruption involving a former president.

Marianne Farrère (Isabelle Huppert), the billionaire head of the Windler Group, is the richest woman in the world. Pierre-Alain Fantin (Laurent Lafitte) is a Parisian dandy, writer and photographer. After meeting on a photo shoot, the two become inseparable. Their friendship – one where Pierre-Alain is only too happy to take financial advantage - surprises, amuses, intrigues and eventually unsettles the billionaire’s entourage and family. Featuring Huppert in a delicious, tailor-made role, writer/director Thierry Klifa’s film is freely inspired by the captivating real-life scandal surrounding Liliane Bettencourt, the heir to the L’Oreal fortune. ‘A story of love, money and scandal’. New York Times. (Subtitles)

France 2025 Thierry Klifa 103m

La Tour de Glace

A 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot for a film adaptation of the fairy tale ‘The Snow Queen’, and she becomes fascinated by its star, an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing.

Jeanne (Clara Pacini) is a teenage girl living in a foster home in 1970’s France. One day she runs away, breaks into a nearby film soundstage to sleep overnight, and she somehow gets a job as an extra. She is astonished to realise what story is being filmed - Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Snow Queen’, a story she has long been fascinated with. It is here that her urchin-like prettiness and air of demurely sensitive adoration for the queen catches Cristina’s (Marion Cotillard) eye, the enigmatic diva-ish star of the film. A mutual fascination grows between the actress and the girl. Sequences in the film let us drift as if in a dream. It is a mesmeric melodrama, mixing sensuality with a teetering anxiety, balancing on a cliff-edge of disaster. (Subtitles)

France/Germany 2025 Lucile Hadzihalilovic 117m

Met Opera

Umberto Giordano’s passionate tragedy stars tenor Piotr Beczała as the virtuous poet who falls victim to the intrigue and violence of the French Revolution.

Sun 14 Dec 14:15

In Tribute to Diane Keaton

In commemoration of the ‘brilliant, beautiful and extraordinary’ Diane Keaton - as described by Bette Midler after Keaton’s recent passing – we present the film in which she won her Oscar for Best Actress.

The second of a two-part film adaptation of the Broadway musical.

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), now demonized as The Wicked Witch of the West, lives in exile, hidden within the Ozian forest while continuing her fight for the freedom of Oz's silenced Animals and desperately trying to expose the truth she knows about The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). Glinda, meanwhile, has become the glamorous symbol of goodness for all of Oz, living at the Emerald City palace and about to marry Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) in a spectacular Ozian wedding. When an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, and a girl from Kansas comes crashing into all their lives, Glinda and Elphaba will need to come together and truly see each other, with honesty and empathy, if they are to change themselves and all of Oz, for good.

USA 2025 Jon M. Chu 138m

In a remote forgotten rural area, a mother struggles to maintain her sanity as she battles with psychosis. Lynne Ramsay’s latest work is further proof of tis director’s immense skill.

Grace (Jennifer Lawrence, who is outstanding) is an aspiring writer who moves from New York to the countryside with her partner Jackson (Robert Pattinson). The couple's new life has the potential to be idyllic. They are fiercely in love, surrounded by woods and meadows, allowing Grace the peace and freedom to write a novel. But once a baby comes into their life, Grace becomes blearily adrift from reality, brilliantly conveyed by the director using a variety of cinematic techniques. The threat of violence pervades the film, but it is cleverly balanced with touches of dark humour.

USA/Canada/UK 2025 Lynne Ramsay 118m

Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.

Halloweentown's beloved pumpkin king Jack Skellington has become bored with the same annual routine of frightening people in the "real world." When Jack accidentally stumbles on Christmastown, all bright colours and warm spirits, he gets a new lease on life and plots to bring Christmas under his control by kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over the role. But Jack soon discovers even the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton men can go seriously awry.

USA 1993 Henry Selick 73m

A Stop-Motion Workshop

Making stop-motion pocket-sized films

A magical world of creativity awaits in this stop-motion animation workshop which will encourage creative expression and simple storytelling.

