18th October 2019 Official Secrets, National Science and Media Museum

The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press. Staring Keira Knightly, Ralph Fiennes and Matt Smith and filmed at locations in and around Bradford. Special release night ticket price of £4.50. Further details here

20th October 2019 Rocket Man, Clayton Community Cinema

17.30-20.00 Clayton Village Hall. Further details here

22nd October 2019 Keeping Mum, Bingley Community Cinema

14.30 Bingley Arts Centre, tickets available here

23rd October 2019 Children of Heaven, Oastler Market Pop Up Cinema

14.00, Free, Oastler Shopping Centre, Bradford
Children of Heaven is a 1997 Iranian family drama film written and directed by Majid Majidi. It tells the story of a brother and sister and their adventures over a lost pair of shoes. Details and location here

24th October 2019 Ghost Stories, National Science and Media Museum

11.30, £4.50
Filmed around Bradford, the movie tells the story of sceptical professor Phillip Goodman embarking on a trip investigating three unexplained cases of apparitions. Showing as part of the Silver Screen Club at a discounted ticket price and including a free tea or coffee, if you’re over 60. Details here

25th October 2019 Downton Abbey (Subtitled), The Light Cinema Bradford

11.00 £5
The continuing story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early 20th century. This special subtitled screening is available at a Golden Years Festival price of £5, tickets available shortly here

26th October 2019 Beyond the clouds – taking on the Joss Naylor Challenge, Bradford City Hall

15.00-16.30, £5 (adults), Free (under 16s)
Joining us to tell her inspirational tale, Kendal based grandmother Sandra Scott made her first steps into the world of running upon her retirement. At the age of 68 Sandra took on one of the Lakes District’s greatest fell running feats, the Joss Naylor Challenge. This ultra run is nearly 48 miles long, takes in 30 peaks and has over 17,000 feet of ascent. Sandra will be joining us for a Q&A session following the screening of her film to talk about her experience and how she has gone on to study a PHd researching endurance sport and older people.

Book tickets here

28th and 29th October 2019 Tell us a story, Pop Up Cinema, Oastler Market

13.00-16.00, Free
As part of our pop up cinema the Golden Years Festival will also have a pop up studio in the Oastler Market. We are offering the opportunity to come along and to read a short story (250words max) to camera with some final results being shown on the Big Screen in City Park.

28th October 2019 – Classic Movie – Hans Christian Anderson (1952), Pop Up Cinema, Oastler Market

10.00-12.00 Entry: £3 (including tea/coffee), Under 16s Free
This is not the story of his life, but a fairy tale about the great spinner of fairy tales. Staring Danny Kaye and, Farley Granger. Tickets available on the door or here

29th October 2019 – Hugo, Pop Up Cinema, Oastler Market

10.00-12.00 Entry: £3 adult (including tea/coffee), Free for Under 16s
In Paris in 1931, an orphan named Hugo Cabret, who lives in the walls of a train station, is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
Tickets available on the door or here

31st October 2019 – Family Special – Roald Dahl’s The Witches, Pop Up Cinema, Oastler Market

10.00-12.00 Entry: £3 adult (including tea/coffee), Free for Under 16s
A young boy stumbles onto a witch convention and must stop them, even after he has been turned into a mouse. Tickets available on the door or here

The Ice King 

11:30am – Picturehouse, Bradford – £4.50

South Seas Adventures 60th Anniversary – Cinerama (digital)

11:00am – Picturehouse, Bradford – £4.50

Dementia-Friendly screening.

Cinerama transports you to lush tropic islands…adventure-splashed with a thousand excitements! 

Partially narrated by Orson Welles, South Seas Adventure presents a series of fictionalised, island-hopping voyages from Hawaii to Australia and back, stopping in tranquil places like Tahiti, Tonga and Fiji as well as exotic and primitive Pentecost Island. Follow the arrival of a new European immigrant man and his young daughter in Australia, as they get accustomed to native animals like koalas and kangaroos, and then settle in for a new life in the “outback”. There, they become integral to stories illustrating life in isolated areas, including the “School of the Air”, a classroom conducted over the radio, and the Flying Doctor Service. 

