Bristol Film Festival unveils packed autumn/winter 2022 programme

Renowned for its screenings in imaginative locations, Bristol Film Festival returns to full strength this autumn, with a huge programme of events. The Halloween Horror in the Caves series is back in Redcliffe Caves, while other regular venues include Clifton Observatory, Averys Wine Cellars and Bristol Museum. Among the additions for 2022 are Bristol’s newest event space The Mount Without and the Goldney Hall Orangery, which eagle-eyed TV viewers may recognise  as the venue for Dr. Watson’s wedding in the feature-length The Sign of Three episode of the BBC’s Sherlock. BFF has been given special permission to screen that episode in the venue where it was shot on Dec 8. The Orangery also hosts an Agatha Christie double-bill (Nov 10) and a screening of Hammer’s 1959 version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (Dec 8).

Anniversaries play a big part in the programme too. To mark a quarter of a century since publication of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is being shown several times in the chapel of Clifton College on Dec 10 and 11. It’s also the 100th anniversary of Frank Lloyd’s silent adaptation of Dickens’ Oliver Twist, with Lon Chaney and Jackie Coogan. That’s back on screen at All Saints, Clifton, with live improvised organ accompaniment, on Dec 14. Also notching up its century is the original German expressionist silent classic Nosferatu, with Max Schreck as the vampire. That’s the festival’s selection for its inaugural screening at St. Mary Redcliffe, with live musical accompaniment from Bristol-based quartet Minima, on Nov 5. Marking the 80th anniversary of its premiere, Casablanca receives the gala treatment at the Royal West of England Academy (BFF’s first screening at the venue in three years) on Nov 26. The Godfather hits the big 50 this year, so Francis Ford Coppola’s classic gets a special screening in Averys wine cellars on Sept 24 with pizza and Italian wines. Also celebrating its 50th anniversary is Cabaret, which is back on screen at Clifton Observatory on October 9, with gin-based cocktails available to enhance your Weimar Republic-era revelry. John Carpenter’s definitive version of The Thing, meanwhile, is a mere 40 years old this year. That one gets an anniversary outing at Averys on Dec 2.

Musicals are always popular festival selections. BFF’s mid-September programme kicks off with three of the biggest. Grease, starring John Travolta and the late Olivia Newton-John, shows at the Bristol Improv Theatre on Sept 15. The inevitable screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show takes place at Bristol Improv Theatre on Oct 13. And Loco Klub makes its debut as a BFF venue with The Greatest Showman and Moulin Rouge (both Nov 6).

Boozy Vintage Screenings in Averys wine cellars return with the Ealing classic Kind Hearts and Coronets on Sept 23. At the same venue, Halloween week brings Dario Argento’s original Suspiria (Oct 28) and the mockumentary that spawned a cult TV series: What We Do in the Shadows (Oct 29). Blazing Saddles, the evergreen comedy that Mel Brooks would never get away with today, follows on Nov 24. And there’s an opportunity to raise a glass to the original Predator the following evening (Nov 25). Christmas favourites dominate December, as usual, with Gremlins (Dec 16), It’s a Wonderful Life (Dec 20) and two screenings of festive action flick Die Hard (Dec 22 & Dec 23) completing the Vintage series.

Disney matinee screenings at Clifton Observatory return with Encanto on Sept 25 and the Pixar masterpiece Inside Out on Oct 9. Other screenings at the Observatory are The Graduate (Sept 25), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Sept 25), Brief Encounter (Oct 9), a horror comedy double-bill of Carry On Screaming and Young Frankenstein (Oct 26), and a Remembrance Sunday (Nov 13) triple bill of British war movies, namely Oh! What a Lovely War, 1917 and Dunkirk.

The Festival’s Screening Room series of indie gems and underrated classics moves to the Bristol Improv Theatre this autumn. Kicking off the programme is Christopher Guest’s splendid dog show mockumentary Best in Show (Oct 12), which does for pooches and their admirers what the earlier This Is Spinal Tap did for aging rockers. Watch out for the late Fred Willard’s scene-stealing turn as the commentator. The Screening Room series also includes a Halloween week screening of backwoods horror Green Room (Oct 26), in which an aghast punk band find themselves booked to play to an audience of neo-Nazi skinheads at a remote club. Continuing the musical theme, next up is High Fidelity (Nov 23), the romcom adapted from Nick Hornby’s bestseller. This year’s series ends with a festive screening: Miracle on 24th Street (Dec 3).

Regular festival venue Aerospace Bristol hosts another aerial adventure in the form of the original 1986 Top Gun on Sept 29. This one has already sold out, so an additional screening for Valentine’s Day 2023 has been swiftly added an additional screening. Tickets are on sale now.

Halloween is always a big deal for Bristol Film Festival. This year’s takeover of Redcliffe Caves for the ever-popular Horror in the Caves from Oct 28-30 launches with a double bill of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and Evil Dead II and concludes, as usual, with ever-popular cave horror The Descent. In between, you can catch such gems as Hammer’s 1958 Dracula with Christopher Lee (Oct 29), the original Candyman (Oct 30), contrasting, hugely influential zombie flicks Night of the Living Dead and 28 Days Later (both Oct 30) and modern classic Hereditary (Oct 29).

More family-oriented spookery is on offer at Arnos Vale Cemetery, with Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 live-action The Addams Family and Hocus Pocus (both Oct 19), plus Tim Burton’s 2005 animation Corpse Bride (Oct 20). Later on both evenings, the Cemetery hosts screenings of adult horrors: The Nun (Oct 19) and Interview with the Vampire (Oct 20), plus – presumably for those who were over-excited teens back in 2008 – the very first Twilight film (Oct 20). Twilight is also back at the same venue for two screenings on Nov 3. Showing earlier that day is family animation Book of Life.

The screaming doesn’t stop there as BFF also has a day-long ‘mini-fest’ devoted to John Carpenter at the Bristol Improv Theatre. You can see Escape From New York and Big Trouble in Little China, plus They Live and the hugely under-rated The Fog on Oct 22. The evergreen The Nightmare Before Christmas pops up at Bristol Museum on Oct 27, followed later the same evening by the first Conjuring flick.

A new venue for 2022 is former church The Mount Without on St. Michael’s Hill, which has now been repurposed as a creative space. BFF’s first screening here is Baz Luhrmann’s William’s Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (showing twice on Oct 20).

The festival’s murder-mystery series launches at another new venue: the Orangery at Goldney Hall. The inaugural Agatha Christie double-bill on Nov 10 comprises the Sidney Lumet version of Murder on the Orient Express and the 1961 Murder, She Said, with Margaret Rutherford making her debut as Miss Marple.

It’s back over to Bristol Museum on Nov 4 for a welcome rock day that opens with the great Jack Black comedy School of Rock, in which nippers receive a thorough grounding in the joys of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. That’s followed by a 30th anniversary outing for the original Wayne’s World. Yes way, we’re not worthy, etc. The museum also plays a big part in the Festival’s Christmas programme, which includes Home Alone (Dec 19), Elf (Dec 19 & 21) and 2006 romcom The Holiday (Dec 21). The mandatory screening of White Christmas takes place at Bristol Improv Theatre on Dec 15.

Tickets for all events are on sale now. Visit the Festival website for further information.

Main Pic from Best in Show: Warner Brothers.