Propelled by the deliciously dry wit of Oscar nominee Steve Coogan, this poignant dramedy follows an Englishman’s personal and political awakening during a period of crisis in Argentina. Inspired by true events, The Penguin Lessons takes to heart the notion that saving someone’s life begins a new responsibility. In this case, that someone is a surprisingly wise, utterly adorable penguin.

The year is 1976. Tom (Coogan) lands in Buenos Aires to take up a teaching position at a prestigious English boarding school. The city is in the midst of political violence, but the headmaster (Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce) insists his school simply keep calm and carry on. That suits Tom just fine. When a coup d’état shuts down the school, he hops next door to Uruguay to party. A romantic foray leads to a walk along the beach, which leads to the sight of a penguin drenched in oil from a spill. Against his better judgment, Tom rescues the bird, which unlocks its undying loyalty. He's forced to sneak the flightless beast back to Argentina, and thus begins a strange and beautiful friendship.

Against the backdrop of crackdowns from the new dictatorship and echoes from Tom’s long-repressed past, the penguin becomes a sounding board and an unwitting agent of change for him and, ultimately, the whole school.

Helmed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty; Military Wives), The Penguin Lessons delivers this delightful true story with wit, warmth, and subtle insight into just how rewarding it can be to do the right thing

At the end of Ibsen’s classic, ground breaking 1879 play, A Doll’s House Nora walks out on her marriage, home and young children.  Playwright Lucas Hnath builds on Ibsen’s seminal work by imagining what happens when Nora returns years later with an urgent request.  Old School Theatre Company presents Hnath’s rich, stand alone sequel, eloquently exploring traditional gender roles and social class still inherent in today’s society.  A Doll’s House, Part 2 received its UK premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London in 2022.

Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci revel in the ritual and intrigue surrounding the process of choosing a new pontiff, in this tantalisingly tense Vatican-set drama.

The Pope has died. Cardinal Lawrence must lead the Conclave to select the new leader of the Catholic world. But as high-ranking cardinals gather, he discovers sides have been drawn and secrets that might destroy a future pope, perhaps even the Church itself, threaten to be revealed. Following his Oscar-winning success with All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger presents us with another tale of conflict, albeit one where battles are waged in hushed tones in hallowed hallways. Fiennes, Tucci and John Lithgow make the most of Peter Straughan’s (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) screenplay, based on Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, albeit with Isabella Rossellini almost stealing the film as the formidable Sister Agnes.

Fire Over Shingle Street—Fact, Fiction, or Propaganda?

A new documentary by Suffolk-based filmmaker Tim Curtis (Life on the Deben, Stanley's War) delves into one of Britain’s most persistent Second World War mysteries, asking: Has this enduring enigma been fully accounted for, or are there still unanswered questions?

For decades the Shingle Street ‘Mystery’ has divided the views of locals, journalists and historians alike with incredible and unexplained stories of the sea being set on fire, dead soldiers bodies on the beach and strange happenings in the night.

Was this remote stretch of Suffolk’s coast the site of a German invasion attempt? Did British forces set fire to the sea with petroleum weapons to repel the enemy? Or could it have been part of an elaborate wartime deception, designed to maintain national morale?

The film examines how the Suffolk coast was a hub of military secrecy—home to radar development and experimental weapons testing. Did these classified operations (with some still under wraps) combined with wartime propaganda help create the perfect conditions for rumours to fuel a wartime mystery?

The Shingle Street ‘Mystery’ gained renewed attention in the 1990s when the East Anglian Daily Times was contacted by an ‘MOD Whistleblower’ claiming to have a file—soon to be destroyed—detailing a horrific accident in which British soldiers had been killed in a training exercise.

The ensuing media frenzy led to the early release of classified documents from the National Archives at Kew. However, the files revealed little, sparking claims of a cover-up.

This gripping documentary takes viewers deep into Suffolk’s wartime history, and attempts to unravel a mystery that refuses to fade.

