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 6/1/25 | Soundtrack To A Coup D'Etat | It was 1960 at the United Nations when the Global South ignites a political earthquake. Musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council in protest against the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s first post-independence prime minister. Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe denouncing America’s colour bar, while the U.S. dispatches jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the Congo to deflect attention from its first African post-colonial coup. Constructed entirely from archive footage the film entwines Jazz and decolonization in an historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War . Featuring Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus providing the soundtrack and Malcolm X, Nikita Khrushchev, and many more providing the eye-opening world-politics of the cold war era. |
| Monday 13/1/25 | On Becoming A Guinea Fowl (12A) | A woman drives through the inky Zambian night, joyful and resplendent in fancy dress. Her car slows as she discovers a body on the road, the corpse of her uncle, Freddy. So begins several days of mourning, with Shula’s family insisting on a grand funeral. Yet Shula refuses to grieve. As she is asked to store more family secrets, is heaped with duties and uncovers the truth of her uncle’s life, something stirs in her, stalking through the long grass and ready to warn of the predators that lurk there. Reality has a lightly shifting surface under which the past lingers, ready to rise up and swallow us at any time.. A story about reclaiming one’s power and creating new bonds of solidarity, this is one of the most sophisticated films to emerge from the #MeToo era. |
| Monday 20/1/25 | The Universal Theory | Amongst the towering landscape of the Swiss Alps, a gifted young physicist meets an elusive pianist – one who knows things about him that he’s never told another living soul. Before he knows it, his curiosity traps him inside a mind-bending metaphysical web of murder and mystery. Set in 1962, against the backdrop of Cold War tensions and a world of paranoid conspiracy, the secrets that lie beneath the mountains are slowly revealed as his investigations deepen and the gripping truth is revealed. |
| Monday 27/1/25 | How To Make A Million Before Grandma Dies (12A) | After his grandmother Amah is diagnosed with terminal cancer, the lackadaisical M moves in to care for her. How noble – but his newfound devotion isn’t altruistic; really, he hopes to secure her multi-million-dollar fortune. Unfortunately, it turns out it’s harder to win his shrewd grandmother’s favour than he thought… Plus, he’s only one in a number of interested parties. A box office sensation in Thailand, Pat Boonnitipat’s irresistible feature debut is a proven tearjerker (it went viral after users of social media began a trend of videoing themselves crying after watching the film). But the film is not as sentimental as it sounds and while providing an insight into Thai culture and draws us into a family with universally recognisable dynamics. This is a journey to redemption story with wit and heart. |
| Monday 3/2/25 | Vermiglio | It is 1944 in Vermiglio, a high mountain village of the Italian Alps where war looms as a distant but constant threat. The arrival of Pietro, a refugee soldier, disrupts the dynamics of the local teacher’s family, changing them forever. During the four seasons marking the end of World War II, Pietro and Lucia, the eldest daughter of the teacher, are instantly drawn to each other. The relationship leads to marriage and an unexpected fate. As the world emerges from its tragedy, the family will face its own. Winner of the Silver Lion- Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival “A hauntingly beautiful period tale.” BFI |
| Monday 10/2/25 | Nickel Boys | An audacious and profoundly moving tale of a mid-century American reform school. Adapting Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Nickel Boys tells the story of Elwood, a black teen sent to the Nickel Academy (based on a notorious real-life institution) where he befriends Turner and together they find a way to squirrel hope against the odds. As the former students reconnect later in life, we are witnesses not only to the scars left by their youth, but also the healing power of human connection. A very visual film that thoughtfully depicts the moments that define a life while pushing the painful to the margins. Winner of many awards and top of the audience list at recent UK previews. |
| Monday 17/2/25 | Small Things Like These | Coal merchant Bill Furlong is a father of five girls and a good man. One day he sets off on his deliveries earlier than expected and discovers a teenage girl, Sarah, locked in the coal shed in freezing temperatures at a local convent. The girl says she will have to give birth there in five months. The nuns at the convent deny mistreating her and pressurise Bill into keeping quiet. The conspiracy of silence extends to others in the community and Bill struggles with secrets both his own and of his discovery of a Magdelaine Laundry in the local convent. "Eileen Walsh has never been better and Cillian Murphy is astonishing - a must see" ***** The Guardian |
| Monday 24/2/25 | The Seed of the Sacred Fig | Iman is a judge who sees benefits for his family in his career’s rapid advancement. His student daughters, who are secretly involved in the anti-hijab protests, are suspicious of his increasing collaboration with the regime. He is warned not to confide in his wife as he is encouraged to wave through death sentences without considering the evidence. Iman’s divided loyalties are exposed when his government-issued handgun goes missing, and suspicion falls on the women in his home. What follows is a supremely dramatic wave of edge-of-the-seat revelations. A film that deals with the contemporary issues dividing Iranian society – a drama that will keep you absolutely mesmerised. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 2024, nominated for a Golden Globe and shortlisted for an Oscar. |
| Monday 3/3/25 | tbc | |
| Monday 10/3/25 | Hard Truths | New Mike Leigh film - details soon |
| Monday 17/3/25 | Memoir of a Snail | details soon |
| Monday 24/3/25 | Earnest Cole | details soon |
| Monday 31/3/25 | tbc |