Cactus Pears takes a gentle look at the problems faced when a 30 year-old, gay Indian man has to return to his village for his father's funeral. Facing the villagers questions on why he has not married, he finds some solace when an old crush of his from his youth comes on the scene.
"A luminous work, brimming with grace and delicacy" - Srikanth Srinivasan, Sight and Sound
The films are booked, the brochure has been printed and is waiting at the Alhambra (or can be downloaded as a PDF), tickets can be bought at the Alhambra and the season will begin on September 13th with Colours Of Time.
The season has several famous directors included - Pedro Almodovar, Paolo Sorrentino, Marc Evans, Pawel Pawlikowski and László Nemes - which we hope you will approve of, plus an array of newer ones and even first-timers. We visit France, USA, India, Hungary, Spain, Canada, Italy, Greece, Sudan, Nigeria, Wales, Romania, Poland and China - not a bad selection of World Cinema, and we don't have a single one from England for once!
Enjoy the rest of your summer - see you on 13 September.
The dates for the 2027 Keswick Film Festival have been announced as
18 - 21 March 2027
Julia and the festival team are already planning another inspiring celebration of the best in global cinema to give us all something to look forward to next year.
Another Film Season ends after another great Film Festival. We hope you enjoyed the films; it was certainly a good season wasn't it?! One of the strongest we have had for some time, with several Oscar nominations, two of which were up for Best Film. You obviously appreciated them, with our best audiences since the pandemic, and some pretty high scoring ones too. 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' came out on top for the club...and even rated higher than any other Festival film. A great film with an horrific outcome, leaving us all in silence when it ended...
The Film Festival too was a success once again, with a new team in charge under the guidance of Festival Director Julia Vickers - We are sure you would join us in thanking Julia and all of them. The amazing 'Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk' came out on top with 90.91% rating; if you want to see all the scores take a look at the festival website .
So that's it for this season. Thank you for your support this year; without you there would be no Film Club! We hope you all have a great summer and will join us again for more world films in September. Watch this space for news as we start to think about films for next season.
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“For a study of human connection at its most honest and affecting, with two remarkable lead performances, Dragonfly is a powerfully striking experience.” - Philip De Semlyen, Time Out
Souleymane's Story is the winner of festival awards around the world, including the coveted 'Un Certain Regard' Jury prize at Cannes last year, get ready to follow the routes of Souleymane Sangaré as he frantically tries to keep up a gruelling schedule delivering food on his bicycle round the streets of Paris. To make his life even more stressful, he is an illegal immigrant from Ghana who faces an interview to gain asylum in just two days.
"An intimate, powerful and moving chronicle of life on the margins." -Tara Brady, Irish Times
It seems very appropriate that the weather is so lovely at the moment; we can all go outside and enjoy it while there are no club movies to see! We hope you have enjoyed the year; we feel that it was a good one with some great films, and certainly a fantastic 25th Film Festival last month.
Many of the films went on to win BAFTAs or even Oscars and many more appeared in the BFI's best films of the year list. It is also a good sign that so many club-type films are now winning awards worldwide.
Thanks to everyone who has helped keep the show running over the year, whether you were on the committee, running front of house, running the Festival or helping on it. An especial thanks to Ian Payne for directing all the great festivals we have had in his time and to Julia Vickers for stepping forward to run the next ones! A special thanks should go the Rennie family for all their years giving the club a home, and to Jonathan and Graham for taking on the responsibility for our future. Thanks all!
So that is it from us. The emails will be back in mid summer with a list of films for next season for members to choose from, and the Sunday night shows will start again in September. If you are looking for something to see meantime, keep your eye on the Alhambra website - they will keep showing films for you every week.
Have a great summer, everyone!
This week it's the 25th Keswick Film Festival and one of the biggest programmes we've ever had. It starts on Thursday with Harvey Greenfield Is Running Late which is now sold out but there's an additional screening at 9:15 on Saturday morning. At the time of writing the closing film Cottontail looks like it might sell out as well so we're also showing it in Screen 2. In between there's plenty to see; from award hopefuls like The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez, previews of new films such as Flow, Sister Midnight and Misericordia and a 50th Anniversary screening of Tommy which Mark Kermode just described as "one of the most important and groundbreaking pop movies of all time" in his final Observer column. There are free short film at the Ospreys and showcase from Oska Bright Film Festival, £5 Family Films (which are all really great and not just for kids) and a selection of modern classics and favourites in the new Screen2/Take2 strand. The real question is how to you choose what not to see?
The AGM of the Keswick Film Club will be held at the Alhambra on Sunday 12th January. We’ll start at 4.30 and be finished for the film which will start as usual at 5.00.
