To save paper, cut costs and give us flexibility in selecting films at short notice, we no longer produce printed programmes. All of our films are listed on the Buxton Opera House Cinema website as well as our own. If you’d like to receive a weekly alert for our Monday film please subscribe to our newsletter.
Here is our diary – we update it as soon as new films are confirmed. You won’t find a more varied and interesting programme anywhere!
| Monday 5/5/25 | Santosh | A widow-turned-police officer investigates a troubling murder in British Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s (I for India, Around India with a Movie Camera) fiction feature debut, screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2024. After her constable husband is killed on the job in remote northern India, Santosh reluctantly assumes his role. When a teenage Dalit (low caste) girl is found murdered and a Muslim boy is suspected, igniting protests in the local community, she is pulled into the case under the command of new female superior who skilfully navigates their police station’s misogynistic culture while remaining a fierce advocate against gendered violence. As the case develops, though, both women must confront their place within a corrupt (and corrupting) system, and Santosh’s personal ethics are painfully challenged by the realities of her world. A deft thriller interrogating hierarchies of gender, caste, religion and class in rural India, with superb performances from Goswami and Rajwar, Santosh combines a complex character study with searing social critique. |
| Monday 12/5/25 | Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story | The 93-year-old Irish writer recounts her controversial life, novels, love affairs, and stardom through personal journals read by actress Jessie Buckley, with perspectives from writers like Gabriel Byrne and Walter Mosley. |
| Monday 19/5/25 | Misericordia (15) | Winner of the Prix Louis-Delluc for Best French Film of 2024, Misercordia initially seems to promise a low-key, straight-down-the-line French rural melodrama. But then it takes a few confounding thriller detours before showing its hand as a peculiar small-town tale of murder, desire, and repression with the macabre humour and underlying suspense of Hitchcock.Darkly sparkling, offbeat and the director’s best work to date. |
| Monday 26/5/25 | Two To One (12A) | Set in the long, hot summer of 1990, a family in Socialist East Germany hatch a plan to make a fortune when they find a bunker full of soon-to-be-worthless currency. With the help of their friends and neighbours they tackle progress and capitalism head-on. A light-hearted heist comedy about friendship, community, love and capitalism with a superb performance from Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller, the film has been a sell-out hit in Germany and came second audience favourite at the recent Glasgow Film Festival. |
| Monday 2/6/25 | One To One: John & Yoko (15) | On August 30, 1972, in New York City, John Lennon played his only full-length show after leaving The Beatles, the One to One Benefit Concert, a rollicking, dazzling performance from him and Yoko Ono. Director Kevin Macdonald’s riveting documentary ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO takes that epic musical event and uses it as the starting point to recreate eighteen defining months in the lives of John and Yoko. By 1971 the couple was newly arrived in the United States— living in a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village and watching a huge amount of American television. The film uses a riotous mélange of American TV to conjure the era through what the two would have been seeing on the tube: the Vietnam War, The Price is Right, Nixon, Coca-Cola ads, Cronkite, The Waltons. As they experience a year of love and transformation in the US, John and Yoko begin to change their approach to protest — ultimately leading to the One to One concert, which was inspired by a Geraldo Rivera exposé they watched on TV. Filmed in a meticulously faithful reproduction of the NYC apartment the duo shared, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO also includes a wealth of never-before-seen material, including home movies and numerous phone call recordings of John and Yoko to offer a unique take on a seminal time in the lives of one of music’s most famous couples. |
| Monday 9/6/25 | The Marching Band (15) | Thibaut is an internationally renowned conductor who travels the world. When he learns he was adopted, he discovers the existence of a younger brother, Jimmy, who works in a school cafeteria and plays the trombone in a small marching band. Everything seems to set them apart, except their love of music. Sensing his brother's exceptional talent, Thibaut decides to remedy the injustice of fate. Jimmy begins to dream of a different life. An authentic, funny and very moving drama that is a very entertaining and involving watch – scoring highest in recent previews for cinema programmers from all over the UK. It’s a story of identity vs destiny, nature vs nurture, full of thinking about the interplay of talent and opportunity that go into the making (or unmaking) of a creative life. Not to be missed! |
| Monday 16/6/25 | The Go Between (PG) | This tribute to Julie Christie, who is 85, was based on the 1953 novel by L.P. Hartley. Set in dreamy summery Norfolk at the turn of the century, 12-year-old Leo is invited to stay at his friend Marcus’s country manor where he soon develops a crush on Marcus’s older sister Marian. Running errands for Marian, Leo suddenly realises he is involved in secret intrigues between adults. With a screenplay by Harold Pinter, one of the all-time best film scores by Michel Lagrand and superb acting from the British greats of that era, you’re in for a nostalgic treat. The film won the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 1971. |
| Monday 23/6/25 | The White Ribbon (15) | "It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers. And if you want a clearer answer, I'll have to pass." So said Michael Haneke, the director whose extraordinary filmography is being released in a major retrospective from Curzon. We'd love to show more of his multi award-winning films but we've picked two of the best to end our spring season - each quite different from the other but both with his trade-mark ability to keep us guessing. From July 1913 to the outbreak of World War I, a series of incidents takes place in a puritanical Protestant German village: A horse trips on a wire and throws the rider; a woman falls to her death through rotted planks; the local baron's son is hung upside down in a mill; parents slap and bully their children; a man is cruel to his long-suffering lover; People disappear. A callow teacher who courts a nanny in the baron's household narrates the story and tries to investigate the connections among these accidents and crimes. What is foreshadowed? God may be in His heaven, but all is not right with the world. Filmed in black and white The White Ribbon was winner of the Palm d’Or at Cannes and a Golden Globe. |
| Monday 30/6/25 | Hidden (Cache) (15) | "It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers. And if you want a clearer answer, I'll have to pass." So said Michael Haneke, the director whose extraordinary filmography is being released in a major retrospective from Curzon. The second of our screenings from the collection is set in France. Georges is a TV literary reviewer and lives in a small yet modern town house with his wife Anne, a publisher and his young son Pierrot. They begin to receive video tapes through the post of their house and family, alongside obscure child-like drawings. They visit the police with hope of aid to find the stalker, but as there is no direct threat, they refuse to help. As the tapes become more personal, Georges takes it upon himself to figure out who is putting through his family through such horror. A true Michael Haneke Classic. Winner at Cannes and many other festivals in 2005/6. |
| Sunday 27/7/25 2pm | Buxton Shorts | Buxton’s annual showcase selection of short films from local filmmakers. You’ll watch an eclectic and fascinating mix of around 10 films and get to vote for your favourite. A great event with Jury prizes to be awarded too. |
| Sunday 27/7/25 7.30pm | Michelangelo: Love and Death (PG) | The spectacular sculptures and paintings of Michelangelo seem so familiar to us, but what do we really know about this Renaissance giant? Michelangelo’s genius is evident in everything he touched. Beautiful and diverse works such as the towering statue of David, the moving Pietà in the Papal Basilica of St. Peter and his tour-de-force, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, still leave us breathless today. Spanning his 88 years, this film takes a cinematic journey through the print and drawing rooms of Europe through the great chapels and museums of Florence, Rome and the Vatican to seek out a deeper understanding of this legendary figure’s tempestuous life, his relationship with his contemporaries and his incredible legacy. Through expert commentary, stunning visuals and Michelangelo’s own words, this film takes a fresh look at a master artist whose life and genius are celebrated in every mark he made. Returning to cinemas in 2025 to celebrate this iconic artist’s 550th birthday. |