Restored & Rediscovered
Cinema Rediscovered 2025
Until Sun 27 July
Experience some of the latest new restorations and rediscoveries on the big screen, many UK premieres, from Miloš Forman’s multi Oscar®-winning Amadeus (1984, presented by international conductor Charles Hazlewood, to Charles Burnett’s directorial debut Killer of Sheep (1977), a touchstone of the influential LA Rebellion movement coming straight from this year’s edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna. Film curator, programmer and producer Mosa Mpetha pays homage to the late Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé (1940 – 2025) with Yeelen (1987).
Our collaboration with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project continues with a special presentation of Ardak Amirkulov’s staggering historical epic The Fall of Otrar (1991) which spurred a wave of great Kazakh films in the 1990s. Film writer and critic Christina Newland is back to present two brand new restorations c/o Radiance Films, Rosa la Rose, Fille Publique (1986) from Paul Vecchiali perhaps best known as the producer of Chantal Akerman’s groundbreaking Jeanne Dielman and Toru Murakawa’s Yajû shisubeshi (The Beast to Die, 1980), a vital addition to the pantheon of Japanese crime epics with an anti-war message.
Stephanie Rothman will join us remotely for the UK Premiere of a recent restoration of The Working Girls (1974) arguably her most uncompromising and accomplished film. Film historian and writer Pamela Hutchinson presents a pair of newly-restored Anglo/German silents directed by Richard Eichberg and starring style icon Anna May Wong.
We also continue to collaborate with a range of co-curators as part of our Other Ways of Seeing open call initiative, with support from BFI Awarding Funds from National Lottery to bring you a range of new restorations from Czechoslovak New Wave director Věra Chytilová’s Kalamita (1982) and Sidney Sokhona's first film Nationalité: Immigré (France, Mauritania, 1975) to Joan Didion’s modern classic, Play it as it Lays (1972) adapted by Frank Perry (screening alongside cult classic The Swimmer (1968). Cinema Mentiré bring us two little known feminist gems by trailblazing Argentinian filmmaker María Luisa Bemberg (1922-1995) on the 30th anniversary of her passing.
Other rediscoveries include One Potato, Two Potato (1964), Larry Peerce’s pioneering indie drama about interracial marriage set at the height of the USA Civil Rights movement. You can also catch two of the early titles acquired by Scala boss Stephen Woolley’s new company Palace Pictures, Sam Raimi’s uproarious debut The Evil Dead (1981) and the original Cinema du look sensation Diva (1981).
There’s also a chance to experience Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981), an extraordinarily inventive fantasy in which schoolboy Warnock is rescued from a dull suburban existence by a band of time travellers.
There’s plenty more to discover and rediscover in the line-up so start exploring...
Upcoming screenings in this season
UK Premiere: Amadeus
classified PG Restored & Rediscovered
Gloriously restored in 4K, Miloš Forman’s triumphant drama examines the rivalry between classical masters Salieri and Mozart through a uniquely inquisitive lens.
The Swimmer
classified PG Restored & Rediscovered
She wrote, he directed: The Swimmer, adapted by husband-wife duo Frank and Eleanor Perry, is a surreal odyssey through the suburbs starring Burt Lancaster.
Barry Lyndon (50th Anniversary)
classified 12A Restored & Rediscovered
Stanley Kubrick's breathtaking exploration of Wiliam Makepeace Thackeray's novel sees his 18th century Irish adventurer meet his share of women, take part in the Seven Years' War, get recruited as a spy and marry into the English aristocracy, inventing new stories about himself at every turn of the road.
UK Premiere: The Fall of Otrar
classified 18 (CTBA) S Restored & Rediscovered
From state-of-the-art 13th-century warfare to perfumed sex, The Fall of Otrar is a hypnotic epic about one of world history’s crucial battles championed by Martin Scorsese.
This seminal African allegory by the late Souleymane Cissé (1940 – 2025) exists outside of time and space to act as a powerful commentary on fathers and sons, light and dark.
