Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 40m

Directed by Paul Morrison, 23 Walks is a heart-warming comedy drama about finding love later in life.

Dave (Dave Johns) and Fern (Alison Steadman), two older strangers, have been bruised by their individual circumstances. They meet walking their dogs - German Shepherd Tilly and little terrier Henry - in a North London park, and over the course of twenty-three walks together the romance begins to blossom. But Dave and Fern haven't been completely honest with one another and their future together may be threatened by the secrets they have withheld.

Like a rambling countryside laneway, 23 Walks is full of twists and turns as we learn more about each character and the troubled pasts that make forging a future together a challenge. It’s gentle and charming and isn’t afraid to acknowledge the difficult circumstances many people face, from health issues, to marital problems, family strife and housing woes.

Dave Johns and Alison Steadman are extremely watchable as Dave and Fern, and the pair make a compelling couple when they hit it off. Almost as good to watch are the two dogs.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 33m

Guns, gags and gangsters, new British comedy-thriller Pixie has it all!

Directed by Barnaby Thompson (St Trinian’s), Pixie sees a group of friends being chased across the Wild Irish countryside by armed clergymen after a heist they attempt to carry out goes badly wrong.

With a superb cast that includes Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One, Me, Early and the Dying Girl), Ben Hardy (Bohemian Rhapsody), Daryl McCormack (Peaky Blinders), Alec Baldwin, Colm Meaney and Dylan Moran, plus twists, turns, action and laughs galore.

Pixie (Olivia Cooke) wants to avenge her mother’s death by masterminding a heist, but her plans go awry and she finds herself on the run with two young men (Hardy and McCormack) who are way out of their depth being chased by deadly gangster priests.

Pixie must pit her wits against everyone, taking on the patriarchy to claim the right to shape her own life.

The Irish countryside, gangsters, priests, Alec Baldwin and ice creams – what more could you ever want from a film?

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 40m

From the makers of Harry Potter and Paddington, The Secret Garden follows Mary Lennox (Dixie Egerickx), a prickly and unloved orphan who discovers a magical garden hidden within her strict uncle's estate, and boasts acting legends Colin Firth and Julie Walters among its cast.

For more than a century, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved 1911 novel, has endured, and now, with this adaptation a whole new generation of children will fall under the spell of The Secret Garden.

While the novel was set in the Edwardian era, the new adaptation moves the narrative to post WWII Britain.

After losing both her parents from cholera in India, Mary is sent to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven (Firth). Under the watchful eye of Mrs. Medlock (Walters) and with only the household maid, Martha (Isis Davis) for company.

The urge to explore overtakes Mary and together with local boy Dickon (Amir Wilson), the adventurous younger brother of an estate worker and sickly cousin Colin (Edan Hayhurst) they reawaken the wondrous garden, locked away within the grounds.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 29m

Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.

Pattinson plays Neil, a dapper, and slightly louche British intelligence officer in Mumbai who makes contact with The Protagonist, played by a toughly poised John David Washington. The Protagonist is ordered by a shadowy American government agency to tackle a new cold war situation. With an incredible supporting cast from Elizabeth Debicki, Clémence Poésy, Michael Caine, Himesh Patel, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Kenneth Branagh.

Possibly the most anticipated film of the year. With some describing it as ‘basically a James Bond film with a bachelor’s degree in physics’, this is pure escapism designed to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

A visually dazzling puzzle for film lovers to unlock, Tenet serves up all the cerebral spectacle audiences expect from a Christopher Nolan production. Love live Cinema!

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 38m

The maverick outsider who changed a nation forever.
A World Cup winner with England, he was one of football’s first true TV personalities, with an outspoken charm that stretched his profile far beyond the game. As a manager his success leading Ireland transformed not just football but a nation.
Directed by Gabriel Clarke and Pete Thomas, and shot on location in Ireland and England, the film also details Jack’s previously undocumented life with dementia. The documentary features key characters from throughout Jack’s career, including major figures in football, music, film, politics, and, for the first time, Jack’s family. These personal perspectives, along with previously unseen archive footage, are an intimate window into Jack’s charismatic personality, his managerial philosophy and offer a whole new level of understanding.
After hosting Clarke’s previous documentaries at The Odyssey with enormous success; it gives us great pleasure to bring Finding Jack Charlton to the big screen this December.