The film is followed by a live discussion and Q&A with ‘Bodies on the Beach’ and ‘Burn the Sea’ author James Hayward, former East Anglian Daily Times Reporter, Henry Creagh and the film's director, Tim Curtis.

It promises to be a fascinating evening!

“Disney’s Snow White” is a live-action musical reimagining of the classic 1937 film. The magical music adventure journeys back to the timeless story with beloved characters Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy. “Disney’s Snow White” is directed by Marc Webb and produced by Marc Platt and Jared LeBoff, with Callum McDougall serving as executive producer, and features all-new original songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

Winner of over 35 awards, experience the best of British Musical HER-story in a live capture of the must-see musical sensation, SIX the Musical. The Original West End cast reunite at London’s Vaudeville Theatre in front of a sold-out audience to strut their stuff and re-write their Tudor traumas in an unmissable cinematic recording of the show packed full of style, sass, and sensational songs.

Watched by audiences of over 3.5 million, SIX the Musical, has become a global theatre phenomenon since it’s 2017 debut at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it has redefined the boundaries of musical theatre. The show tells the extraordinary story of the six wives of King Henry VIII, who step out of the shadow of their infamous husband and reclaim their own narratives.

Written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the pop-inspired musical brings the queens - Catherine of Aragon (Jarnéia Richard-Noel), Anne Boleyn (Millie O'Connell), Jane Seymour (Natalie Paris), Anne of Cleves (Alexia McIntosh), Katherine Howard (Aimie Atkinson), and Catherine Parr (Maiya Quansah-Breed) — right into the 21st century with infectious, empowering performances, accompanied by the on-stage band, the Ladies in Waiting.

Simmering hostility and prejudices boil over in Mathieu Kassovitz’s provocative and compelling portrait of a Parisian housing project.

Set in the aftermath of a riot, three friends – Vinz (Vincent Cassell), Hubert (Hubert Koundè) and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) – trapped by their economic, ethnic and community circumstances, navigate the escalating urban discontent. But, with tensions still high and the threat of violence ever-present, the trio drift towards an increasingly dangerous destiny.

30th Anniversary Screening

Two-time Academy Award® winner Renée Zellweger returns to the role that established a romantic-comedy heroine for the ages, a woman whose inimitable approach to life and love redefined an entire film genre.   

Bridget Jones first blasted onto bookshelves in Helen Fielding’s literary phenomenon Bridget Jones’s Diary, which became a global bestseller and a blockbuster film. As a single career woman living in London, Bridget Jones not only introduced the world to her romantic adventures, but added “Singletons,” “Smug-Marrieds” and “f---wittage” into the global lexicon. Bridget’s ability to triumph despite adversity led her to finally marry top lawyer Mark Darcy and to become the mother of their baby boy. Happiness at last.  

But in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Bridget is alone once again, widowed four years ago, when Mark (Oscar® winner Colin Firth) was killed on a humanitarian mission in the Sudan. She’s now a single mother to 9-year-old Billy and 4-year-old Mabel, and is stuck in a state of emotional limbo, raising her children with help from her loyal friends and even her former lover, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant).  

Pressured by her Urban Family —Shazzer, Jude and Tom, her work colleague Miranda, her mother, and her gynecologist Dr. Rawlings (Oscar® winner Emma Thompson) — to forge a new path toward life and love, Bridget goes back to work and even tries out the dating apps, where she’s soon pursued by a dreamy and enthusiastic younger man (White Lotus’s Leo Woodall). Now juggling work, home and romance, Bridget grapples with the judgment of the perfect mums at school, worries about Billy as he struggles with the absence of his father, and engages in a series of awkward interactions with her son’s rational-to-a-fault science teacher (Oscar® nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor). The returning cast includes Oscar® winner Jim Broadbent and BAFTA winner Gemma Jones as Bridget’s parents and, as a new character, Isla Fisher (Now You See Me, The Great Gatsby) as Rebecca, Bridget’s neighbor.  

