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 31/8/26 7.30pm | Cactus Pears (15) | We loved this gentle and moving award-winning study of grief and love in rural India when we previewed it earlier in the year. After his father dies, 30-year-old Anand returns from Mumbai to his ancestral village for a 10-day mourning period. The intensity of these rituals and his well- meaning relatives’ pressure on him to marry leave him little room to grieve. But his rekindled friendship with childhood pal and local farmer Balya offers him a glimpse of freedom, and as the pair reconnect and explore their shared history, their companionship leads to deeper feelings. Against the backdrop of Western India’s vast, rugged landscapes, Kanawade’s understated, beautifully photographed modern romance won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival 2025. |
| Monday 7/9/26 7.30pm | The Last Viking (15) | The sixth collaboration between director Anders Thomas Jensen (The Promised Land, Riders of Justice, Men & Chicken) and stars Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas, this outrageous black comedy sees them lean further into the mayhem. Under the weight of a remarkably unflattering perm, Mikkelsen plays Manfred, a man who believes he’s John Lennon despite persuasive evidence to the contrary, Lie Kaas his brother Anker, who’s fresh out of jail after a 15-year stint for bank robbery. Manfred is the only one who knows where the loot is buried, but he’s forgotten. And so, the brothers must embark on a chaotic journey to locate it, at the same time uncovering more about who they are. Joined by performers including The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl and Søren Malling, The Last Viking lines up a memorable gallery of equally ludicrous misfits and miscreants with their own foibles and fixations – but for all its outlandish, farcical and occasionally violent comedy, also lands deeper notes about identity, difference and tolerance. |
| Monday 14/9/26 7.30pm | The Summer Book (PG) | adaptation of Tove Jansson’s elegant and moving novel. A family arrive, as they have done for many years, to their retreat on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. This time, however, someone is missing. Nature takes a leading role in the story’s exploration of grief and the delicate bonds between a young girl, her grandmother and her grieving father. A beautifully shot and unsentimental drama that has topped the independent film charts in recent weeks |
| Monday 21/9/26 7.30pm | EOS James McNeill Whistler (U) | In an era of great change and great beauty emerged the character of James McNeill Whistler. Considered by some to be one of the great innovators of 19th century art, he was a contemporary of the Impressionists, much admired by Van Gogh and Manet. Boldly experimental and famously witty, Whistler disrupted the strict conventions of Victorian society in pursuit of a new cult of beauty, creating “art for art’s sake” and earning himself a place in the history of great art. He found a parallel between painting and music, and entitled many of his paintings "arrangements", "harmonies" and "nocturnes", emphasizing the importance of tonal harmony in his work. His most famous painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871), commonly known as Whistler's Mother, is a revered and often parodied portrait of motherhood. It is arguably one of the most famous paintings in history and this film will unveil the artist behind the art. Tate Britain is now holding the first major retrospective of Whistler in three decades. This blockbuster exhibition promises to reawaken the world to just how important Whistler is to art history, uniting world-famous masterpieces with rarely seen works. Exhibition on Screen will bring these stunning works and the incredible story behind them to cinemas around the world while the exhibition is still running, bringing this truly global artist to a global audience. This will be an unmissable chance to get to know this visually spectacular artist and the influence he has had on those who followed. |
| Monday 28/9/26 7.30pm | Iron Winter (12A) | Although not on general release in the UK, we spotted this film at the Borderlines Film Festival in March where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. The cinemaphotography of Mongolia’s breathtaking landscapes is exceptional and the story a window into another world far from our daily routines. For countless generations, the herders of the Tsakhir Valley have protected their horses from ferocious arctic storms by amassing a giant winter herd, nominating their bravest young men to protect it. The daring tradition served as a brutal coming of age ritual, until five years ago, when under increasing environmental pressure, it abruptly ended. Fearful about the loss of culture, elders soon vowed to revive it. And two young friends were handed the daunting responsibility to not only protect the valley's herd - but to save its most sacred practice. For four months, the boys battle Mongolia's deadliest winter on record, testing friendship and faith in a fight to keep 2000 horses alive, and preserve an ancient way of life. |
| Monday 5/10/26 | Bitter Christmas (15) | After winning the Golden Lion for The Room Next Door at Venice in 2024, Pedro Almodóvar returned to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year where this, his latest film, was nominated for the Palme D’Or and where it won the Soundtrack Award. Raúl is a cult filmmaker in the midst of a creative crisis. When tragedy strikes one of his closest collaborators, he draws inspiration from it to write his next film. Little by little, he imagines Elsa, a filmmaker in the midst of writing a script, whose journey begins to mirror his own. The two filmmakers become two sides of the same character, in a game of mirrors where the raw honesty of autofiction reveals as much as it destroys. But how far can one go to tell a story? |