Autumn Cinema at Watershed

As we say goodbye to summer, Cinema programme team Steph Read and Mark Cosgrove share some of the highlights coming to Watershed this autumn. It’s also the perfect time to consider joining Club Shed, a Watershed membership that will give you discounted cinema and Undershed tickets, advance booking for special events such as this October’s BFI London Film Festival on Tour, plus seasonal discounts in the Café & Bar. 

September  

Encounters Film Festival  

Encounters is back for its 30th anniversary with a rich and inspiring competition programme of shorts from around the globe, including UK premieres of new work from Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) and Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin (Bait), plus there are plenty more South West filmmakers represented including Paul Holbrook, Xenia Glen, Karni and Saul and Siôn Marshall-Waters, amongst others. You can pick up a festival pass here.

We’re marking this anniversary edition by revisiting debut features from Past Encounters alumni every Sunday throughout September, including Andrea Arnold’s Red Road and Cannes Grand Prix-winner Joachim Trier’s first feature Reprise. Both Arnold’s Oscar®-winning short Wasp and Trier’s NFTS graduation short Proctor played in the 2003 edition of Encounters. We’re also showing Australian animator Adam Elliot’s 2009 feature Mary and Max – Elliot had several shorts play at the festival throughout the years, including his Oscar® winning Harvie Krumpet – plus Charlotte Wells’ indie breakthrough hit from 2022, Aftersun.  

“Encounters was the first festival to invite any of my films (and the only to screen all three of my shorts) and the first I attended as a filmmaker. Other invitations followed that first screening and I feel certain that Encounters opened the door to the industry for me. I feel forever grateful for that, and for the talks and events I attended.” 
Charlotte Wells, writer & director of Aftersun 

Special events include the tantalising prospect of director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman in conversation with a screening of their most celebrated collaboration Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on the festival’s opening night (Wed 24 Sept) at Bristol Beacon. You can also catch the UK premiere of Michel Gondry's acclaimed Maya, Give Me A Title, fresh from winning a Silver Bear at this year's Berlinale, here at Watershed on Thu 25 Sept.  

On Fri 26 Sept, acclaimed writer Max Porter, producer Alan Moloney and actor Jay Lycurgo join us for a special screening of Cillian Murphy's new film Steve; filmed in the South West and scored by Bristol's own Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, who will be presenting a masterclass earlier in the afternoon. We'll be rounding things out on Sat 27th Sept night with psychological thriller Blockhead starring Bristol legend Joe Sims. Fresh from its world premiere at Frightfest, this one is sure to bring down the house. 

New films opening in September 

The much-anticipated new Paul Thomas Anderson film One Battle After Another sees the director channel his inner comedian in this satirical thriller loosely inspired by a Thomas Pynchon novel, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as an ex-revolutionary on a chase to save his daughter – screening here from Sat 27 Sept.  

Also opening on Sat 27 Sept is Australian director Justin Kurzel’s (Snowtown, Nitram, True History of the Kelly Gang) new film Ellis Park, which follows Bad Seed and Dirty Three member Warren Ellis as he prepares to visit the wildlife sanctuary in Indonesia which he has founded with an animal rights activist. We’re delighted that the iconic musician will join us for a special Q&A preview on Sun 21 Sept.  

“Warren Ellis is one of the great creative forces of our times. This documentary gives a privileged insight into his musical roots, his quest to preserve Nina Simone’s chewing gum and his passion for the work of animal rights activist Femke den Haas and her sanctuary in Indonesia. I look forward to welcoming this unique musician to Watershed.”
Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove 

October 

Menelik Shabazz: Rebel Generation 

On Sundays throughout October, we’re exploring love, resistance, and Black identity through a visionary lens with a season of films from the late, great British director Menelik Shabazz.  This season has been curated by our friends at Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds, in collaboration with Menelik’s daughter, Khemi Shabazz. Alongside his groundbreaking feature film Burning an Illusion and influential portrait of a musical and cultural scene with Bristol favourite The Story of Lovers Rock, we’ll also be screening his less seen (and shown!) ‘radical sci-fi' documentary Time and Judgment, as well as a collection of three rare short films in the programme ‘Young, Rebel and Black’.  