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Michael Morris (To Leslie, Better Call Saul), from a screenplay by BAFTA nominee Helen Fielding, based on her novel, with contributions from Emmy winner Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady, Eric) and Oscar® nominee Dan Mazer (I Give it A Year, Bridget Jones’s Baby).  

Please note this screening is part of Woodbridge Film Society's 2024/2025 Season and therefore not open to the public. You can read more about the Film Society and how to join here

Robin Campillo, director of the acclaimed 120 BPM and Eastern Boys, mines the memories of his upbringing in post-colonial Madagascar to create a spellbinding, autobiographically inspired drama that mixes forms and textures to stunning and imaginative effect.

Inspired by his own childhood, the film is set in the early 1970s and follows eight-year-old Thomas growing up on a French Air Force base in recently independent Madagascar. From the innocent perspective of a child, the island is a paradise and a playground. But as adolescence grows near, he begins observing his parents and their circle of friends with new eyes, and childhood innocence slowly gives way to a more shadowy understanding of the hypocrisy and racism that defines France’s military involvement on the island.

As Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian beautifully summarised, ‘Robin Campillo has surrendered to the flow of memory to bring audiences a wonderfully personal film, created with tenderness, unsentimental artistry and visual flair.’

Becoming Led Zeppelin explores the origins of this iconic group and their meteoric rise in just one year against all the odds. Powered by awe-inspiring, psychedelic, never-before-seen footage, performances, and music, Bernard MacMahon’s experiential cinematic odyssey explores Led Zeppelin’s creative, musical, and personal origin story. The film is told in Led Zeppelin’s own words and is the first officially sanctioned film on the group.

Björk: Cornucopia, the highly anticipated concert film recorded live in Lisbon, captures the celebrated artist’s groundbreaking tour that mesmerised audiences worldwide for five years.

This unique cinematic experience immerses viewers in Björk’s spectacular stage production, featuring a setlist spanning her iconic early works to the visionary Utopia (2017) and Fossora (2023). The production showcases bespoke instruments, including a magnetic harp, a circular flute, an aluphone, and a reverb chamber, and Björk is furthermore joined on stage by musical director and multi-instrumentalist Bergur Þórisson, percussionist Manu Delago, flute septet Viibra, harpist Katie Buckley and the Hamrahlid choir. Digitally animated moving curtains create a modern lanterna magica for live music, transforming 21st-century VR visuals into the grandeur of a 19th-century theatre — and now into an immersive cinema experience, enhanced by meticulously crafted Dolby Atmos spatial audio.

Directed by Ísold Uggadóttir, the film features sound and visual creative direction, music arrangements, production, and performance by Björk. It showcases the work of James Merry as co-creative director of visuals, and original animation by Tobias Gremmler – with additional contributions from Andrew Thomas Huang, Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Pierre-Alain Giraud, Nick Knight, and Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton-Jones.

Cornucopia sees Björk pushing the boundaries of live performance, offering a visually and sonically immersive experience unlike anything seen before.

Join us in celebrating Sir David Attenborough's 99th Birthday in style with a global cinema release on 8 May.

The powerful documentary takes viewers on a breathtaking journey showing there is nowhere more vital for our survival, more full of life, wonder, or surprise, than the ocean.

In the film the celebrated broadcaster and filmmaker reveals how his lifetime has coincided with the great age of ocean discovery.  Through spectacular sequences featuring coral reefs, kelp forests and the open ocean, Attenborough shares why a healthy ocean keeps the entire planet stable and flourishing.

Stunning, immersive cinematography showcases the wonder of life under the seas and exposes the realities and challenges facing our ocean as never-before-seen, from destructive fishing techniques to mass coral reef bleaching.  Yet the story is one of optimism, with Attenborough pointing to inspirational stories from around the world to deliver his greatest message: the ocean can recover to a glory beyond anything anyone alive has ever seen.

Presented and authored by the world-renowned and beloved filmmaker Sir David Attenborough with 15-20 minutes of theatrically exclusive footage.