The workshop will be led by co-Family Flicks programmer Conor Riley who has run animation workshops at The Courtyard Cinema and the National Film and Television School for AccessNFTS and in 2024 created Cinema for Young Explorers, discovering how storytelling helps children understand themselves and the world around them.

Tickets £5

Sat 20 Dec 10:30

Three Cracking Adventures

A Grand Day Out - Wallace and Gromit find themselves desperate for "a nice bit of Gorgonzola", so they build a rocket ship and blast off for a cheesy lunar picnic! 24m

The Wrong Trousers - Wallace gifts Gromit his latest invention - mechanical "techno-trousers". But things go from bad to worse when a new boarder arrives - a suspicious-looking penguin. 30m

A Close Shave – The duo meets lovely wool-shop owner Wendolene and her malevolent dog Preston - mastermind of a sheep-napping scheme! Features Shaun the Sheep. 31m

Sat 20 Dec 12:15

Shipwrecked on a remote island, a young boy must adapt to life alone. But is he alone? A gripping animated adaptation of Michael Morpugo’s beloved novel with an A-list voice cast.

When Michael (Aaron MacGregor) is washed up on an island in the Pacific after falling from his parents' (Cillian Murphy and Sally Hawkins) yacht, he struggles to survive on his own. He can't find food or water, and as Michael and his dog curl up to sleep, he knows they cannot last long. But he soon realizes there is someone close by, someone who is watching over him and helping him to stay alive. Following a close-run battle between life and death, the mysterious stranger – Kensuke (Ken Watanabe) - allows Michael into his world and they become friends, teaching and learning from each other until the day of separation becomes inevitable. This is a traditional hand-drawn animation which adds to the film’s charm, and the message that we should all work together despite our cultural differences is more relevant today than ever.

UK 2023 Neil Boyle & Kirk Hendry 85m

The Foley Factory

The Art of Sound Effects Workshop

Let your child embark on a journey of discovery in this special workshop on sound effects.

Taking scenes from E.T., we'll remove the soundtrack and provide a host of objects and materials to recreate realistic sound effects. Led by Foley artist and sound designer Will Henley, who worked on the BAFTA-winning short film Rock, Paper, Scissors, this fun-filled workshop will encourage children to listen and compare different sounds, experimenting with objects and textures to bring film scenes to life. Bring an apron!

Tickets £5

Sun 21 Dec 10:30

In this Spielberg classic, a troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.

After a gentle alien becomes stranded on Earth, he is befriended by a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas). Bringing the extraterrestrial (E.T.) into his suburban California house, Elliott introduces E.T. to his brother (C. Thomas Howell) and his little sister, Gertie (Drew Barrymore), and the children decide to keep its existence a secret. Soon, however, E.T. falls ill, resulting in government intervention and a dire situation for both Elliott and the alien. Even after more than 40 years, this is a spellbinding film that reminds us of human compassion and the eternal joy of cinema.

In this classic Walt Disney animation based on Rudyard Kipling's book, Mowgli, an abandoned child raised by wolves, has his peaceful existence threatened by the return of the man-eating tiger Shere Khan (George Sanders).

Facing certain death, Mowgli must overcome his reluctance to leave his wolf family and return to the "man village." But he is not alone on his quest: Aided by Bagheera the panther, and later by the carefree bear Balloo (Phil Harris), he braves the jungle's many perils. With expressive animation, fun characters and extremely catchy songs, ‘The Jungle Book’ endures today as one of the most crowd-pleasing Disney classics.

USA 1967 Wolfgang Reitherman 78m

From Vision to Set Design Workshop

Inspired by the spectacular world of ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’, your child will explore the art of production design in this creative workshop.

Participants will create mood boards and miniature set pieces that capture the visual magic of the film, working with mixed media and everyday materials to bring their imaginative designs to life. This hands-on workshop will encourage children to think like production designers, transforming their ideas from concept sketches into tangible miniature worlds.

Tickets £5

Mon 22 Dec 10:30

An upper-class widow falls in love with a much younger, down-to-earth nurseryman, much to the disapproval of her children and criticism of her country club peers.

