What’s On Week Ahead

Until Thu 19 Feb

With virtual reality, giant inflatables, feature films, projections, sketchbooks and more – this season explores family, the creative spirit, grief and togetherness. With a multimedia exhibition alongside a series of events and films in the cinema from the Kötting family.

Mon 2 - Fri 6 Feb

Artists and Studio Residents, Action Hero are constructing 2000 paper buildings in our Café & Bar, and they need your help!

Until Thu 5 Feb

Park Chan-wook (Decision To Leave, Old Boy, The Handmaiden) returns with this satirical black comedy/thriller about a husband and father who takes violent action after being laid off.

Until Mon 9 Feb

A playful, poignant love letter to cinema, Richard Linklater reimagines the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless in an exuberant exploration of the youthful rebellion and creative chaos that shaped the French New Wave.

Until Thu 5 Feb

Oscar®-winning director Chloé Zhao's (Nomadland) adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling novel reimagines a pivotal moment in the lives of William Shakespeare's family.

Until Thu 5 Feb

Claire Foy stars alongside Brendan Gleeson in Philippa Lowthorpe’s beautifully realised and emotionally charged adaptation of Helen MacDonald’s award-winning memoir.

Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut feature was this iconoclastic crime film, which almost singlehandedly changed the face of French cinema and went on to inspire countless New Waves around the world.

Until Thu 5 Feb

Oliver Hermanus (Living) chronicles a decades-spanning romance centered around the power of music, starring an electric Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.

Becoming Victoria Wood uncovers the formative experiences and personal battles that powered the comic genius's unmatched ability to make the nation laugh.

Make Shift Fundamentals are masterclasses for early career creatives (18-30s -ish) to come together in the Pervasive Media Studio and get their creative ideas moving. This session will be hosted by Tony Bhajam, Inclusion Producer.

Join Sunday Times bestselling, Tik Tok sensation Imani Erriu on tour to celebrate the release of Fallen Stars, the much anticipated second book in her Heavenly Bodies series.

Adolphe Menjou plays the impeccably dressed but somewhat wayward husband of a socialite (Florence Vidor) whose teenage daughter (Betty Bronson) schemes to reunite her estranged parents.

A joyful triple bill celebrating 1928, the second year of Laurel & Hardy’s partnership, and the moment when their distinctive comic rhythm, friendship and finely tuned partnership truly took shape.

A rare opportunity to see one of Buster Keaton’s most surprising and charming sound features, a 1934 French production co-starring the lovely Paulette Dubost.

Irreverent, subversive and gloriously funny, The Bank Dick (1940) remains one of W.C. Fields’ greatest comedies – and a perfect gateway into Slapstick’s ongoing exploration of faith, morality and rebellion in screen humour. 

Bristol Megascreen (about 1 min walk from Watershed)

Continuing Slapstick’s opening-day exploration of comedy, faith and irreverence, this special double-bill presents two silent-era masterpieces that find humour and humanity in the search for redemption.

Bristol Megascreen (about 1 min walk from Watershed)

Exploring the uneasy line between humour and heresy, join Slapstick for a riotous 25th-anniversary screening of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s outrageous, sharp-witted musical satire that took the world by storm.

Adolphe Menjou dazzles as sharp-tongued editor Walter Burns in Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s landmark newsroom satire.

The Marriage Circle is a sparkling silent comedy of manners set among Vienna’s elegant middle classes, where two marriages are unsettled by flirtation, jealousy and suspicion.

This specially curated programme of short comedies showcases Fazenda at her riotous best, including: Her Torpedoed Love (1917) and Heart and Flowers (1919).

Join filmmaker Dean Sills in conversation with Andrew Kelly for a chat exploring the making of Laurel and Hardy’s Yorkshire Adventures.

Bristol Megascreen (about 1 min walk from Watershed)

Comedy legend Harry Hill joins Sean Foley for a hilarious cinematic trip to Harry’s very own Desert Island Stan & Ollie.

Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.

Bristol Megascreen (about 1 min walk from Watershed)

The ultimate Desert Island Stan & Ollie experience as Harry Hill introduces his favourite Laurel & Hardy feature of all time — newly restored and revealed only when the lights go down.

A witty and stylish comedy, Olive Thomas plays a small-town schoolgirl who ventures to an elite finishing school and discovers the excitement and complications of independence, flirtation and fun.

Fri 6 - Thu 12 Feb

Nominated at this year’s BAFTA Film Awards in the category of 'Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer', Akinola Davies Jr.'s bold and poetic film follows a father, estranged from his young sons, over the course of a day in Lagos.

In this screening and discussion, film historian Pam Hutchinson and comedian, actor Lucy Porter celebrate some of these overlooked acts inspired by Laurel & Hardy.

In this talk, artist and researcher Lara Luna-Bartley and sociologist and performer Rhiannon Craft will discuss Laundry Justice, a co-produced trans-disciplinary research project exploring off-grid laundry practices and knowledge with Vehicle Dwellers in Bristol.

Our Hospitality brings action movie thrills to a high-stakes comedy of manners, with extravagant period costumes, dramatic landscapes, and some classic Keaton railroad stunts leading to a truly breathtaking climax.

Fri 6 - Thu 12 Feb

In the Occupied West Bank of the 1980s, a Palestinian teenager is swept into a protest that changes the course of his family’s life. Reeling from its aftermath, his mother, Hanan, shares the story that led them to that fateful moment and the effects felt by her family across seven decades.

Join us for a joyful celebration of one of Britain’s most beloved and influential sitcoms The Likely Lads.

First Friday is a monthly social and showcasing event open to anyone.

Fri 6 - Thu 12 Feb

The Chronology of Water is the directorial feature debut from Oscar®-nominated actor Kristen Stewart, starring Imogen Poots in a fearless, raw and unforgettable performance.

A rare opportunity to experience one of Yasujirō Ozu’s most captivating early silent comedies on the big screen.

Natasha Lyonne plays Megan, a wholesome all-American girl whose picture-perfect life implodes when her parents suspect she’s gay and ship her off to “True Directions,” a pastel-coloured conversion camp run by the hilariously zealous Cathy Moriarty, with RuPaul as the reformed ex-gay counsellor in high heels.

In postwar Kyoto, troubled monk Goichi’s reverence for the sacred Shukaku Temple curdles into obsession for its beauty as he witnesses corruption and hypocrisy within its walls. Tormented, he resolves to commit a shocking act of purity from which there is no return.

Join us for a special screening of Atoll K (Utopia), presented in a brand-new BFI restoration that returns Laurel & Hardy’s final feature to its original clarity and charm.

In a city of humanoid animals, a hustling theatre impresario's attempt to save his theatre with a singing competition becomes grander than he anticipates even as its finalists find that their lives will never be the same.

Slapstick 2026 concludes with a big-screen return for one of the sharpest and most prescient political comedies ever made.