The record-breaking Atuel opens this year's festival...

We were delighted to host the UK festival premiere of Atuel, as our opening film this year. This beautiful and poetic environmental documentary explores the story of the Atuel River, the longest river in Mendoza, Argentina, and its connection and importance to the communities it flows through.

After the screening, Midlands based director of the film, Ben Cook, joined us for an engaging and insightful Q&A discussion with Chris and the audience. Taken in the heart of Stratford, we absolutely love this picture of Ben, mid-speech. Very Shakespearean!

Photo credit: Jo Lewis Photography

Trash Vs Class with Miami Connection...

We took a walk on the wild side of the silver screen with our first ever bad movie night, hosted by Trash Film Club. David Baldwin and Luke Jerromes' hilarious live commentary was a hoot as our audience laughed (and cringed) their way through Miami Connection - a true wonder of bad cinema! We will never forget the antics of martial arts rock band Dragon Sound and their fight for justice against motorcycle ninjas and a bad guy called Jeff!

Photo Credit: Brian Harley

Our first live music film event hit the right note with audiences...

This year we introduced our first live music accompaniment event to the festival, inviting leading silent film pianist Jonny Best to perform. Jonny earned rapturous applause having had our audience on the edge of their seats from the first note to the last, with his elegant, bracing and mesmerising score for silent film masterpiece Metropolis by Fritz Lang.

Photo credit: Jo Lewis Photography

A fantastic show of support for our short film competition winners...

This year our short film competition received a record number of submissions with over 1200 entries. Our 4 winners each submitted a short film on the theme 'Beyond The Frame: Legacy on Screen'.

We were honoured to welcome Parmie Gill (joint 3rd place), Kate Horlor (2nd place) and Darren Teale and Suzanne James Teale (1st place) to award them with their certificates and interview them in a collaborative and supportive Q&A panel with Brian and the audience.

Photo credit: Jo Lewis Photography

Director Carol Morley joins the chat...

BAFTA nominated director Carol Morley inspired our audience with a wonderful Q&A with Brian following a screening of her acclaimed film Typist Artist Pirate King, a fictionalised portrait of the late artist Audrey Amiss. With fascinating insight into her creative process, advice on filmmaking and thoughtful views about how women are represented on screen, look out for the full video of the Q&A soon, filmed and edited by Duncan Woodhouse.

Photo Credit: Cairo Cannon

BAFTA winning animation duo The Brothers McLeod introduce Son of The White Mare...

The BAFTA winning McLeod Brothers, Myles and Greg, introduced our screening of the animated masterwork Son of the White Mare, an epic, hand drawn psychedelic tale combining Hungarian folklore and mythology. This rare screening was a real treat and a revelation to all.

Photo Credit: Brian Harley

The sun sets on the festival for another year...

For our festival finale, we welcomed double BAFTA winning director (and Stratford resident) Michael B. Clifford for a Q&A panel following a screening of his new documentary about endurance cycling, Chasing the Sun. Michael was joined on the panel by Rocio Bonilla, a Stratford resident who appears in Michael’s short transport documentary The Weekend, which preceded the main event. Chasing the Sun inspired an engaging conversation about adventure, cycling and the wider issues of mental wellbeing and environmental responsibility.

The Live & Local team take to the throne...

Members of our fabulous team each took to the box office throne at The Bear Pit Theatre during our festival. 

Check out Kristie, Chris, Laura, Brian, Beau and Emily, each bringing their own style to their box office reign.