The screening on Saturday 5th at 7.15pm will feature an intro from the film’s Producer and local St Albans resident John McKenna who many will recognise from our screenings of The Edge last year, Bobby Robson: More than A Manager in 2018 and Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans from 2017. It’s become a yearly tradition for us so do not miss this one, in 2020!

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 43m

A mesmerising Celtic-inspired adventure, Wolfwalkers offers an epic ethereal fantasy matched by profound philosophies and stellar voice work.

Following Robyn Goodfellowe (Honor Kneafsey), a young apprentice hunter who journeys to Ireland with her father Bill (Sean Bean) in a time of superstition and magic, to wipe out the last wolf pack.

While exploring the forbidden lands outside the city walls, Robyn befriends a free-spirited girl, Mebh Óg MacTíre (Eva Whittaker), a member of a mysterious tribe rumoured to have the ability to transform into wolves by night. As they search for Mebh’s missing mother, Moll (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Robyn uncovers a secret that draws her further into the enchanted world of the ‘Wolfwalkers’ and risks turning into the very thing her father is tasked to destroy.

The third animated feature from two-time Academy Award-nominee Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea).

Wolfwalkers is a visually dazzling, richly imaginative, emotionally resonant production that taps into contemporary concerns while being true to its distant origins.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 11m

1930s Hollywood is re-evaluated through the eyes of scathing wit and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish Citizen Kane.

This is David Fincher’s first feature film since 2014’s Gone Girl. A long-in-the-works passion project for Fincher as his father, Jack, wrote the screenplay before passing away in April 2003.

The story centres on Mankiewicz, the Oscar-winning co-writer of Citizen Kane, as he overcomes personal and professional battles to finish the script for Orson Welles’ iconic drama.

The Souvenir breakout Tom Burke stars as Welles with Gary Oldman in the titular role of Mank.

The cast also includes Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies, Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst, Tom Pelphrey as Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and Lily Collins as Mank’s secretary Rita Alexander.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the director’s long-time composers and Oscar winners for The Social Network, provide the film’s original score. To keep with the film’s period setting, Reznor and Ross relied only on instruments that would be available at the time, which means fans should not expect a synth-oriented score.

The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin recently commented, “Mank is so freaking good. It’s breathtaking, even by David Fincher standards”.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 2m

After a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo with handsome widower Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), a newly married young woman (Lily James) arrives at Manderley, her new husband’s imposing family estate on a windswept English coast.

Naive and inexperienced, she begins to settle into the trappings of her new life, but finds herself battling the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, the elegant and urbane Rebecca, whose haunting legacy is kept alive by Manderley’s sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas).

Directed by Ben Wheatley (High Rise, Free Fire) and produced by Working Title Films (Emma., Darkest Hour), Rebecca is a gorgeously rendered psychological thriller based on Daphne du Maurier’s beloved 1938 gothic novel.

“It’s not, in any sense, a remake of the Hitchcock film, firmly not…I wanted to make something that had more love in it… Rebecca has dark elements, and it has a psychological, haunting story within it, but it’s also about these two people in love. That was the main thing.” - Ben Wheatley.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 45m

Fresh from this years’ BFI London Film Festival we bring you acclaimed writer/director Miranda July’s intriguing, deadpan comedy tracking the foibles and fortunes of a dysfunctional family of grifters.

Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) and her parents Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger) are a trio of small-time hustlers who live in an abandoned and decrepit LA office block.
Spectacularly dysfunctional as parents, the couple have tried to spare their daughter the mediocrity of conventional life by treating her as an adult companion. But this has left her starved for tenderness.

So, when the family meet Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) during an elaborate scam involving lost luggage, Old Dolio’s heart is stirred.

July’s debut Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) was a defining classic of noughties American cinema. The singular world view expressed in her myriad of works across film, art, and literature also shapes July’s third feature, with lonely people reaching across seemingly impassable expanses of awkwardness for human connection.

