From Bristol Palestine Film Festival to a season of Frank Capra Sundays in December; the much-anticipated return of villainous penguin Feathers McGraw from our friends at Aardman; plus a selection of festive highlights both old and new and an extensive Chantal Akerman season in the works for early next year; there’s plenty to keep you going through the winter season at Watershed.

December

Bristol Palestine Film Festival 

Bristol Palestine Film Festival returns to Watershed and other venues across Bristol in early December, with a diverse lineup of the very best in contemporary Palestinian cinema, arts and culture, telling urgent and necessary stories for, and by, Palestinians. Highlights include two debuts from Palestinian women directors – with Laila Abbas’ Thank You For Banking With Us, which just premiered at London Film Festival; and Oscar®-nominated director Farah Nabulsi joining us (over zoom) for a screening of her feature The Teacher, starring Saleh Bakri and Imogen Poots. We’ll also be showing the new restoration of Heiny Srour’s groundbreaking Leila and the Wolves (1984) on its 40th anniversary, a film that reveals a nearly forgotten past of women’s struggle in Palestine and Lebanon.

(Image: The Teacher)

Capra Sunday Season and It's a Wonderful Life

Bristol-based producer Matthew Wells (whose last film Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger we screened last year) returns with his documentary directorial debut diving into the works of filmmaking icon Frank Capra. Screening on Tue 10 Dec with a Q&A, Frank Capra: Mr America charts the rise of the young immigrant through the ranks of early Hollywood as he became one of the great American storytellers of his age. It’s a documentary that left us keen to revisit some of Capra’s landmark works so each Sunday throughout December join us for Mr Capra Comes to Watershed which will include a 90th anniversary screening of It Happened One Night,  an 80th anniversary screening of Arsenic and Old Lace (presented in partnership with Cary Comes Home festival), alongside some festive screenings of the Christmas classic, It’s A Wonderful Life, a Watershed favourite.

(Image: It's A Wonderful Life)

More Festive bits for December...

Also on the festive front, we have new American indie drama Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point. Premiering at Cannes earlier this year, Tyler Taormina’s feature peels back the curtain on the reunion of an extended, eccentric Italian-American family at their Long Island home, where generational tensions arise within the wintry suburban setting. The film’s a bit of a “who’s who” of the nepo-baby scene, starring Steven Spielberg’s son Sawyer, alongside Instagram icon Francesca Scorsese. Michael Cera also appears as an unlikely policeman, in a role that feels straight out of Superbad or Twin Peaks.

We’re also bringing back Alexander Payne’s hit The Holdovers from earlier this year, which feels particularly seasonally appropriate as we head into the holidays. 

For those after something a bit alternative, we’ll be screening a stylish 1961 noir set in Manhattan – Allen Baron’s Blast of Silence, presented in partnership with our friends at Film Noir UK - alongside a couple of screenings of Stanley Kubrick’s final (festive) masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut, for good measure.

Plus what better way to get the pawty started! CatVideoFest brings the joy of cat videos to the big screen (also raising money for cats in need), plus Peter Wright’s much-loved production of The Nutcracker for The Royal Ballet combines the thrill of the fairy tale with spectacular dancing on Sun 22 Dec 13.00.

(Image: The Holdovers)

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

“Ever since his dastardly appearance in The Wrong Trousers, Feathers McGraw was instantly one of the great screen villains. Many of us have been championing the return of the pint-sized master-of-disguise - the wait is over!” Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove

As events spiral out of control, it falls to Gromit to put aside his qualms and battle sinister forces - or Wallace may never be able to invent again. Coming straight out of Bristol’s Aardman studio, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will have a special limited run at Watershed for one week only from 18 Dec. It’s an excellent opportunity to enjoy the film on the big screen, and who knows, we may be joined by some of the stars involved...