Time Bandits
classified PG Restored & Rediscovered
An extraordinarily inventive fantasy from Terry Gilliam in which schoolboy Warnock is rescued from a dull suburban existence by a band of time travellers.
UK Premiere: Diva
classified 12 S Restored & Rediscovered
Two tapes, two Parisian mob killers, one corrupt policeman, an opera fan, a teenage thief, and the coolest philosopher ever filmed.
Young Mr. Lincoln
classified U Restored & Rediscovered
The early life of influential American President Abraham Lincoln becomes cinematic nirvana in the hands of director John Ford and actor Henry Fonda.
Compensation
classified 15 PS Restored & Rediscovered
The plight of the African American Deaf community is put under the spotlight in this moving and ambitious landmark of independent cinema.
UK Premiere: Yajû shisubeshi (The Beast To Die)
classified 18 (CTBA) S Restored & Rediscovered
Toru Murakawa’s gritty and violent thriller is a vital addition to the pantheon of Japanese crime epics, centring on a deeply scarred war photographer turned bank robber.
UK Premiere: One Potato, Two Potato
classified 15 Restored & Rediscovered
A white Midwestern divorcee, Julie (Barabara Barrie), and her black co-worker Frank Richards (Bernie Hamilton) fall in love but racial prejudice gets in the way with devastating consequences.
Rebelling against dull conformism, Michel Piccoli is mesmerising as a factory labourer suffering a meltdown and regressing to a caveman in this anarchic assault on bourgeois ideals.
UK Premiere: Northern Lights
classified 15 Restored & Rediscovered
One of the most moving and committed works of political cinema from the late 1970s America.
UK Premiere: Schmutziges Geld (Song)
classified 15 PS Restored & Rediscovered
In this, her first European film, Anna May Wong (Shanghai Express) plays a dancer drawn into a tragic romantic triangle when she meets a cabaret knife thrower and his capricious sweetheart.
UK Premiere: Großstadtschmetterling (Pavement Butterfly)
classified 15 PS Restored & Rediscovered
In her final silent film set in in Paris and the French Riviera, Anna May Wong (Shanghai Express) stars as a Chinese variety dancer who models for a young artist and ends up falling in love.
Individual events and screenings unless otherwise specified:
£11.50 full (plus 12% booking fee*)
£9.00 concessions / Refugees and Asylum Seekers (plus 12% booking fee*)
£6.00 24 or under (plus 12% booking fee*)
Concessions apply to Full Time Students, Job Seekers Allowance and Employment Support Allowance, 66+ who have retired, Equity and BECTU members and disabled people. Where applicable please produce proof of eligibility when collecting a ticket.
*Booking fee applies to online and phone booking only.
Complimentary tickets are available for Personal Assistants accompanying customers who are Deaf / Disabled and can be booked through the Box Office, or online after joining our Access Register.
Cinema Rediscovered Festival Pass
The Cinema Rediscovered Pass allows you to select from 80+ Cinema Rediscovered screenings and events between Wed 23 - Sun 27 July. Subject to availability, terms and conditions apply. Buy your Pass here. Pass holders get a free three-month trial from curated online film streaming platform MUBI.
Pass prices: £120 full / £100 concessions / £80 24 and under.
Multi-Ticket Package Offer
Get 20% off the regular ticket price when you book 4-10 Cinema Rediscovered screenings and/or events. The discount will automatically apply when you add the tickets to your basket.
Club Shed members get 20% off all individual Cinema Rediscovered tickets.
All Cinema Rediscovered Pass and ticket holders can get 20% off any 6 O'Clock Gin & Tonic (including Watershed’s very own) at the Café & Bar and Undershed Bar during the Festival. Pass and ticket holders can also enjoy Spritz time - get any drink from our Spritz menu for the reduced price of £8 between 17:00 - 20:00 at the Café & Bar and Undershed Bar during the Festival.
Please note: the Cinema Walks, Projection Tours, 16mm Projection Taster Sessions and the Film Quiz are excluded from the Pass and Package.