M&S on the Silver Screen

11:30am – Picturehouse, Bradford – Free

From carefree summer holidays in glamorous locations, to West End dancers in Terylene skirts and a James Bond-style hunt for wool, the M&S Company Archive will be sharing highlights from their archive film collection showing vintage M&S adverts from the 1950s to the 1970s for the silver screen.  

Films will be introduced by an M&S Archive Offer and there will be an opportunity for Q&A. 

To Sir, With Love

11:00am – Picturehouse, Bradford – £4.50

Introduced by Professor Duncan Petrie, Head of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York 

James Clavell’s adaptation of E.R. Braithwaite’s autobiographical novel features Sidney Poitier as Mark Thackery, a Guyanese immigrant who successfully applies for a job as a teacher at a tough East End school. Initially confronted by hostility from his class of ill- disciplined final-year students, Thackeray slowly wins their trust by treating them with candour and respect. A huge hit at the time, the film depicts the physical environment and social confrontation with admirable veracity allowing the intersecting contours of class, race, and gender difference, and the link between self-realisation and social cohesion, to be subtly but forcefully illuminated. The strong cast features emerging talents like Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall and Lulu, whose single of the theme song topped the American Billboard chart.  

 Join us for a post-screening discussion with Duncan Petrie, and Professor Melvyn Stokes and Dr Patrick Glen, project leaders of Remembering 1960s British Cinema-going at University College London.   

The L-Shaped Room

11:00am – Picturehouse, Bradford – £4.50

Introduced by Professor Duncan Petrie, Head of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York 

One of the more neglected films of the early sixties, Bryan Forbes’ drama about a young French woman who finds herself single and pregnant in London is a cautionary ‘social problem’ tale similar to the better known New Wave film A Taste of Honey. But it also challenges the anger and pessimism of the kitchen sink by offering  a vision of London’s Notting Hill as home to a dynamic array of bohemians, artists, ethnic minorities and other ‘unconventional’ types that suggest a more open, diverse, tolerant and ultimately cosmopolitan society.  

An audience with Esther Rantzen

From 1pm – Pictureville Cinema

We launch our festival with special guest, journalist and broadcaster Esther Rantzen. Join us to hear about Esther’s experiences as a broadcaster and find out some of the projects close to her heart. Hosted by David Wilson, Director of Bradford UNECSO City of Film, this promises to be a memorable afternoon in the company of one of Britain’s most popular broadcaster.

Tickets £8 general/£6 concessions. Book in advance to avoid disappointment, see below for details on how to book.

Priestley on the Big Screen: a celebration of Bradford’s famous writer

JB Priestley’s Lost City – 2:30pm – Pictureville Cinema

A rare showing of Lost City, a 1958 BBC documentary film about J.B.Priestley touring Bradford, the city he grew up in.

1930’s Comedy with Vivien Leigh and Gracie Fields who plays a gutsy lass who rallies fellow stall-holders to prevent a takeover and demolition of their market by a department store. Written by JB Priestley the action takes a turn when an inadvertent gas leak provides an explosive climax….

Some Like it Hot

5:30pm (doors open at 5:00pm) – Clayton Community Cinema – Clayton Village Hall

When two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in. Starring Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis.

Refreshments are available at the bar.

£1 entry for all, see below for details on how to book.

To Walk Invisible 

11am – Free screening at Pictureville Cinema, introduced by Ann Dinsdale, Principal Curator of the Bronte Society and the Parsonage Museum. 

Ann Dinsdale is Principal Curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, where she works organising exhibitions and caring for the collections. She also played an advisory role in the filming of To Walk Invisible while the crew filmed in Haworth. This epic drama was written and directed by award winning Sally Wainwright and is brought to the festival in partnership with the BBC. The film follows the famous Haworth sisters Charlotte (Finn Atkins), Emily (Chloe Pirrie) and Anne (Charlie Murphy) as they pursue a writing career whilst sharing the burden of supporting their trouble brother Branwell.