(Image: Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl)

NYE & Bring it back

For the first time in over 20 years, we're inviting you all to celebrate New Year's Eve in style at Watershed, with a night of film, music, nachos, White Russians, games, and a rug that really ties the room together. Slip into your comfiest cardigan and bowling shoes for a special screening of the Coen brothers’ 1998 classic The Big Lebowski – the sacred text of slackers everywhere. We’ll also be bringing back some of our programme team’s top picks from 2024, giving you another chance to see them on the big screen. More on that soon! 

(Image: The Big Lebowski)

January

Start the new year with some festival favourites!

January brings with it a raft of awards contenders, including recent festival highlights The Brutalist, Babygirl and Maria from Venice Film Festival, alongside Hard Truths and Nickel Boys following their screenings at London Film Festival.  

“Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist won him the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice this year, and for very good reason. A sweeping, towering epic (I really mean it) The Brutalist offers up a filmic equivalent of the ‘Great American Novel’, one that deconstructs and dissects the myth of America through the eyes and experiences of an immigrant architect (Adrien Brody). Unfolding over three decades, the film’s a staggering, electrifying accomplishment and demands to be seen on the big screen. (You’ll also be pleased to hear that the rather brutal 3.5hr runtime comes with a built-in intermission, complete with countdown clock!).” - Steph Read, Cinema Programmer

Pablo Larraín follows up Jackie and Spencer to close out this trilogy of biopics with Maria, from 10 Jan. A portrait of opera icon Maria Callas, the film artfully reimagines her final days spent in 70’s Paris after her retreat from the public eye, following several glorious yet tumultuous decades in the spotlight. Maria features a beautifully understated turn from Angelina Jolie, and stunning, lavish cinematography from the legend Ed Lachman. 

Mike Leigh returns to the contemporary world for the first time since 2010’s Another Year, with a compassionate drama depicting day-to-day disillusionment in Hard Truths, from 31 Jan. Leigh reunites with the jewel that is Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who delivers a formidable and darkly humorous performance in this domestic drama that picks apart strained family dynamics. 

(Image: Maria)

A Complete Unknown

The much anticipated biopic - aka Timmy does Zimmy - of self-described “song & dance man” Bob Dylan which follows him from his early days arriving in New York in 1961 as just another aspiring folkie through to playing electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, while changing the face of popular music on the way. We are currently working on securing a Special Preview Screening followed by live music in the Café & Bar (watch this space). There are also plans afoot for a season of Dylan on film through January and Tangled up in Bob, a talk by our resident Dylanologist on being swept up in the words and music of a complete unknown.  

February

Slapstick Festival

The perfect antidote to the winter blues, Bristol’s much-loved Slapstick Festival is back for its 20th year, celebrating the best in silent and classic screen comedy from around the world, and across the years. Satirical comedy takes centre stage in this year's festival, with witty put-downs of tyrants, business and Soviet politics in the mix. Stars on the screens include traditional Slapstick favourites, such as Buster Keaton and W.C. Fields plus a galaxy of more recent comedy players - Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Eddie Murphy and Wallace & Gromit - to name just a few.

A slate of special guests will be providing introductions - among them comedians Robin Ince and Lucy Porter, actor and Watershed regular Paul McGann, film historians Pamela Hutchinson, David Robinson and Peter Walsh and Aardman co-founder Peter Lord - and all of the silents will feature live musical accompaniment.

A glance ahead to an Akerman retrospective in Feb

This February, complementing the BFI Southbank’s near-complete retrospective of her work, we’ll be presenting an extensive season celebrating the work and influence of Chantal Akerman. She is best known for her landmark second feature, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), which topped the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time Poll in 2022 (making her the first female-directed film to take the poll’s number one spot) but there’s plenty more to discover from Akerman, who never stopped experimenting throughout her career to challenge the formal and narrative boundaries of film.

(Image: Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

For all of the above and more - check our calendar to book tickets for everything that is confirmed, or sign up to our Coming Soon list to the first to know when tickets are on sale.

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