Rodriguez and Wood excel here, with Melanie opening Old Dolio’s life to the sweet possibility of ordinary love, but also potential grief – from where she least expects it.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 33m

A Christmas-themed spin-off to A Street Cat Named Bob - based on the true story of homeless busker James Bowen and his handsome and loyal ginger tom Bob, a stray he nursed back to health.
Luke Treadaway returns with his gentle, sensitive performance as James Bowen with Bob also back filling the role of himself.
It begins the Christmas after James’s literary success, at a swanky publishing party. Sneaking out early from the festivities, a chance encounter with a homeless man on the streets of London provides James with a creative spark.
In a flashback (captioned A Christmas Past) James recalls a bitterly cold winter when the money he earns from busking on the cobbles of Covent Garden barely covers the cost of heating and food for Bob. Charity worker Bea (Kristina Tonteri-Young) and local shop owner Moody (Phaldut Sharma) support James as he wrestles with self-doubt following an unsettling run-in with animal welfare officers.
A life-affirming drama of small and simple pleasures, which celebrates the profound bond between a pet and his human protector.
Dedicated to the memory of the eponymous ginger feline who sadly passed away in June.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1hr 33m

There’s good reason that Elf tops so many people’s favourite Christmas film lists. The Will Ferrell-starring caper is still a hoot, 17 years later.

Ferrell is Buddy, a human who has been raised as an elf in Santa’s Grotto. Being so enormous next to his elven colleagues, he struggles to keep up with the toy-making pace, and eventually decides to leave the North Pole, and seek out his real family.

Things get hairy when he discovers his biological father in New York, a city that spectacularly fails at robbing Buddy of his childlike innocence. He falls for toy-store employee Jovie (Zooey Deschanel), a staunch lover of elf culture.

Transitioning to Big Apple life aside, our hero must also solve a seasonal crisis, when Santa is unable to deliver presents due to a huge lack of the Christmas cheer that he needs to power his sleigh.

Get down to The Odyssey for this yuletide remedy and discover your inner elf.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 54m

A department store Santa goes on trial to prove he is in fact the genuine article.
Six-year-old Susan Walker (Mara Wilson) is sceptical of the Christmas myth surrounding Santa Claus, a trait she perhaps learned from her mother, Dorey (Elizabeth Perkins). When tasked with hiring the Santa who will pose with kids at Macy's, Dorey enlists a man with the curious name of Kris Kringle (Richard Attenborough) who claims to be Santa himself. His assertions are met with scoffs and threats of being institutionalised, but a young lawyer, along with Susan and Dorey, comes to his defence.
Richard Attenborough positively sparkles in the role of the mysterious Kris Kringle, giving a restrained and genuinely sweet performance.
This remake comes from producer John Hughes and director Les Mayfield, following the original 1947 film fairly closely, but with a quieter, more elegiac tone.
This uplifting and joyous film will make believers out of the entire family.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 12m

(S) = Subtitled.

Part of the A Cinematic Odyssey - Postcards from Europe strand.

Few films have dared paint East Germany and its legions of demons in such honest and unsparing detail. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck puts a pickaxe into the past.

Unlike more traditional spy films, The Lives of Others doesn't sacrifice character for cloak and dagger chases, and the performances (notably that by the late Ulrich Mühe, who died just a few months after the film earned its prestigious Best Foreign Film Oscar) stay with you long after the credits roll.

In 1983 East Berlin, dedicated Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler (Mühe), doubting that a famous playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) is loyal to the Communist Party, receives approval to spy on the man and his actress-lover Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). Wiesler becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the couple, then faces conflicting loyalties when his superior takes a liking to Christa-Maria and orders Wiesler to get the playwright out of the way.

The Lives of Others is a powerful but quiet film, constructed of hidden thoughts and secret desires. Come and celebrate this superb and compelling drama with us this November.

This film will have a short introduction from Dr Paul Sutton.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 31m

65th Anniversary 4K restoration

Ealing Studios’ output from the 1940s and the 1950s helped define what was arguably the golden age for British cinema. It fostered great directors such as Alexander MacKendrick and Robert Hamer, while giving stars such as Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers the chance to shine.

Director Alexander Mackendrick’s film centres on a criminal gang planning their next job, who find themselves boarding with an innocent old lady who thinks they are musicians.

This group of seedy misfits are planning a security van robbery and rent a room from Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) in her rickety Victorian house next to King’s Cross station from which to base their operation. To conceal their true purpose, they pose as a string quartet, though they cannot play a note and are in fact miming to a recording of Boccherini’s Minuet.

