Film Hub Fortnightly – February 22 (part 1)

31st January 2022

February is proving to be an especially packed month for independent Northern Ireland cinemas.

Aidan Monaghan/WILDFIRE

In a new edition of their touring series ‘Collective’, Film Hub NI will be bringing Cathy Brady’s feature debut Wildfire (2020), a border-set drama about two reunited sisters threatened by their family’s dark past, to venues around Northern Ireland. On the 2nd, the Fermanagh Film Club will screen the film in the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen. While the Braid Film Theatre’s screening on the 10th will take them away from their usual base in Ballymena to the Hilton hotel in Templepatrick.

The Newcastle Community Cinema's upcoming programme consists of the Edgar Wright directed psychological thriller Last Night in Soho (2021) on the 4th, German drama System Crasher (2019) on the 8th, and Dune (2021) on the 12th. In Belfast, the Ghouls on Film feminist club will be showing the 2018 remake of Suspiria, starring Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton, in the Black Box on the 6th. And on the 5th, the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s will be hosting a special free event called Ulysses Journey 2022, a series of performances and film screenings in celebration of the 100th anniversary of James Joyce’s seminal novel Ulysses.

At the Queen’s Film Theatre, you can currently see Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast (2021), which is playing until the 10th, as well as Irish-language thriller Doineann (2021) and the new Pedro Almodóvar film Parallel Mothers (2021), both of which are playing up until the 3rd. Opening on the 4th and playing until the 10th, The Souvenir Part II (2021) is an autobiographical film and a portrait of a young artist, directed by Joanna Hogg and starring Honor-Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton and Richard Ayoade. While Belle (2021), from the 11th to the 17th, is a new digital take take on Beauty and the Beast tale from acclaimed anime director Mamoru Hosoda. The QFT’s line-up of upcoming special screenings including a Real to Reel presentation of realist Japanese drama Shoplifters (2018) on the 8th, with the film followed by a panel discussion on its sociological themes. The romantic drama Ali & Ava (2021) will be shown in a special Valentine’s Day themed preview on the 14th, while the Naughton Gallery co-presented series SCREEN/PRINT will bring the 2005 adaptation of the Jonathan Larson musical Rent on the 15th.

At the Strand Arts Centre, you can also currently see Belfast and Belle (playing from the 4th), as well as the Guillermo Del Toro directed remake of Nightmare Alley (2021), starring Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett, and the animated musical Sing 2 (2021). The 11th will see the opening of Kenneth Branagh’s second Poirot outing Death on the Nile (2022), the action-adventure video adaptation Uncharted (2022), starring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas, and romantic comedy Marry Me (2022), starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. Prior to its wide release on the 23rd, the period musical Cyrano (2021), starring Peter Dinklage, will be getting preview screenings from the 14th. The Strand’s special events including a screening on the 8th of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), to celebrate the 90th birthday of composer John Williams. On the 10th, there will be an anniversary screening of The Bodyguard (1992), starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, while on the 14th you can celebrate Valentine’s Day with True Romance (1993).

At Movie House Cinemas, there will be screenings of Belfast and Sing 2, as well as musical anime Sing a Bit of Harmony (2021), romantic drama A Journal for Jordan (2021), directed by Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan, and British supernatural horror Amulet (2020). From the 3rd, you can catch Moonfall (2022), a science-fiction epic starring Halle Berry and directed by disaster movie maestro Roland Emmerich. Playing from the 4th, The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021), starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield, charts the true rise and fall of a televangelist, while from the 11th, there will be showings of Death on the Nile and Marry Me.

By Ruairí McCann

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