Tickets on sale from 4th April

Darren Thornton’s second feature is a delightful and heartfelt dramedy about one people-pleasing son and four extremely demanding mothers.

Edward is a budding novelist and full-time carer to his bossy mother. Patient and dedicated, he fears leaving her to promote his latest book overseas. An unexpected complication will come in the form of three additional prickly mothers dumped on his doorstep by his friends when they trade Irish suburbia for the sunny delights of Pride in Gran Canaria. What follows is a hilarious weekend, punctuated by deeply moving moments.

When her former boss is killed by unknown assassins, Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is forced to contact Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) to solve the murder. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax (Jon Bernthal), Chris applies his brilliant mind and less-than-legal methods to piece together the unsolved puzzle. As they get closer to the truth, the trio draw the attention of some of the most ruthless killers alive—all intent on putting a stop to their search.

Brentwood Mac is a charismatic musical ensemble dedicated to bringing the timeless melodies of Fleetwood Mac to life. Their repertoire spans all eras of the band, from the early Peter Green days (Albatross), to solo tracks by Lindsey Buckingham (Go Insane) and Stevie Nicks (Rooms on Fire). They play a wide selection of hits and a few lesser-known tracks too.

Founded by a group of passionate musicians who share a deep love for Fleetwood Mac's music, Brentwood Mac meticulously recreates the sound and essence of the original band. Their attention to detail in capturing the nuances of each era ensures an authentic and unforgettable experience for audiences.  

From the haunting vocals of Stevie Nicks to the driving rhythms of Mick Fleetwood, Brentwood Mac pays homage to every member of Fleetwood Mac, delivering a performance that transports audiences back in time. Whether you’re a Fleetwood Mac enthusiast or a new listener, Brentwood Mac promises a night of captivating music that’s sure to leave you wanting more!

Following a string of sell-out shows we recommend you buy your tickets early to avoid disappointment.

Described as 'the Citizen Kane of British pop movies' by critic Mark Kermode, Slade in Flame both confounded and delighted audiences when it was released in 1975, at the height of the legendary glam-rock band's success. Starring the band themselves, this was a music film like no other.

Charting the rise and fall of a pop group at the end of the 1960s - from bold beginnings in seedy clubs to booze-addled endings in spectacular stadiums - this darkly cynical, warts-and-all portrait of a band in freefall amidst the music-industry suits who want a piece of the pie, was not what anybody was expecting.

Acclaimed as a stone-cold bona-fide cult classic over subsequent decades, and boasting a razor-sharp screenplay, superb performances and a power-packed foot-stomping soundtrack, Slade in Flame has been newly remastered by the BFI from the best available 35mm materials for its 50th Anniversary re-release.

Wind, Tide & Oar is a compelling exploration of engineless sailing, shot on 16mm film over three years. The film delves into the experiences of those who travel solely by harnessing the natural elements alone, following a diverse array of traditional boats and uncovering the unique rhythms and motivations of engineless navigation.

Journeying through rivers, coastlines, and open seas, spanning the UK, the Netherlands, and France, Wind, Tide & Oar creates a contemplative space, addressing themes of ecology, heritage, traditional skills, and maritime history. Using a 1960s hand-wound camera, Wahl offers a poetic and intimate perspective on a millennia-old craft, upended by the invention of mechanised power.

Through the film’s reveries, sailing becomes a means to explore our interaction with and responsibility to the environment. It invites deep reflection on our relationship with nature, our understanding of and commitment to sustainability, and our care for the world around us.

The film is shot around Suffolk, Cornwall and Essex.

Screening in tribute to the late Gene Hackman

Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Etheline (Anjelica Huston), had three children—Chas, Margot, and Richie—and then they separated. Chas (Ben Stiller) started buying real estate in his early teens and seemed to have an almost preternatural understanding of international finance. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a playwright and received a Braverman Grant of $50,000 in the ninth grade. Richie (Luke Wilson) was a junior champion tennis player and won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. The Royal Tenenbaums is a hilarious, touching, and brilliantly stylized study of melancholy and redemption from Wes Anderson.

