Stuck at home and put to work by her spoiled Step-Sisters, Cinderella’s life is dreary and dull. Everything changes when she helps a mysterious woman out...With a little bit of magic, she is transported into an ethereal new world – one where fairies bring the gifts of the seasons, where pumpkins turn into carriages, and where true love awaits.

This enchanting ballet by The Royal Ballet’s Founding Choreographer Frederick Ashton is a theatrical experience for all the family and will transport you into an ethereal world where a sprinkling of fairy dust makes dreams come true.

Cast:  

Cinderella FUMI KANEKO

The Prince WILLIAM BRACEWELL

Cinderella’s Step-Sisters BENNET GARTSIDE, JAMES HAY

Cinderella’s Father THOMAS WHITEHEAD

The Fairy Godmother MAYARA MAGRI

The Fairy Spring ISABELLA GASPARINI

The Fairy Summer MARIKO SASAKI

The Fairy Autumn MEAGHAN GRACE HINKIS

The Fairy Winter CLAIRE CALVERT

The Jester DAICHI IKARASHI

Creatives:

Choreography FREDERICK ASHTON

Music SERGEY PROKOFIEV

Conductor JONATHAN LO

Set Designer TOM PYE

Costume Designer ALEXANDRA BYRNE

Lighting Designer DAVID FINN

Video Designer FINN ROSS

Illusions CHRIS FISHER

Conductor JONATHAN LO

On September 25th 2025 the Riverside was 110 years old.

Our technical assistant, William Caley, has made a new film which looks back through the Riverside archive to when the cinema was built in 1915 and traces our 110 year history, and features a few recently newly filmed interviews with Pat Betts, Stuart Saunders and Tina Wiseman.

Our current manager, Neil, and Technical assistant, Will, have for the past few years been working on researching the cinema’s history and collecting all the material together to make a book (now available from the box office!), and this new documentary film.

Come along and celebrate our exciting and fascinating history for our 110th birthday.

Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk) is joined by Emmy and BAFTA-winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, The Responder) in the critically acclaimed and subversively funny new play by David Ireland.

After years in the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, James becomes a sponsor to newcomer Luka. The pair bond over black coffee, trade stories and build a fragile friendship out of their shared experiences. But as Luka approaches step five – the moment of confession – dangerous truths emerge, threatening the trust on which both of their recoveries depend.

Finn den Hertog directs the provocative and entertaining production filmed live from @sohoplace on London’s West End.

SUFFOLK SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL

Suffolk Shorts film festival returns to The Riverside for its 4th year with one day packed with 38 shortlisted short films from all over the world, and a special showcase for local filmmakers. The 4 award winners will be announced on the day.

New Voices: all genres of short films were considered for this category, with the focus being on storytelling in new ways. The shortlist of 9 films features a very hard hitting UK military drama, a short wistful animation, and a multinational imagining of a world where traditional cinema is extinct. New stories from new voices.

SUFFOLK SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL

Suffolk Shorts film festival returns to The Riverside for its 4th year with one day packed with 38 shortlisted short films from all over the world, and a special showcase for local filmmakers. The 4 award winners will be announced on the day.

Unique perspectives: films on the fringe from a diverse range of perspectives. Each film offers a fresh lens on the world, flipping the script on reality. Dance, ice skating, a deep dive into the otherworldly bog biome, moody lo-fi music and clay modelling, and a reconstruction of memories on 16mm Kodak film. This program dares you to see the world differently.

SUFFOLK SHORTS

Suffolk Shorts film festival returns to The Riverside for its 4th year with one day packed with 38 shortlisted short films from all over the world, and a special showcase for local filmmakers. The 4 award winners will be announced on the day.

Narrative Shorts: Whether it’s unspeakable comedy, gripping drama, or something entirely original that defies genre, these short films deliver unforgettable stories. Featuring the 2025 BAFTA winner based on a true story, a window into the world of precocious French poet, Arthur Rimbaud, and a graphic imagining of a hidden threat to a surgeon on her last day in theatre. These are the storytellers of the future.