Mackendrick’s last film as director before his move to Hollywood, The Ladykillers remains one of the best British comedies ever made. With iconic performances from Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom, The Ladykillers is quintessential Ealing.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 30m

Having just screened at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, Riz Ahmed gives an electric performance in Bassam Tariq’s visceral directorial debut.

Together Ahmed and Tariq co-wrote the script, the story a British-Pakistani rapper called Zed (Ahmed) a rising star on the cusp of success. This is Ahmed’s most personal film yet.

Although his cutting lyrics speak provocatively about identity politics, it is not until Zed returns home after two years on tour that he is called by his real name: Zaheer. When an illness threatens to derail his big break, Zed is forced to confront his past and his family.

Memories and hallucinations merge to the beat of Qawwali music and are haunted by fervent apparitions of a masked figure – conjuring the unspoken spectre of Partition, which looms large in his father’s unspoken words. Further bruising Zed’s ego is his nemesis – RPG (Nabhaan Rizwan, 1917), a young rapper whose face tattoos and crass lyrics bewilder him.

Both a paean to the importance of cultural heritage and a sharply observed reflection on muscle memory, the richness of Tariq’s achievement lies in the details of this heady mosaic.

A bold and vital evocation of the British-Asian experience.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1hr 30m

From the creators of Despicable Me and Sing comes this latest adaptation of Dr Seuss’s beloved festive classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas!.

The Grinch (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) lives a solitary life in a cave with only his dog Max for company but every year his peace is ruined by his Whoville neighbours’ Christmas celebrations. When he hears the residents plans to make Christmas three times bigger than before he hatches a diabolical plan to restore his tranquillity… Steal Christmas!

Together with his trusty sidekicks, he disguises himself as Santa Claus to steal all the Christmas presents from Whoville, but a little girl Cindy Lou Who (voiced by Cameron Seely) threatens to ruin his scheme as she plots to capture Santa Claus herself.

With a stellar supporting voice cast including Rashida Jones, Pharrell Williams and Angela Lansbury, this animated film is a funny and visually stunning story about the spirit of Christmas and how even the grumpiest resident of Whoville can have a change of heart.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 9mins

Christmas candy confection rarely comes sweeter than Richard Curtis’ festive chocolate box assortment, collectively known as Love Actually.

Love, as Andy Williams once sang, is a many splendored thing, and in the ten occasionally interlocking stories that make up this warm hug of a film we get to see many different forms of love, be it work place romances (Martin Freeman and Joanna Page), the love of a parent for their child (Liam Neeson and Thomas Brodie-Sangster), holiday romances (Colin Firth and Lucia Moniz) or merely old friendships (Bill Nighy and Gregor Fisher).

Set in a London so beautifully shot that it’s almost a character in its own right, Curtis’ directorial debut plays-out over the five-week run up to Christmas. However, like all the best desserts, a little bit of sharp is needed to balance out the sweet. So in between the warm and fuzzy moments there are some genuinely heart-breaking scenes too, which all just add to the richness of the concoction.

A modern-day Christmas staple.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 43mins

This December we’re bringing back the holiday spirit of yesteryear for this special film with a generous dash of George Michael’s greatest hits.

After being given a second chance at life, Kate (Emilia Clarke) finds herself stumbling through her mid-twenties, as a veteran couch-surfer whose habit of imposing on friends, until their patience runs out is - illustrated by a series of wincingly funny events. Kate has also a true gift of disappointing her unimpressed boss (Michelle Yeoh) at the Christmas shop where she works as the most unexcited and cynical elf ever.

Her bad luck changes when she meets Tom (Henry Golding), the handsome, impossibly wholesome and overtly mysterious man she quickly finds herself falling for. With an impeccable cue for Kate’s imminent disasters, Tom swoops in and shows her an unexpected path with a little bit of “Faith”.

