Bristol Film Festival presents An Audience with Christopher Eccleston

Renowned for his collaborations with Danny Boyle and Michael Winterbottom, and fondly remembered as the ninth incarnation of Doctor Who, stage and screen star Christopher Eccleston’s distinguished career stretches back more than 30 years to his memorable debut performance as Derek Bentley in Let Him Have It.

He’s coming to Bristol to launch Bristol Film Festival‘s March season with a special Audience with Christopher Eccleston event at the Redgrave Theatre. Eccleston will be in conversation with film critic Anna Smith, and the event also includes a screening of a film he’s selected as being of particular importance to him: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. This will be followed by an audience Q&A session. The event takes place on March 1. Tickets are available here.

Christopher Eccleston in Danny Boyle’s 2002 classic ’28 Days Later’. Photo Credit: Peter Mountain. Copyright Twentieth Century Fox.

The Festival has also emerged from covid-enforced hibernation to unveil an extensive spring screening programme at venues across the city, including The Planetarium, Clifton Observatory, Arnos Vale Cemetery, Redcliffe Caves, Bristol Museum, Averys’ wine cellar and the Avon Gorge Hotel.

Vintage screenings paired with complementary wines at Averys kick off with Moonstruck (Feb 11) and continue with Bridesmaids (Feb 18), The Third Man (March 11), Knives Out (March 12), It Happened One Night (March 18) and The Devil Wears Prada (March 19).

Suitably space-themed selections at the Planetarium include WALL-E (Feb 12 & 6), Armageddon (Feb 12), Interstellar (Feb 26 & March 5), Hidden Figures (March 4), Apollo 13 (March 4) and Forbidden Planet (March 5).

Up at Clifton Observatory, you can see Up and two screenings of Dirty Dancing on Feb 13, plus a triple-bill of jazz-themed films on March 20: Soul, Whiplash and Some Like It Hot.

Spooky old Arnos Vale Cemetery is the venue for two nights of screenings of films adapted from literary classics by female authors. March 3 brings Emma, Pride & Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. On March 4 you can see Rebecca, Little Women and Jane Eyre.

Frequently the venue for the festival’s subterranean Horror in the Caves season, Redcliffe Caves plays host to a more eclectic selection over the weekend of March 11-13, ranging from family films to comedies. The programme kicks off with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom on March 11. On Saturday March 12, you can see The Sword in the Stone, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Dark Crystal, Run Lola Run, Eraserhead and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Sunday March 13 starts with Aladdin, followed by Jumanji, Labyrinth and The Princess Bride, and concludes with Pan’s Labyrinth.

Bristol Museum hosts those perennial Bristol Film Festival Favourites Night at the Museum and Jurassic Park once again on March 10, plus Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk on March 18.

New to the festival is the Avon Gorge Hotel’s recently restored Aquam Bibae suite. This is the venue for a day-long celebration of the great Wes Anderson on February 27, with screenings of Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

There are also several one-off screenings elsewhere in the city. The complete cut of Fritz Lang’s classic Metropolis is showing with live improvised musical accompaniment at Bristol Cathedral on March 9, Catch Me If You Can is the latest aviation-themed flick to be screened under the wings of Concorde at Aerospace Bristol (March 16) and there are two screenings of In Bruges with lashings of local beer at The Station on March 17.

Full details of all events can be found on the Bristol Film Festival website, where you can also book tickets.

Main pic of Christopher Eccleston supplied by Bristol Film Festival