SUFFOLK SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL

Suffolk Shorts film festival returns to The Riverside for its 4th year with one day packed with 38 shortlisted short films from all over the world, and a special showcase for local filmmakers. The 4 award winners will be announced on the day.

East Anglian showcase: We champion local filmmaking. For this category we have discovered short films that tell East Anglian Stories, films made by East Anglian filmmakers and films that have been made in East Anglia. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers hosted by actor/director Joshua Dickinson.

Screening in tribute to the late Robert Redford who sadly passed away on the 16th September 2025.

“Immensely enjoyable to watch – glowingly photographed, wittily scripted, and with superbly confident performances from Paul Newman and Robert Redford.” David Wilson, Monthly Film Bulletin, April 1970 “Most of what follows is true,” announces the opening caption, setting the playful tone for this tale of bank-robbing outlaws who find the Old West getting too hot for them, before heading for new pastures in Bolivia. As that caption suggests, writer William Goldman and director George Roy Hill are less interested in authentic historical atmosphere – or a conclusive answer to the mystery of the real Butch and Sundance’s ultimate fate – than in having fun, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford making a wonderfully relaxed double act. The laidback 1969 vibe is further enhanced by the hints of ménage à trois with moll Etta Place (Katharine Ross) and music by Burt Bacharach, including the hit song ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’.

Screening in tribute to the late Robert Redford who sadly passed away on 16th September 2025.

Two green reporters and rivals working for the Washington Post, Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), research the botched 1972 burglary of the Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex. With the help of a mysterious source, code-named Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), the two reporters make a connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. Despite dire warnings about their safety, the duo follows the money all the way to the top.

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, as the world grapples with the unveiled horrors of the Holocaust, U.S. Army psychiatrist Lt. Col. Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) is assigned the extraordinary task of assessing the mental state of Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe), the notorious former Reichsmarschall and Hitler’s second in command, along with other high ranking Nazi officials. As the Allies – led by the unyielding chief U.S. prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) alongside Sgt. Howie Triest (Leo Woodall), David Maxwell-Fyfe (Richard E. Grant), Gustave Gilbert (Colin Hanks), Col. John Amen (Mark O’Brien) and Burton C. Andrus (John Slattery) – navigate the monumental task of creating an unprecedented international tribunal to ensure the Nazi regime answers for its atrocities, Kelley gets to know his ‘patients’. But he soon finds himself locked in a psychological duel with Göring, whose charisma and cunning reveal a sobering truth: that ordinary men can commit extraordinary evil.

Please note that this is a private screening for members of Woodbridge Film Society and not open to the public. If you wish to join the Film Society then please visit their page here

Cléo (an exceptional performance by six-year-old Louise Mauroy-Panzani) loves her nanny Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego) more than anything. When Gloria suddenly has to return home to Cape Verde to look after her own children, Gloria invites Cléo to visit her and the two have to make the most of their last summer together. Marie Amachoukeli’s outstanding feature was the opening film of Cannes Critics’ Week 2023 and has been an audience favourite at film festivals across Europe including London and Dublin. It is produced by Céline Sciamma’s regular producer Bénédicte Couvreur (Petite Maman, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Girlhood).

Life on the Deben is a documentary film that was made in association with Woodbridge Riverside Trust and first released in December 2017.

Presented by author and journalist John McCarthy, the film explores the Deben’s incredible history, geography, environment and the influence it has had over the people who have lived by its banks.

The film traces the entire length of the Deben, from the secret upper reaches near Debenham to the boatyards of Woodbridge and down to the sea at Bawdsey and Felixstowe Ferry. The film was shot over 2 years by Director and Cameraman Tim Curtis (Video East), Produced by Malcolm Hodd.

The film will screen alongside a rare 1965 film entitled "The Deben Valley" with broadcaster Robert Dougall venturing around Suffolk with his wife, tracing the pathway of the River Deben. He visits Ufford, Debenham, Woodbridge and Ramsholt along the way.

The Deben Valley runs for 29mins and is from the collection of James Cecil of JCB Films.

Following the screenings there will be an on stage discussion with James Cecil, Tim Curtis and our manager, Neil.