Written by Emma Thompson (who also plays Clarke’s mother in the film), directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) and with a cast that is impossible to resist, Last Christmas is the perfect opportunity to grab a cup of mulled wine and get cosy with your loved ones this December.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 45m

Goldfinger is where James Bond as we know him comes into focus, featuring one of 007's most famous lines "A martini… Shaken, not stirred" and a wide range of gadgets that would become the series' trademark.
Guy Hamilton’s Pinewood-produced ‘Goldfinger’ is the first of four James Bond films he directed and the third to star Sean Connery as 007.
Secret agent, James Bond (Connery), is pitted against sinister bullion dealer, Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe), believed responsible for the leakage of British gold. Bond must outwit and outgun the powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox - and obliterate the world's economy.
With Shirley Bassey’s operatic theme, the gizmo-infested Aston Martin, Shirley Eaton, killed with that magnificently macabre gold paint and Honor Blackman’s risquely monikered Pussy Galore, could this be the best entry in the 007 franchise?

In tribute to the late Honor Blackman (August 1925 – April 2020) and Sean Connery (August 1930 – October 2020).

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2hr 7m

It’s that time of year again! The Odyssey brings our annual screening of the much beloved Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Li… wait no… It’s Die Hard!

Heavily armed terrorists have seized the Nakatomi tower building in LA, taken hostages and declared war but they haven’t counted on one thing, an off-duty cop who has been caught in the building. He’s alone, he’s tired and he’s the only chance anyone has.

Bruce Willis plays New York City detective John McClane, who has arrived in LA to spend the holiday with his estranged wife. But as her office Christmas party is overrun with terrorists and hostages are taken, he slips away unnoticed. Armed with only his wits and a service revolver, he wages a one man war and proves that he is harder to kill than they expected.
Directed by John McTiernan and featuring a career defining performance by the late, great Alan Rickman as the terrorist Hans Gruber.

Die Hard is one of the greatest action films ever made and the ideal Christmas adventure to stuff your stocking with.

Merry Christmas, and a Yippee-Ki-Yay…

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Run time: 1h 29m

While it might not be the image Charles Dickens originally had for his novel A Christmas Carol, Jim Henson’s lovable Muppets retelling of the classic tale is one of the most recognised and adored.

Michael Caine plays Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser who couldn’t care less about Christmas and the joy the season brings. As he returns home on Christmas Eve filled with hate and anger, he is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future and what he has done, and what he will do is laid out in front of him.

Somehow Michael Caine manages to play Scrooge incredibly straight faced and glum surrounded by everyone’s favourite fuzzy felt puppets, in this funny, heart-warming and musical adaption directed by Jim Henson’s son Brian Henson.

Join Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and all your favourite Muppets in this merry, magical version of Charles Dickens' classic tale.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1hr 42m

Tis’ the season to be jolly and come see one of the most beloved family Christmas films on the big screen.

8-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) is sent up to sleep in the attic the night before a family Christmas vacation to Paris, but in the morning, they accidentally leave without him!

Believing his wish for his family to disappear has come true, Kevin begins to live the life of luxury and ultimate freedom; that is until two con men (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) attempt to burgle his family home on Christmas Eve. Kevin decides he must defend his house from the baddies and creates the ultimate booby-trapped house, to bring the burglars to justice.

After a diet of junk food and mob movies Kevin seamlessly adapts to the task at hand and convinces us that an 8-year-old could create the glorious traps that he does.

Writer John Hughes had written the role for Culkin after they’d worked together on Uncle Buck, however, director Chris Columbus wanted to audition other kids first. After a few auditions he realised - only Culkin could play this role. "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal."

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 36m

"I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!"
A Victorian family prepares a paper theatre for a performance of A Christmas Carol. The audience enters the imagination of one of the children and quickly, the cardboard stage transforms to reveal a magical world containing real dancers and stylised sets.
The classic tale infolds in a rich tapestry of highly absorbing, theatrical drama featuring sumptuous visual effects inspired by the techniques of early cinema. In a daring twist of format, characters are portrayed by dancers and voiced by an eclectic cast of the world’s most recognisable actors. The mix of danced action and spoken narration brings fresh dimension to Dickens’ characters and poetic language, whilst remaining true to the beauty of the author’s original narrative.
Sister-brother directing duo Jacqui and David Morris are at the helm of this new retelling, offering an immersive, theatre-like experience for families in both cinema and theatres to delight those missing live dance and pantomime this festive season.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 16m