Predicated on a May-December romance, the difference here is that the woman, attractive widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman), is considerably older than the man, handsome gardener Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). Throwing conventional behaviour to the winds and facing social ostracism, Cary pursues her romance with Bohemian Ron, who is unjustly perceived as a fortune-hunter by Cary's friends and family - especially her priggish brother Ned (William Reynolds). With lavishly saturated colour schemes and loaded compositions, we are treated to a potent story for the ages. Director Sirk was one of the inspirations for R.W. Fassbinder's vivid visual style and Brechtian narrative approaches; his ‘Fear Eats the Soul’ is modelled on ‘All That Heaven Allows’.  

USA 1955 Douglas Sirk 89m

A WWII psychiatrist evaluates Nazi leaders before the Nuremberg trials, growing increasingly obsessed with understanding evil as he forms a disturbing bond with Hermann Göring.

At the end of WWII, after Adolf Hitler and many of his high command officers committed suicide, the allied countries wanted to put the mess of the war behind them. After millions lost their lives to a genocide of unspeakable proportions, several governments came together to put on an unprecedented trial that would challenge international law. As the Nuremberg trials (as they would come to be known) are set to begin, a U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) gets locked in a dramatic psychological showdown with accused Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe). Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) is a lead prosecutor in the case and relies on Kelley’s instincts to persuade Göring to admit certain criminal activities and assist in how to cross-examine the Nazi leader best. Richard E. Grant, as British lawyer David Maxwell Fyfe, take the courtroom scenes to higher ground, tearing Göring down with carefully crafted monologues. The potent performances by Crowe and Malek ignite this bracingly relevant historical courtroom drama.

USA 2025 James Vanderbilt 148m

An idealistic young woman juggles her family and work life in a comedy about the people you love and how to survive them.

This new comedy written and directed by James L. Brooks (‘As Good as It Gets’, ‘Terms of Endearment’, ‘Broadcast News’) about the complicated politics that arise when a young woman's stressful career clashes with her chaotic family life.

USA 2025 James L. Brooks

In Hayao Miyazaki’s breakthrough classic, a prince becomes involved in the struggle between a forest princess and the encroachment of mechanization.

While seeking to cure himself of a curse, young warrior Ashitaka stumbles into a conflict between the people of Iron Town and Princess Mononoke, a girl raised by wolves, who will stop at nothing to prevent the destruction of her home. She hates and distrusts all humans, including Ashitaka. Superbly imagined and visually sumptuous, this is a call for peaceful co-existence Miyazaki was already a culture hero in Japan when this animated mythic adventure raised him (and Studio Ghibli) to a status approaching living national treasure. (Subtitles)

Japan 1997 Hayao Miyazaki 133m

Brave rabbit cop Judy Hopps and her friend, the fox Nick Wilde, team up again to crack a new case, the most perilous and intricate of their careers.

Detectives Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) find themselves on the twisting trail of a mysterious reptile who arrives in Zootropolis and turns the mammal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before.

USA 2025 Jared Bush & Byron Howard

Our final Melodrama of the season is an Almodóvar classic. After her death, a mother returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life.

Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) works and lives Madrid with her husband Paco and daughter Paula. Her sister Sole (Lola Dueñas) lives nearby and they both miss their mother Irene (Carmen Maura), who died several years ago in a house fire along with their father. A former neighbour from their hometown reports that she has seen the ghost of Irene and both daughters do not believe her, but after a family tragedy, Irene's spirit materializes around her daughters to help comfort them. This is a touching, beautifully plotted film, full of visually stunning images and memorable jokes, it zips along without a wasted second in its 121 minutes. Almodóvar brought together a superb female ensemble in a picture about women working together as friends, sisters, mothers and neighbours, and the jury at Cannes rightly gave their best actress award to the lot of them. (Subtitles)

Spain 2006 Pedro Almodóvar 121m

Berlin Philharmonic

From heartbreak to ecstasy, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve Concert will take you on an emotional roller-coaster ride to bring in 2026.

Wed 31 Dec 16:00