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FilmBath Festival announces full programme for 32nd annual festival which will run at venues across the city from 4 – 13 November
For the first time, tickets for all events will be on a Pay-What-You-Can sliding scale to make the festival accessible and affordable to all
From the festival that pioneered the F-Rating, ensuring festivals and cinemas showcased their female filmmaking talent, over 50% of the films at this year’s festival are directed by women
The full programme has been announced for the 32nd annual FilmBath Festival. The South West’s biggest film festival will run from 4 – 13 November at venues across the city, including The Little, Chapel Arts and new festival venue Roper Theatre at Hayesfield School. Across ten packed days, the festival programme boasts 40 feature films. For the first time ever for the FilmBath and any festival in the city, tickets to all events will be priced on a Pay-What-You-Can sliding scale, starting at £2, ensuring the festival is accessible to everyone. Tickets go on sale from Friday 14 October.
First Chance To See
FilmBath Festival is giving Bath audiences an exclusive first-chance to see some of the year’s most hotly-anticipated films before they come out in the cinema. Highlights include Sam Mendes’ love-letter to the joys of cinema Empire of Light starring Olivia Colman and Toby Jones; Cannes best actress winner Vicky Krieps starring as Empress Elizabeth of Austria in the sumptuous, contemporary costume drama Corsage; The Silent Twins, a remarkable true story of Black twin girls who formed a silent bond of secrecy in the face of racial prejudice and Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes and Nicholas Hoult in the hilarious dark comedy The Menu.
Female Filmmaking Talent
In 2014, Holly Tarquini of FilmBath launched the F-Rating, a symbol that clearly identifies films directed and / or written by women. The aim of the rating is to highlight films where the main person telling the story is a woman; to encourage film exhibitors to F-Rate their programme; to help film goers easily find films directed and written by women and ultimately to change the stories we see on screen – and therefore influence our culture making it more equal. FilmBath continues to champion female talent with over 50% of the films showing at this year’s festival directed by women. Amongst the 22 features directed by women are indie comedy and love letter to immigrant daughters Queen of Glory (which will feature a live Q&A with its director and star Nana Mensah); Young Adult sci-fi adventure Vesper which sees humans struggling to survive as aliens roam the earth; Florence Miailhe’s beautiful animation The Crossing, a universal fable of love and commitment in the face of cruelty; 1976 looking at life lived under Pinochet’s regime as a middle class family shelter a young revolutionary and Blue Jean, the timely story of a young lesbian PE teacher in 1980s Britain who faces losing her job when Section 28 (outlawing promotion of homosexuality in schools) is introduced.
True-Life Stories
True life stories that are heart-warming, jaw-dropping and life-affirming in a host of feature length documentaries. Laura Poitras’ Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Award-winning All The Beauty and The Bloodshed is a compelling look at legendary artist Nan Goldin leading the fight against the Sackler family (who made their billions in the lethal opioid industry in the US) sponsoring the world’s major cultural institutes; the utterly charming A Bunch of Amateurs is a delightful introduction to the Bradford Movie Makers, one of the UK’s last surviving amateur movie-making clubs in; Pure Grit is a portrait of a young Native American woman Sharmaine as she competes as a bareback horse rider and Children of Las Brisas follows Edixon, Dissandra and Wuilly, three Venezuelan children from the impoverished ‘Las Brisas’ neighbourhood, in their decade-long quest to become professional musicians.
A Window To The World
FilmBath Festival brings a World of cinema to the city of Bath. One of the world’s greatest contemporary directors, France’s Claire Denis, returns with Both Sides Of The Blade, an unusual kind of love triangle starring Juliette Binoche; The Gravedigger’s Wife is the first Djibouti film to screen at the festival and an elegant family drama; Javier Bardem stars in the superbly enjoyable Spanish comedy The Good Boss and Tori and Lokita, the latest film from the multi Palme D’or-winning Dardenne Brothers, follows two young African immigrants who are placed in a Belgian childrens’ detention centre