Nancy Meyers’ leisurely feelgood rom-com with a big-name ensemble cast ticks all the transatlantic boxes.
Amanda (Cameron Diaz) an American woman and Iris (Kate Winslet) a Brit, swap houses for Christmas, both smarting from break-ups. While one gets Jude Law knocking on the door of a quaint Surrey cottage, the other finds Jack Black buzzing at the Hollywood mansion gates. With charming moments courtesy of a friendship between Iris (Winslet) and an ageing LA screenwriter Arthur (Eli Wallach) Meyers nods to a bygone era of cinema.
Modern cynicism has no place here: the script even makes a pre-emptive strike against criticisms when a happier Iris announces that she’s decided to embrace ‘corny’.
The romances, however, are handled with more precision and realism, and Law’s performance is a surprising stand-out (in his first romantic comedy). Unlike most holiday-themed movies, it encourages the viewer to take time for themselves, not just others. It's the ultimate self-care flick.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2hr 11m

Come and see the most beloved Christmas film of all time at The Odyssey.

As the film begins on a cold and snowy Christmas Eve the camera drifts from one household to another as the townsfolk of the small town of Bedford Falls are saying their evening prayers. And almost in unison they pray for one thing: to please keep George Bailey safe. Not that they could know it, but far above, their prayers are being heard.

So begins the story of It’s A Wonderful Life. The tale of an angel called Clarence (Henry Travers) who is sent to save the life of a man who thinks he has run out of options. Clarence’s job will be to show George (James Stewart) that his life had meaning and value even if it wasn’t filled with the successes that George had hoped for.

Frank Capra’s film, above all else, is about decency. That doing the best for others can be its own reward. And what could be a better message for Christmas than that?

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 35m

A fresh animated musical featuring voices from Ken Jeong, Sandra Oh, John Cho and Hamilton’s Philippa Soo.

Fuelled with determination and a passion for science, a bright young girl called Chang’e (Soo) builds a rocket ship to the moon to prove the existence of a legendary Moon Goddess.

There she ends up on an unexpected quest, and discovers a whimsical land of fantastical creatures.

Directed by legendary Oscar-winning Filmmaker and Animator, Glen Keane (Beauty & the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Tangled) and co-director John Kahrs (Wreck-It Ralph, Ratatouille, Cars).

There's been a shortage of well-made family films of late and Over the Moon plugs that gap rather nicely with its plucky kids and cute creatures – including a rabbit called Bungee and a Ken Jeong-voiced green moon dog.

There is enough loveliness and class acts in the cast to impress adults and it will certainly enchant kids. And a bit of familiarity is no bad thing, especially when it features in a film that is otherwise so finessed.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 10m

Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (James Corden) are New York City stage stars with a crisis on their hands: their expensive new Broadway show is a major flop that has suddenly flatlined their careers.
Meanwhile, in small-town Edgewater, Indiana, high school student Emma Nolan (Jo Ellen Pellman) is experiencing a very different kind of heartbreak: despite the support of the high school principal (Keegan-Michael Key), the head of the PTA (Kerry Washington) has banned her from attending the prom with her girlfriend, Alyssa (Ariana DeBose).
When Dee Dee and Barry decide that Emma's predicament is the perfect cause to help resurrect their public images, they hit the road with Angie (Nicole Kidman) and Trent (Andrew Rannells), another pair of cynical actors looking for a professional lift.
The 29-year-old newcomer DeBose is on her way to a remarkable career. As one of the only Latinx actresses in a major film this year, the Afro-Puerto Rican is particularly impactful, setting up what could be a big year ahead. After appearing in Hamilton on Disney Plus, she’ll play Rita Moreno’s Oscar-winning role of Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story next year.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 18m

The Elfkins - Baking a Difference

Gnomeo & Juliet meets Trolls, The Elfkins is a funny, colourful and uplifting story about being accepted no matter how big or small you are.

For more than 200 years, the Elfkins have been living underground, hiding from the upper world and avoiding any interaction with the human beings.

Elfie, a heavily fringed tween elf (voiced in this English-language version by Rivka Rothstein) decides to explore the human world and persuades portly sidekick Buck (Valentin Beinhold) to accompany her. A misadventure involving a drainpipe and a black pug pup results in them being joined by rule-stickler Kipp (Liam Mockridge) in what looks like a provincial German town. Eventually, they fall in with Theo (Erik Hansen), a skilled maker of baked foodstuffs with the long grey ponytail of an ageing rocker, whose business is on the decline. Luckily, elves like making stuff, as any cobbler could tell him.

