Cinema Curator at Watershed and Chair of the Film Hub South West, Mark Cosgrove feeds back on the highs and lows of Watershed’s screenings this week…
I’m very pleased with how BlacKkKlansman has maintained strong admissions/box-office in its 3rd weekend – even on split shows it was our most successful film of the weekend. Also pleasing to see the second highest was Cold War, now in its second week. There is a sense that the audience is warming to Pawel Pawlowski’s sensuous film with positive word of mouth.
Close by Cold War was new opener The Miseducation of Cameron which performed above the national screen average for us, again on split shows. It’s also getting very good word-of-mouth which suggests that it could maintain audiences into a second week especially now that students are now much more present.
The surprise was American Animals which is a great, entertaining and intelligent film, but seems to have been squeezed in profile by the existing new releases. We did just about the screen average, but I was hoping for more substantial audiences. I think this may be a case where a crowded market has impacted on a quality film deserving of more.
A Children’s Act feels like it has played out, as does Yardie, but with those first four titles continuing and The Rider, Lucky and Wajib opening, it’s definitely becoming a busy autumn in the independent/arthouse cinema world!
James Harrison, director of South West Silents and Film Noir UK, discusses visiting Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto to discover the latest repertory finds in Italy.
The new BFI FAN Screen Heritage Resource Guide has been developed to assist exhibitors in screening film archive and repertory film.