All the documents are posted on the website - see AGM 2025.
Do come along and hear about what we’ve been doing, and it’s your chance to let the committee know what you think.
All the present officers are standing for re-election but we are always keen for new people to stand, so please get in touch if you are interested.
If Only I Could Hibernate was the last film of the year but don't worry we'll be back on January 5th with the much acclaimed Anora. The programme for the full season is available to view here and the brochure is available to download or pick up from the Alhambra. There's 12 great films to take us through to the end of March and that's not including the 25th Keswick Film Festival. If you head over the the Festival website you'll see more films added as they are confirmed, it looks like there's already some great ones to choose from. There's also a Films of the Century vote to pick from some of the best films of the last 25 years to show in screen 2 during the Festival.
We hope you have a good Christmas and we'll see you in the New Year.
Our opening night starts with free drinks from 4.30pm, so do get there nice and early to see your friends. We start with Rose from Denmark.
The story of two sisters, Inger and Ellen, and how their relationship is challenged on a highly anticipated coach trip to Paris. When Inger announces her struggles with mental health to the group, the sisters are faced with pity from some and discrimination from others. On arrival in Paris, it soon becomes clear that Inger has a hidden agenda. ROSE is a film about love and care for each other, in spite of our differences, as much as it is a film about not judging a book by its cover.
"Gråbøl is superb throughout, recognising Inger as a complicated individual who has a lot more going on than just her illness." - Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film
And so our 25th Year comes to an end; we do hope you have enjoyed it! By the look of the votes most films seem to have gone down well, and more of you came to see them than last year so let's hope the Covid effect is wearing off; wouldn't it be great if next year sees our audiences reach the numbers they did before the pandemic!
We would like to thank all those who helped run the films this year, both for the club nights and the festival; the committee decision to try to involve more people seems to have been popular and successful - thank you all very much! Watch this space over the summer for requests for help next season; there might be a few more jobs for you to enjoy!
All that remains for us to do is to wish you all a great summer and to say we will be back in September (probably Sunday 8 September), and to remind you that it will be the Festival's 25th Birthday next year - Ian Payne, the Festival Director, has some great ideas to hep us celebrate! Put the dates in your diary now - 25th Keswick Film Festival - Thursday 6 March to Sunday 9 March.
This Thursday sees the start of the 2024 Film Festival with the sold out European Première of Between The Lights (there are still some tickets available for the Saturday screening). From there our cinematic world tour takes in Malaysia, Mexico, Tunisia, Georgia, Japan, Iran and the USA. Recent BAFTA winners The Zone Of Interest and American Fiction are showing at the Alhambra on Sunday. The Osprey Short Film Awards are a free event at the Theatre By The Lake on Saturday featuring 9 new Cumbrian short films. The big screen at Rheged is in use once again for Samsara, The Taste Of Things, Tótem, Four Daughters and The New Boy. On Friday evening we'll be joined by co-directors Ali Catterall and Jane Giles for their riotous new doc Scala!!! (or to give the film its full title: Scala!!! Or, the Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits). There are 24 feature films over the long weekend including award favourites, critically acclaimed selections and previews of films not yet on release in the UK.
Tickets and passes are available from the Alhambra, we hope to see you there.
We are having our normal very brief AGM before Love Life, please come for 4.30 onwards to enjoy a free drink while we make decisions for the coming year.
We have moved our AGM back in the calendar to allow time for the accounts to be audited, so this meeting will cover 18 months (but will still not take long as all the info you need is on our website, please try to read it before the meeting). The election of officers and Trustees is essential so do please come along or we will not be able to continue.
To go with the MINT Chinese Film Festival taking place at the Alhambra from this Thursday 1st to Sunday 4th, this week we're showing Lost In The Stars, a cracking, Hitchcockian, twisty thriller.
A Chinese couple go away to an island for a weekend to celebrate their wedding anniversary, but the wife goes missing and then the twists and turns continue; definitely a thriller 'like they used to be'...
Our season ended on a high note with the largest audience of the season - 109 - watching 'Nobody Needs to Know', a sweet love story set on the beautiful Hebridean Island of Lewis. With your help we can keep these numbers growing; whether you have been a regular or if you haven't been for a while, do come along and see our Spring Season films...and bring your friends!
We are still a friendly club, always pleased to see you, and our programme has some great looking films as always, from award winners such as 'Anatomy of a Fall', to future winners (is 'Poor Things' going to do as well at the Oscars as they say?); from the documentary '20 days in Mariupol' to the Spanish drama '20,000 Species of Bees'.
We start back on 7 January with 'Fallen Leaves' from the always dependable Finish director Aki Kaurismaki. We hope to see you there! Meantime, have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
See you in 2024!