Filling out the culinary, gastronomic theme the director (the fruitily named Ute von Münchow-Pohl) and screenwriter Jan Strathmann work in an unseemly quantity of fart jokes, with should set the kids giggling if nothing else.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 34m

Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary "Mother of the Blues," Ma Rainey (Viola Davis).
Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio's claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman) - who has an eye for Ma's girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry - spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.
Adapted from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson's play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom celebrates the transformative power of the blues and the artists who refuse to let society's prejudices dictate their worth.
Directed by George C. Wolfe and adapted for the screen by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the film is produced by Denzel Washington and Todd Black. Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Taylour Paige and Dusan Brown co-star alongside an aces score from Jazz Saxophonist Branford Marsalis.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 19m

A Lavish modern fairy tale celebrated for its amazing special effects, catchy songs, and Julie Andrew’s legendary performance in the title role.
With a screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, from the Mary Poppins books by P.L. Travers. When Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber), the children of the wealthy and uptight Banks family, are faced with the prospect of a new nanny, they are pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the magical Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews). Embarking on a series of fantastical adventures with Mary and her Cockney performer friend, Bert (Dick Van Dyke), the siblings try to pass on some of their nanny's sunny attitude to their preoccupied parents (David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns). The sets are luxuriant, the songs lilting, the scenario witty but impeccably sentimental, and the supporting cast only a pinfeather short of perfection.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 1m

(S) = Subtitled.

Iconic and game-changing, Akira is the definitive anime masterpiece. Katsuhiro Otomo’s landmark cyberpunk classic obliterated the boundaries of Japanese animation and forced the world to look into the future. Returning to UK cinemas and gloriously remastered in stunning 4K.

Akira’s arrival in 1988 shattered traditional thinking, creating space for movies like The Matrix to be dreamed into brutal reality.

Neo-Tokyo, 2019. The city is being rebuilt post World War III when two high school dropouts, Kaneda and Tetsuo stumble across a secret government project to develop a new weapon - telekinetic humans. After Tetsuo is captured by the military and experimented on, he gains psychic abilities and learns about the existence of the project's most powerful subject, Akira.

Both dangerous and destructive, Kaneda must take it upon himself to stop both Tetsuo and Akira before things get out of control and the city is destroyed once again.

Style and substance run neck and neck in this thrilling, bold landmark film that just refuses to become dated.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 2h 5m

Following the popular and critical success of his gender-bending farce Some Like It Hot (1959), Wilder reteamed with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond for this darker comedy set in the world of nine-to-five corporate New York.
The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Starring Jack Lemmon on hand this time as lonely office bottom-runger C.C. Baxter, who goes after promotion by allowing his seniors the use of his apartment for their extramarital liaisons.
Meanwhile, he hopes to catch the eye of the sassy elevator girl, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). Deliriously funny, The Apartment is also shot through with Wilder’s customary wit and cynicism, creating a bleak vision of estrangement in the modern working city.
Celebrated art director Alexandre Trauner designed the cavernous open-plan office. Drawing inspiration from King Vidor’s pioneering silent classic The Crowd (1928) which pre-empted Wilder’s theme of the depersonalising effect of rat-race office work.
Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine shine as two essentially good souls trapped in a tangle of office politics.

Approx advert and trailer run time: 25 mins

Film run time: 1h 47m

Come and celebrate your New Year’s Eve in style with a special screening of this Coen brothers classic!
Turning 20 this year, this absurdly entertaining and witty, film spills over into magical realism as it entangles history with mythology – and, of course, music.
Set in 1937 rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. Its story is a modern satire loosely based on Homer’s epic Greek poem The Odyssey that incorporates social features of the American South. George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson play Ulysses Everett, Pete and Delmar, three sweaty convicts in the South, who bust off the chain gang and go on the run. They are looking for the treasure that the smooth-talking Everett assures them he has got hidden, from the job that landed him in jail in the first place. In the course of this hunt, they find treasure of a different sort: in a ramshackle recording studio, the errant trio pass themselves off as The Soggy Bottom Boys and make a blues record, which becomes a smash hit.
Populated with strange characters, including a blind prophet, sexy sirens, and a one-eyed Bible salesmen, it’s an odyssey filled with chases, close calls, near misses, and betrayal that will leave you laughing at every turn.