Cinema Rediscovered | Early birds catch the gems

Early Bird passes are now on sale for the 10th birthday edition of Cinema Rediscovered – the UK’s leading celebration of newly-restored films, forgotten gems and classic revivals – taking place in and around Bristol UNESCO City of Film from 22 to 26 July.

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Danger Diabolik. Courtesy of Park Circus and Paramount.jpg

30% off a full festival pass

From now until early June, film fans can get up to 30% off a full festival pass giving access to a 60+ event line-up of screenings, talks, special guest events and a multitude of other starting points for lively conversations. 

Danger: Diabolik 

The festival will open with the UK cinema premiere of a new 4K restoration of Mario Bava’s high-octane and influential pop-art masterpiece Danger: Diabolik (1968), with Edgar Wright video-introducing and launching a Comics Come Alive strand featuring live action screen adaptions of comics.

Off beat

Among them will be Edgar Wright’s own Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010); 25th anniversary showings of camp classic  Josie & The Pussycats (2001) and off-beat gem Ghost World (2001) which gave breakout roles to Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson; plus Park Chan-wook’s visceral Oldboy (2003) and playful docudrama American Splendor (2003.)

Other confirmed highlights include:  

Rogue Hollywood – a strand exploring the dark side of the 1970s American psyche, including a 50th anniversary screening of Elaine May’s neglected gem Mikey and Nicky (1976) starring John Cassavetes and Peter Falk; Paul Schrader’s dissection of middle-class morality in Hardcore (1979); and Diane Keaton cruising bars in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

A look at the 50-year history of Artificial Eye (and Curzon Films),the influential UK distributor of indie foreign language and arthouse films which, in a throwback to the festival’s first edition, will include screenings of newly restored versions of two Andrei Tarkovsky films: Nostalgia (1983) and The Sacrifice (1986)
15+ premieres including the World Premiere of the 4K restoration of John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar (1963); and UK Premieres of Joseph Losey’s Cannes Festival-winning Accident (1967) introduced by the director’s son, Josh Losey; Hong Kong New Wave director Peter Yung’s debut feature The System (1979); Cynthia Beatt’s The Party – Nature Morte (1991) starring Tilda Swinton; Lynchian gothic tale Nadja (1994) and a new reconstruction by Milestone Film & Video of Erich von Stroheim’s lost silent masterpiece Queen Kelly (1929), presented by critic and film historian Pamela Hutchinson; author of The Curse of Queen Kelly.
Closer to home, a celebration of Aardman’s 50th anniversary to coincide with “Cracking Exhibition Gromit: 50 Years of Aardman in Bristol” exhibition at M Shed.

Festival founder Mark Cosgrove told D&CFilm: “The fact that we are celebrating our 10th edition is testament to audiences’ renewed appetite for rediscovering film’s rich history and to Bristol’s passionate embrace of all things cinema.

Goodbye Dragon Inn. Photo by Lin Meng Shan courtesy of Homegreenfilms

“We have been delighted to see attendance grow year-on-year and are excited to present a sensational selection of premieres, events and guests to mark this special birthday including my personal favourite films that revolve around the power of the cinema: Closed Circuit (1978), Matinee (1993) and Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)”

Early Bird festival passes are on sale now from the Watershed box office, 1 Canons Road, Bristol, BS1 5TX; telephone 0117 927 5100 or via www.watershed.co.uk priced at £95 (£75 concessions, £60 aged 24 and under) – a saving of 30% on full prices.  

To stay up to date with festival news, find Cinema Rediscovered on Letterboxd or Bluesky; keep a watch on watershed.co.uk/cinema-rediscovered or sign up for the free e-newsletter.      

Cinema Rediscovered 2026 is a Watershed presentation in association with Bristol-based independent brewery Wiper and True and made possible thanks to the support of the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, and principal sponsors Park Circus and STUDIOCANAL. Find out more about principal sponsors and funders, see here.

Top image: Looking for Mr Goodbar, starring Diane Keaton. Courtesy of Park Circus and Paramount