It looks like she's lived a charmed life - a loving upbringing, marrying a superstar rock singer, children, strong friendships, and lately a successful career in television.

But in her new book ‘Someone Like Me’, Penny Lancaster reveals how she was bullied at school, struggled with her studies because of undiagnosed dyslexia and, as she made her way for herself as a model, experienced a harrowing sexual assault.

Determined, though, always to see the positive in life, Penny cultivated skills and talents to enable her to achieve and maintain her independence, training as a fitness instructor and then a photographer, and she’s used her struggles to inform and help others.

What’s more, since marrying and making a family with Rod Stewart, Penny has embraced every opportunity offered to her. She's competed on 'Strictly Come Dancing', 'Celebrity MasterChef', 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. And she is a guest panellist on 'Loose Women'.

Using this profile she is a campaigner and ambassador for a multitude of charities, speaks widely and passionately about menopause issues and volunteers as a Special Constable with the City of London Police.

She is a warm, engaging and inspiring speaker and we're thrilled that she's joining us at The Riverside in Woodbridge for this special evening event. She will be in conversation with Catherine Larner and signing copies of her book.

Tickets are £20 to include a signed copy of her book 'Someone Like Me' (RRP £20). One further ticket can be purchased for £12 (without the book).

Please book at The Riverside in person or on the website www.theriverside.co.uk and be sure to include your name with your booking so that we can allocate your book on the night.

Photography credit to Robert Wilson.

The lyricist Lorenz Hart’s collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers are the stuff of legend. Yet, in 1943, only months before he died from pneumonia, Hart’s partnership with Rodgers was on the rocks. Rodgers had first paired up with Oscar Hammerstein II, and their musical Oklahoma! had reinvigorated and reinvented narrative musical theatre.

Richard Linklater’s luminous, erudite drama imagines a loquacious Hart (an astonishing tour de force by Ethan Hawke) on the night of Oklahoma!’s premiere, holed up at Sardi’s and moving through various stages of grief and acceptance when faced with Broadway’s new world order. Also featuring stellar supporting work from Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley and Bobby Cannavale, Blue Moon is a surprising yet entirely fitting addition to the Linklater canon: a film about the inevitable passage of time and the feeling of being left behind by those stuck in its folds.

osh O’Connor is superb as a rudderless everyman out of step with his immediate environs and the country at large, in Kelly Reichardt’s funny, shaggy heist film.

1970s America has witnessed a generational chasm and a society torn apart by Vietnam. But JB is oblivious to these cultural changes as he bumbles towards a major art heist. Reichardt’s (First Cow, Wendy and Lucy) smartly crafted drama offers a sensitive political critique of our times, and a quietly thoughtful examination of what we owe ourselves, as well as our familial and social tribes. With its jazzy score, period detailing and nuanced performances, it’s a cinematic joy from the get-go.

It is Christmas time and the McCallister family is preparing for a vacation in Paris, France. But the youngest in the family named Kevin got into a scuffle with his older brother Buzz and was sent to his room which is on the third floor of his house. Then, the next morning, while the rest of the family was in a rush to make it to the airport on time, they completely forgot about Kevin who now has the house all to himself. Being home alone was fun for Kevin, having a pizza all to himself, jumping on his parents’ bed, and making a mess. Then, Kevin discovers about two burglars, Harry and Marv, about to rob his house on Christmas Eve. Kevin acts quickly by wiring his own house with makeshift booby traps to stop the burglars and to bring them to justice.

Screening as part of our 6 for £6.00 each Christmas Films Season

This holiday season, the magic begins on the big screen. Join André Rieu for his 2025 Christmas Concert – “Merry Christmas” and experience joyful carols, beautiful waltzes, and plenty of surprises – it’s the ultimate Christmas cinema event!

With his fabulous Johann Strauss Orchestra, and special guests including the sensational Emma Kok and over 400 brass players bringing the majestic sound of Christmas, André’s concert is bursting with warmth, laughter, and holiday cheer.

Christmas is André’s favourite time of year - and he can’t wait to share this spectacular concert with you, only in cinemas!

