“The UK’s leading festival dedicated to classic cinema”  - Sight & Sound on Cinema Rediscovered

Cinema Rediscovered is a chance to experience great films from across the globe in the immersive environment of the cinema at venues including Watershed, Arnolfini, 20th Century Flicks and Clevedon’s Curzon Cinema & Arts. 

You’ll get to explore the finest digital restorations, contemporary classics and film print rarities, dive deep into the legacy of revered filmmakers, discover some lesser known cinematic voices and so much more.

Early Bird Passes are now on sale, enabling you to make the most of the festival at a much-reduced price. All Festival Pass Holders will receive a FREE three month trial from curated online film streaming platform  MUBI - Early Birds are available until 30 April 2020.

From networking with leading figures in cinema to getting your hands on film, Cinema Rediscovered the perfect excuse for a city break with a cinematic twist.

Festival Founder and co-curator Mark Cosgrove comments:

"At last year’s Cinema Rediscovered, I could feel something special was happening: a collection of days devoted to the rich history of film combined with an enthused and passionate community created a unique festival atmosphere of celebration and participation with the culture of film. Cinema Rediscovered ‘the festival’ had arrived! And so we embarked on the curation of the 5th edition, confident and invigorated in the knowledge that many share our view that the future of cinema is in its past."

Watch this space for lots more programme updates coming soon, but for now, here's a few appetisers...

We're delighted to announce that author, critic and film historian Pamela Hutchinson will open the festival on Wed 22 Jul, delivering the 2020 Philip French Memorial Lecture presented in partnership with Bristol Festival of Ideas and The Observer.

Pamela Hutchinson - author, critic and film historian for publications The Guardian, Sight & Sound, Financial Times and Little White Lies - has a wealth of experience and understanding in writing about films from the past for a contemporary context. In this lecture, she wil explore the role of film critics in rethinking and reframing film heritage and the importance of looking back to understand and explore what's happening in film culture right now.

Pamela said:

“Bristol is rapidly becoming Britain’s most cinematic city. Designated a UNESCO City of Film in 2017, its reputation for great cinema screenings and heritage is growing and growing. One of the newest, shiniest gems in its movie crown is a West-Country offspring of Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato.” 

This year, we explore the legacy of pioneering British film theorist and film maker Peter Wollen, who sadly passed away in 2019. His books and essays transformed the way that film and cinema are thought about: his 1969 work Signs and Meaning in the Cinema is regarded as one of the most influential books on cinema ever written.

Tilda Swinton, whose second ever film performance was in Wollen’s Friendship Death, said in a recent tribute:

“His Signs and Meanings in the Cinema was the first seminal book I read about film that actually made sense while bopping you to bits with its braininess and taking the engine of cinema completely apart in front of you while making you even more excited to jump in and go racing about in it just as soon as you possibly could."

Cinema Rediscovered also continues to celebrate Bristol’s status as a UNESCO City of Film, a global recognition of the city's film heritage and outstanding contribution to film culture. For 2020, the festival focuses on the early work of Bristol born film director J. Lee Thompson (1914 – 2002) best known for Ice Cold in Alex, Tiger Bay, The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear and the later sequels to the original Planet of the Apes.

Cinema Rediscovered will showcase four of Thompson’s British films which commented on the social issues in 1950s Britain and which also brought to prominence actresses like Diana Dors and Sylvia Syms: The Weak and the Wicked, Yield to the Night, Woman in a Dressing Gown and No Trees in the Streets.

Get your Cinema Rediscovered Early Bird Pass now!

Cinema Rediscovered is presented by Watershed, South West Silents, 20th Century Flicks and Curzon Clevedon Cinema & Arts as part of Bristol UNESCO City of Film with support from the BFI awarding funds from The National Lottery, MUBI, Park Circus and Silk Factory and partners including Bristol Festival of Ideas, Into Film, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Cineteca Di Bologna, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, Come The Revolution and Bristol Festivals.

Want to be the first to know when more of the Cinema Rediscovered programme is confirmed? Register your interest here.

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