BFI London Film Festival (LFF) on tour  

Be the first to discover some of the world’s best new films on the big screen as part of the 69th BFI London Film Festival on Tour, in Bristol from Wed 8 – Sun 19 Oct. Watershed is delighted to be hosting 12 previews from the festival line-up, including new films by Yorgos Lanthimos (Bugonia), Chloé Zhao (Hamnet), Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein), Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident), Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind) and Rian Johnson (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.) 

Also look out for BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Harry Lighton’s feature debut Pillion, adapted from writer Adam Mars-Jones’s affecting 2020 novel Box Hill, and winner of Best Screenplay in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. This transgressive yet unexpectedly sweet story of domination, desire and sexual discovery features a very wry and British sense of humour, as Harry Melling’s mild-mannered traffic warden has his first brush with BDSM in a chance encounter with Alexander Skarsgård’s swaggering handsome biker.  

Priority booking for the 69th BFI London Film Festival previews at Watershed will be open for Club Shed members from 11:00 between 10 Sept – 16 Sept (Club Shed members will also enjoy 15% off tickets). We will then open for general booking from 10:00 on 16 Sept. Explore the full line-up here. 

Not in the LFF line-up but also showing in October is another striking British debut feature, Urchin, from actor-turned-director Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness, Scrapper), which premiered to impressive reviews at Cannes earlier this year. Featuring an outstanding performance from Frank Dillane as Mike, a rough sleeper in London attempting to turn his life around, it’s both hard-hitting and achingly lyrical. 

November 

Too Much: Melodrama on Film 

Get swept up in big emotions and heightened dramatics with our season exploring the cinematic line of influence from Douglas Sirk’s classic Hollywood melodramas of the 50s, through to Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pedro Almodóvar and finally back to America with the work of Todd Haynes. The season kicks off with the 70th anniversary re-release of Sirk’s colourful, heartbreaking romance All That Heaven Allows from Fri 24 Oct and continues through to late December.  

We’ll also be playing host to the Lonelyhearts Hotline in the Café & Bar from Tue 4 Nov -an audio project installation devised by Niki Harman from Nottingham’s Light After Dark Film Festival that takes the shape of a confessional phone booth, inspired by the themes of longing and heartache that play out on screen across our Melodrama season. Keep an eye out for its arrival where you'll have the chance to leave a message and contribute to the Lonelyhearts archive.  

New Releases 

Talking of emotionally charged cinema, Lynne Ramsay is back with Die, My Love from Fri 14 Nov. Adapted from Ariana Harwicz’s 2017 novel and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, it’s an intense, increasingly unnerving, sometimes shockingly hilarious exploration of postpartum depression and psychosis, with striking cinematography from Seamus McGarvey.  

And you can take a nostalgic trip back to the noughties with a special showing of James Slater‘s Dreaming of You: The Making of the Coral. Emerging from a wild, working-class dreamscape of friendship, fame and fuzzy guitars, this is the story of six Wirral teens who became The Coral and shook the British indie scene. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director alongside Nick Power and James Skelly from the band.  

Bristol Palestine Film Festival 

Finally, save the dates for Bristol Palestine Film Festival, back from 29 Nov – 7 Dec at venues across Bristol including Watershed, with their line-up of shorts programmes, feature films and documentaries alongside some arts and cultural events. 

That’s just a few of the highlights coming up this autumn in the cinemas – make sure you sign up to our Weekly Newsletter for all the latest in the cinemas and beyond. Listen to our monthly Cinema Podcast for more insights and make sure you follow our Letterboxd HQ account for updates. 

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