The magician Herr Drosselmeyer needs to save his nephew. Hans-Peter has been transformed into a Nutcracker; the only way to save him is for the Nutcracker to defeat the Mouse King and find a girl to love and care for him. A flicker of hope comes in the form of the young Clara, whom Drosselmeyer meets at a Christmas party. With some magic, a cosy Christmas gathering turns into a marvellous adventure.

Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker has enchanted audiences since its 1984 premiere by the Company. Featuring Tchaikovsky’s most familiar melodies and brought to life by Julia Trevelyan Oman’s exquisite designs, The Nutcracker is sure to be a festive firecracker for all ages.

Cast:  

To be confirmed

Creatives:

Choreography PETER WRIGHT after LEV IVANOV

Music PYOTR IL’YICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Conductor KOEN KESSELS

Original Scenario MARIUS PETIPA after E.T.A. HOFFMANN

Production and Scenario PETER WRIGHT

Designer JULIA TREVELYAN OMAN

Lighting Designer MARK HENDERSON

Production Consultant ROLAND JOHN WILEY

A new documentary by Suffolk-based filmmaker Tim Curtis delves into one of Britain's most enduring Second World War mysteries.

Backed by decades of research from James Hayward and Ron Clayton, the film examines rumours of a foiled German invasion attempt, burning seas, and bodies on the beach along the wartime Suffolk coast.

The film also features former East Anglian Daily Times reporter Henry Creagh, who recounts a 1992 call from a source claiming to have seen secret MOD files describing a deadly friendly fire incident. This gripping documentary takes viewers deep into Suffolk's wartime history, and attempts to unravel a mystery that refuses to fade.

Following the screenings there will be an on stage discussion with director Tim Curtis, former East Anglian Daily Times Reporter Henry Creagh and our manager, Neil.

Ralph Fiennes leads an excellent ensemble of new and established talent in this funny and moving First World War drama by beloved writer Alan Bennett.

A Yorkshire village’s choral society finds its ranks depleted as men head off to war. With the annual performance looming, the society is forced to change its entry rules to enlist some unlikely teens and the musically gifted but socially scandalous Dr. Guthrie. Brimming with humour and hope, Bennett and Nicholas Hytner’s (The Madness of King George, The Lady in the Van) latest triumph celebrates the power of community in the darkest of days.

Friend of The Riverside, Edgar Wright, and star Glen Powell team up for a spirited take on Stephen King’s dystopian life-or-death gameshow thriller.

Edgar Wright’s film is a high-octane, fast-paced and thrilling adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian take on future TV entertainment. The Running Man is a top-rated show, attracting an audience of millions, who watch the spectacle of contestants running for their lives as they’re hunted down. Blue-collar worker Ben Richards signs on, hoping to raise the money for his sick daughter’s treatment, but it soon becomes clear the game is rigged and he must do all he can to survive.

A young boy is at the age where he's beginning to doubt the existence of Santa Claus. However, one Christmas Eve he hears a thunderous noise outside and, on investigating, finds it's being made by a huge train - the Polar Express. A kindly conductor asks him aboard and soon he and some other children are on a rollercoaster ride north to see the big man himself. Director Robert Zemeckis honed the use of "motion capture" technology when filming The Polar Express, and the technique perfectly suits this charming, fantastical nature of a film about the magic of Christmas.

Screening as part of our "Six for £6 Christmas Films Season"

Benedict Cumberbatch gives a magnificent performance in the highly anticipated screen adaptation of Max Porter’s award-winning Grief Is the Thing with Feathers.

A mother dies, leaving two primary school-aged children and ‘Sad Dad’. Before long, ‘Crow’ emerges from the pages of the book Sad Dad is writing, to peck at the open wounds and shepherd them through their grief, in the only way it knows how. Dylan Southern employs great visual flair to soulfully explore the chaos, pain and redemption of our most-feared emotion.

