Cinema Rediscovered returns with a 60+ event lineup of global film gems

Public bookings open on Tuesday 3 June for the ninth annual edition of Cinema Rediscovered, the UK’s biggest celebration of screen classics from the past, ahead of its return to Bristol from Wednesday 23 - Sunday 27 July 2025 with a 60+ event programme that will include a record 21 UK premieres of new film restorations.

Image: Cinema Rediscovered

The festival opens with a keynote address from the BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated producer Stephen Woolley prior to him introducing a 35mm screening of one of his projects: the ambitiously maverick musical Absolute Beginners (1986), directed by Julien Temple and starring David Bowie, Sade, Ray Davies, Patsy Kensit and Eddie O’Connell.

The musical’s screening ushers in Against the Grain, a showcase of 1980s independent British films and personal appearances by the award-winning director Sir Stephen Frears and co-star Gordon Warnecke for a 40th anniversary screening of My Beautiful Laundrette (1985); the influential programmer/producer/author Lynda Myles, introducing the political thriller Defence of the Realm (1985), followed by a video chat with its star Gabriel Byrne and actor Lucy Sheen talking about the British-Chinese film Ping Pong (1986), a comedy mystery set in London’s Chinatown.

In all, the festival’s features 21 UK premieres of newly restored films, among them:

A pair of Anglo/German silents, Song (1928) and Pavement Butterfly (1929), both directed by Richard Eichberg and starring style icon Anna May Wong.  

Acclaimed conductor Charles Hazlewood introducing the 4k restoration of Miloš Forman’s Oscars-laden re-imagining of the rivalry between music composers Mozart and Salieri, Amadeus (1984) ahead of its theatrical re-release.  

A pioneering work about blue collar life by the African-American director Charles Burnett - Killer of Sheep (USA, 1978) – and an undeservedly rare showing of Larry Peerce’s ground-breaking One Potato, Two Potato (USA, 1964) revealing how racial prejudice impacts on an inter-racial marriage.

From Stephanie Rothman, the first woman to break into exploitation filmmaking and give it a feminist twist, the film she claims as her favourite, The Working Girls (USA, 1974).

Other countries represented in the restored or rediscovered programme are Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Czechoslovakia, France, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mali, Mauretania, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain with choices including

As part of a strand reflecting growing interest in the work of Yasuzō Masumura, the first UK screening of The Wife of Seisaku (1965) starring his long-time collaborator Ayako Wakao.

To mark the 30th anniversary of her death, Cinema Mentiré presents two newly restored films from Maria Luisa Bemberg, challenging Latin America’s stifling of female ambition.

Kalimata (Calamity, 1982) a biting social satire from prominent Czech New Wave director Věra Chytilová (1982).

The Martin Scorsese-endorsed, visually stunning The Fall of Otrar (1991) directed by Kazakhstan’s Ardak Amirkulov.

Yeelen (1987), hailed by one critic as “the most beautifully photographed and best African film ever made” and showing as an homage to its director, the pioneering Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé who died in February, aged 84. 

Austrian film historian Alexander Howarth’s video essay, Henry Ford for President (2024), looking at the USA’s past, present and possible future using interviews and screen clips by actor, Henry Fonda and showing with Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, USA, 1939).    

Additional events include:

A tribute to the creation of the world’s first film society (London, 1925) and its lasting impacts, illustrated by two Leni Reiniger shorts using scores composed by Bristol-born Eric Walter White and newly found “pristine” copy of EVERYDAY, made for the society by Switzerland’s Hans Richter and an appearance by Sergei Eisenstein. 

A panel discussion looking at the impact Channel 4’s entry into film production, including via its funding for films in the festival’s Against The Grain strand..

For children/ families, a selection of film-on-film animations screening from 16mm prints, accompanied by a chance for children to discover how film is projected + a weekend matinee showing of Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981). 

The results of the latest Pitch to Park Circus film curation contest plus a screening of one of the Transnational Japan in Hollywood films chosen by last year’s winner Yuriko Hamaguchi.

A choice of guided walks through Bristol’s long history of involvement with cinema; have-a-go at 16mm projection workshops; projection box tours and a quiz.

Festival founder Mark Cosgrove says: "This is our most expansive and exciting programme yet; from taking a fresh look at emerging indie filmmaking across a turbulent decade in British cinema to rediscovering the films of Yasujirō Masumura while offering new perspectives on recent restorations and archive finds and with all showing where they were made to be seen: on a big screen. The screenings programme is enhanced with an exciting array of events and guest visits, guaranteeing plenty of starting points for lively conversations.”

To view the full Cinema Rediscovered 2025 line-up and find booking details and prices, visit www.watershed.co.uk/cinema-rediscovered.

Cinema Rediscovered 2025 is a Watershed presentation, made possible thanks to the support of the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, and principal sponsors Park Circus and STUDIOCANAL.  

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