Life on the Home Front

10:15 – 10:45am – Free screening at Cubby Broccoli Cinema, Picturehouse, Bradford

Calamity Jane (Sing-a-long)

11am – Pictureville Cinema

Starring Doris Day as the gun-toting, whip-cracking wild west whirlwind, Calamity Jane is a classic Golden Age musical. Reissued on a new digital print this is a brand new sing-a-long version of a musical classic!

Tickets £4.50, see below for details on how to book.

 The Band Wagon 

2pm – Free screening at Delius Arts & Cultural Centre 

The Creative Stroke Recovery Group invite you to join them for this uplifting musical comedy of resilience and resourcefulness as Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire) fears his career may be on the skids, but his friends have written a Broadway hit to kick-start his professional life.

Local swing jiving session

10:15 – 10:45am – Pictureville Bar

This is a free, lively session hosted by Marie McCahery from the Bradford Lindy Hop – will get everyone in the fifties mood!

Jailhouse Rock 

11am – Pictureville Cinema, Dementia friendly screening

One of the best of Elvis Presley’s pre-Army films, Jailhouse Rock offers the sensual, dangerous

Bajirao Mastani

2pm – Picturehouse Cinema

 Ranveer Singh is 18th century Maratha Peshwa Bajirao in the epic romance Bajirao Mastani, one of the highest grossing Indian films of all time.

Hindi/Marathi with English subtitles.

Tickets £4.50, see below for details on how to book.

Laurel and Hardy Triple Bill

7pm – Bradford Club 

The Rotary Club of Bradford Blaize bring you three of the best from America’s golden duo of comedy. Come and enjoy an evening of laughter at the Bradford Club with; The Music
Box, Hog Wild and Sons of the Desert. The films will be introduced by Dave Ballard, Grand Sheik of the Bradford County Hospital tent, the Bradford branch of the Sons of the Desert, the international Laurel & Hardy society.

Goodbye Christopher Robin 

11am – Pictureville Cinema, introduced by Bradford UNESCO City of Film Director, David Wilson, with a talk on Bradford’s film heritage. 

The film gives a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children’s author A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin, whose toys inspired the magical world of Winnie the Pooh. Along with his mother Daphne (Margot Robbie), and his nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), Christopher Robin and his family are swept up in the international success of the books but with the eyes of the world on Christopher Robin, what will the cost be to the family?

Monday 3 October 2016 

Film Heritage and Memory Bank

10:30am – 12:30pm

Banqueting Hall

Following a warm welcome an official opening of the festival by the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Cllr Geoff Reid we start by taking a look at Bradford’s rich film heritage with a talk from the the Director of Bradford UNESCO City of Film highlighting some of the key film & TV locations across Bradford over the past 100 years!

Retaining and improving memory will be on the agenda with a look at a groundbreaking film project called Memory Bank Bradford, which looks back at some great archive footage of Bradford from the Yorkshire Film Archive and will provide festival-goers with an opportunity to discuss and reminisce. This innovative programme, which stimulates memory through film, is run in partnership with Bradford UNESCO City of Film, Yorkshire Film Archive, Age UK and Champions Show the Way, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.

Room at the Top (film screening) (Cert 12 – 112min)

1:30pm – 2:30pm

Banqueting Hall

In the afternoon, the first screening of the festival will commence with 1959’s Room at the Top. A true Bradford classic if ever there was one, this film (written by local librarian John Braine) was ground-breaking cinema of its time, heralding a ‘new wave’ of British realist filmmaking. An unexpected hit at the box office, the film scored six Oscar nominations (including two wins – one for Best Writing and one for Simone Signoret for Best Actress) and seven BAFTA nominations. Shot extensively in and around Bradford, locations include City Hall, The Midland Hotel, the Boy & Barrel pub and many other scenes from the City.