Love and death, gods and mortals, heroes and villains: it’s all here, in the thunderous second chapter of the Ring cycle. Following the glittering triumph of Das Rheingold in 2023, Barrie Kosky and Antonio Pappano plunge back into Wagner’s mythic universe. Christopher Maltman’s Wotan returns alongside an international cast including Elisabet Strid as Brünnhilde, Lise Davidsen as Sieglinde and Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Siegmund.

It has become the most performed opera of the cycle, loved and admired for its nuanced and intelligent exploration of complex family entanglements, expressed through music of astonishing power – perhaps nowhere more so than in the glorious music for the incestuous lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde.

How can there be music in the worst place in the world?

Told through the words of victims of Auschwitz who played and created music during the terrors of the Holocaust, this film shows how, in the most brutal and dehumanizing situations, music could be a lifeline, a way to give testimony, and even a way to resist. Woven throughout are new interpretations of musical works written by victims of the camp, mainly filmed at resonant locations in the environs of Auschwitz. Between them, they touch on themes of loss, longing, and cultural memory, and address head-on the barbaric and murderous regime at Auschwitz.

In this Sundance-selected documentary, Englishman Nik and his Norwegian wife Maria attempt to forge a new life on a farm in her homeland’s lush woodlands. Their goal is to live sustainably, putting as little strain upon the planet as possible. But when the family suffers a tragedy, Nik’s resolve to continue on this singular mission is severely challenged and the ‘normal’ world comes knocking. Can they maintain some version of this idyll or is it a paradise out of reach?

Bearing comparison with the events of Captain Fantastic (2016) but played out with the complexities and inescapable truths of real life, A New Kind of Wilderness is not just a heartbreaking portrait of the endurance of a family, but also a breathtaking trip into the Norwegian wilderness. The kind of unfolding, surprising, intimate and honest documentary portrait that can only emerge over years of hard-won access,

A New Kind of Wilderness is for anyone who wants to (re)discover the power of family and think about different ways of striding this Earth.

Tom Cruise returns to the role of IMF agent Ethan Hunt who is seeking the location of the destructive A.I. known as the Entity, a search set in motion by the events of the seat-gripping Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part I from 2023.

Tickets on sale from 28th April

Screening of a Time Team Special, The Sutton Hoo Ship – Rebuilding a Legend, followed by a fascinating Question & Answer session with Helen Geake (Time Team) and Martin Carver (Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of York).

We're delighted to share a brand new Time Team Special film presented by Sir Tony Robinson!

In 1939, on the eve of war, a huge ship burial was discovered at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, laden with golden treasures, befitting Anglo-Saxon royalty. Now, a team of shipwrights and volunteers at The Longshed in Woodbridge are building a scale reconstruction, as acccurately as possible, using traditional methods.

Over the last few years, Time Team has been following the incredible building project, gradually watching the ship take shape. Join us for the story so far...

Michelangelo - Love and Death offers a cinematic journey through the great chapels and museums of Florence, Rome and the Vatican, to the print and drawing rooms of Europe, to explore Michelangelo's tempestuous life. The film goes in search of a greater understanding of this charismatic and enigmatic figure, both through his relationships with his contemporaries and his ongoing artistic legacy.

The film invites audiences to intimately examine Michelangelo’s art and artistic process - from the Carrara quarries where Michelangelo sourced his marble, to the new technology being used to attribute works. The film also offers a rare chance to get up close to the mesmerising Rothschild Bronzes, which, following an extensive research project carried out by Academics in Cambridge in 2015, were positively attributed to Michelangelo after over a century of debate.

Key contributors to the film include art critics Martin Gayford and Jonathan Jones, Deputy Director of the Vatican Museums Professor Arnold Nesselrath and contemporary artist Tania Kovats.

Filming locations include Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Carrara marble mines, the Medici Chapel and the Vatican. These beautiful locations, combined with high-resolution views of Michelangelo’s greatest works, convene to create a staggering visual experience.