FILM SEASON 2019/20

We are an award-winning film society and show an eclectic mix of contemporary world cinema. Joining us entitles you to watch a season of 14 films starting in September and ending in April. The price of this a mere £30. As far as possible we select films that have had little exposure locally, but have had critical acclaim.

We screen films on Wednesday evenings at the Queen’s Hall Theatre, Cranbrook School, Barham Drive, Cranbrook, TN17 3JD. We open the doors – and more importantly the bar – at 7.30pm, then start the film at 8pm prompt.

We post film notes on the website in advance and have hard copies available on the night. After you have seen the film, we collect our audience response slips and add the scores to the website. Do have a look, review our archives and check hall access and parking through the main Queen’s Hall website.

You are invited to join either online through our booking agent www.wegottickets.com/CranbrookFilmSociety or by post and cheque to our Membership Secretary. If you are joining after the start of the season you can bring your form and the correct payment in cash to a screening.

Membership cards must be shown at every screening. A limited number of seats are also available for each screening through www.wegottickets.com for the guests of members to make an occasional booking. The cost is £5 plus a small booking fee and bookings need to be made by 5pm on the day of the screening.

We look forward to this coming season with great enthusiasm.

See you at our films.

We reserve the right to alter or cancel screenings.

Please browse our film archives. Click FILM ARCHIVES to access them. They are a fascinating resource and record the history of our club.

About & Venue

We are an award winning film society
showcasing the best of film to the residents of Cranbrook and its local communities.

Early in 1984, The Regal Cinema, Cranbrook closed its doors for the last time after showing (presciently) ‘Never Say Never Again’, with Sean Connery (as Bond) and Kim Basinger. For almost a year cinema-goers in Cranbrook (and district) had to make a half-hour journey to Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone or Hastings to find a screen.

But all was not lost. Dr Nick Vinall, newly appointed Head of Science at Cranbrook School, launched the Cranbrook Film Society, offering five showings each year in the Lecture Theatre, with those bottom-moulding seats and the clatter of the 35mm projector. The timing was right: an eight-film season quickly became the norm and despite the physical discomfort the society flourished and soon had more than one hundred members.

In 1995 our audience moved to the Queen’s Hall Theatre. In due course, Nick Vinall, our founding father, passed on this growing legacy to Paul Stanford, whose creative energy and ambition for the Society in turn were amply acknowledged when we scooped the Best Film Society award at the British Federation of Film Societies (BFFS) awards ceremony in March 2005.

A hard act to follow? Fortunately for us we were able to inveigle Tim Edmunds into the director’s chair. As a former BAFTA winner and a serving BAFTA judge, Tim increased our productivity: ten showings per season became fifteen, and the eye-opening interviews he hosted with skilled practitioners from the film world really widened our cinematic horizons.

Helen Hawken and Angela Dunmore came next and shared the chair. Co-incidentally Helen has, like Tim, been awarded a BAFTA for her services to television. She has now moved from the area and the chair is less crowded. The committee is equally roomy at the moment. Please talk to us if you are interested in joining us. We are very keen to recruit someone with a keen eye for film and good computer literacy.

We so enjoy your feedback throughout the season and particularly appreciate members’ suggestions for future film screenings. To help guide you, here are the criteria we use to select the programme each season.

– include only films which have been seen and championed by a minimum of two committee members
– contain a balance of genres and language, and try to include at least one British film, films from at least three other continents, a comedy, a documentary and at least one film that highlights social injustice.
– comes from an overview of the last two years’ product avoiding films members are likely to have seen, but including older films where this can be justified.
– suitable for our audience
– contain films that generate laughter, with people coming out of screenings feeling good rather than “a programme which takes itself too seriously”
– feature some prize winners/nominees that “got away” ie didn’t get to local cinemas or passed through very quickly
– try to include no film longer than 2 hours.
– exclude films where sound and/or picture quality is poor.

It is increasingly difficult to predict the exposure films will have before we screen them and indeed have to contend with distributors delaying screening dates or pulling permissions to show films under our licence at the last minute. However this all adds to the interest. You never know quite what you will get when you turn up and this is the joy of our film society.

You have all been overwhelmed with privacy policies recently. We have one too. Should you wish to read it we can e-mail a copy to you. In short. we hold your details for the purposes of maintaining our membership register for the year, for e-mailing you film notes and schedule changes and to invite you to rejoin for the following season. We will not share your details with any other organisation and will remove them from our database if you do not renew your membership at the start of the following season.

All our films are shown in the Queen’s Hall Theatre, Cranbrook School, Waterloo Road, Cranbrook, Kent. TN17 3JD. Our season roughly follows the academic year and membership runs from September to late Spring the following year.

Please look at the theatre’s own website. There you can find details of disabled access, parking, the theatre itself and forthcoming events. There is a great tradition of performing arts in the town. Do look up the Cranbrook Choral Society, the Cranbrook Operatic and Dramatic Society and Tempo; a community singing group. Cranbrook School has its own productions in the Queen’s Hall.
Screening Times
Doors open at 7.30 pm.  This gives you time to sign in, to collect your voting slip and to socialize.  The Committee members try to make themselves conspicuous and approachable and enjoy talking film with anyone.  We are fortunate in that the theatre foyer is large and has a licensed bar.  There is plenty of room in which to mingle.  Films start at 8.00 pm prompt.

Parking

There is parking in Barham Drive, in the staff car park at the front of the school and in the various free car parks in the town. The main entrance to the theatre is in Barham Drive.

Members & Guests

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