Todd Haynes’ homage to Douglas Sirk’s style of social critique by way of melodrama, masterfully tells the story of a well-to-do suburban couple in 1950s America, straitjacketed by convention, yet desperate to lead lives they are seemingly denied. In the autumn of 1957 in the affluent small town of Hartford, Connecticut, Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is a beautiful but sober mother of two, married to Frank (Dennis Quaid), a ruggedly handsome, former naval officer, now go-ahead executive at a television company. It is a blissfully happy family scene into which drama and tragedy have yet to intrude. It’s shattered when Cathy surprises Frank at work and finds him in the arms of another man. Unable to tell anyone in her social circle, she finds solace in their African-American gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert). However, when they are seen alone together by Cathy's best friend - a social taboo in that era - the gossip begins, threatening to reveal all of the Whitaker's secret life.

The final film in our Melodrama Season.

Joe Dante's hilariously overblown comedy horror cheerfully pits man against beast in a cosy suburban setting. Zach Galligan is the hapless teenager who receives the oh-so-loveable Mogwai, Gizmo, for Christmas, completely disregards the instructions not to get it wet or feed it after midnight, and watches, along with his girlfriend Phoebe Cates, the mayhem unfold when the goggle-eyed cutie starts birthing evil sprites as a result. Played almost totally for laughs (even Cates' monologue on how she found out there's no Santa Claus has a vein of pitch black humour in it), this serves as a delightfully offbeat reminder of how inventive and witty blockbusters seemed when you were a kid.

Dante’s critters-run-amok-in-snowbound-Spielberg-suburbia satire takes the Christmas milieu of It’s A Wonderful Life (Screening as part of this season on 18th December) and splatters it with cartoony carnage, anarchic comedy and a stripe of gleeful subversion a mile wide.

Screening as part of our 6 for £6 each Christmas Films Season

Stanley's War (2018, Dir. Tim Curtis) dramatises stories of love, loss and sacrifice, following the lives of Suffolk people during WW1.The film recounts the true life-changing experiences at the Western Front of Stanley Banyard, a farm hand from Ramsholt, and how he saved the lives of his comrades lost in no-man's-land by using skills he learnt as a boy from a Suffolk gamekeeper. In contrast, the Pretty family of Ipswich (later of Sutton Hoo fame) suffer family tragedy.

The War Just Outside Ipswich (2020, Dir. Tim Curtis) For nearly two decades, Akenham’s purpose-built trench system has drawn filmmakers seeking to recreate the chaos of the First World War, from Downton Abbey and Journey’s End to Private Peaceful and the iconic Sainsbury’s Christmas advert. This fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary explores Suffolk’s own cinematic battlefield, where mud, history, and movie magic collide. 

Tim Curtis joined forces with manager Neil to make the film during Covid, and it has been updated in 2025. 

Following the screening there will be an on stage discussion with war historian Taff Gillingham of Khaki Devil and our manager, Neil.

The much-anticipated second part to last year’s global musical hit brings this chapter of Elphaba and Glinda’s adventures to a close. Now demonised as a wicked witch and living in exile, Elphaba desperately tries to pull back the curtains and reveal the truth about the Wizard, while Glinda has become the glamorous symbol of Goodness for all of Oz, living at the palace in Emerald City. Jon M. Chu’s fabulous worlds-creating blockbuster is a must for the UK’s largest screen.

Tickets on sale from 31st October

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 Muppets perform the classic Christmas tale by Charles Dickens, the iconic Michael Caine playing Ebenezer Scrooge, with Kermit the Frog playing Bob Cratchit. Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Fozzie Bear take up supporting roles as Scrooge receives visits from the spirits of Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas future. The Spirits do everything in their power to show him the error of his ways and to help him find redemption and lasting happiness.

Screening as part of our 6 for £6 each Christmas Films Season

There have been many contenders over the past twenty years, but ELF is clearly the first and best classic Christmas movie of the 21st century.  Buddy, a human orphan raised by Santa’s elves at the North Pole, learns that his father is still alive and on the naughty list. Determined to save his father from such a fate, Buddy travels to New York City to meet him for the first time and inspire some Christmas spirit, but the Big Apple is very different from the North Pole. Can Buddy save his father from the naughty list, but more importantly, figure out where Buddy truly belongs?

Screening as part of our 6 for £6 Christmas Season