Artist Petra Szemán presents a rare screening of Makoto Shinkai’s 2007 anime alongside a selection of their own video work. A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening at Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle.

Petra Szemán is a moving image artist working with animation and game-like landscapes. Using a virtual version of themself as a protagonist journeying through animatic realms, they explore liminal spaces and threshold situations, looking to dissect the ways our memories and selves are constructed within a landscape oversaturated with fiction (both on- and off-screen).

In 5 Centimetres per Second, director Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, Weathering With You) tells the tale of two close friends separated by chance and reunited by determination. A journey into three interconnected tales of love and lost innocence that span the minutes and months of their lives.

Please note this screening takes place at Star and Shadow Cinema, please arrive to the venue in good time.

See our full festival programme at tynevalleyfilmfestival.com

Image from ‘About their Distance’, by Petra Szemán, 2023.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening. See our full programme here:

Join us at our Tyne Valley Film Festival opening night party to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mark Herman’s award-winning comedy, starring Ewan McGregor, Pete Postlethwaite and Tara Fitzgerald, filmed entirely on location in Yorkshire.

The Grimley Colliery Brass Band are local heroes of their small town, led by retired miner Danny. As the band prepare for national competition the local coal mine is threatened with closure and Danny has trouble maintaining the morale of the musicians. But he believes they have what it takes to win and restore pride back to their community.

Please note that Forum Cinema memberships are not valid across Tyne Valley Film Festival screenings.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening. See our full programme here.

Hinter: An Apocalypse is a film rooted in the history, both recent and ancient, of the area surrounding Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, the northernmost county in England. Questioning the nature of enclosure and land ownership, the piece traces a common thread of self-destruction from the colonial project, stretching back to the Roman Empire, to the acts of ecological vandalism which take place on both large and small scales in the present day.

Seeking to encapsulate this quiet landscape that is at the same time a teeming repository of stories, violence, politics, and existential lessons, Hinter functions as both an elegy for an ancient tree and a protest against human rapaciousness and abuse of power.

A film by Matthew Burdis, written by Rachel Chanter, narrated by Claire Rodgerson (The Old Oak) with an original score by Barry Hyde (The Futureheads).

Tickets to this screening are just £3 or free when booked with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

After winning big at this years BAFTA awards we're giving you another chance to catch I Swear for just £6.

Inspired by the life of Tourette Syndrome campaigner John Davidson, charting his journey from a misunderstood teenager in 1980’s Britain to a present day advocate for the understanding and acceptance of Tourette Syndrome.

"An Unforgettable, Important Triumph."

★ ★ ★ ★★

- Filmhounds Magazine

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening. See our full programme here.

In Fading Light is a feature drama set within the declining fishing industry of North Shields, written by local writer Tom Hadaway and produced by Amber Films in 1989. The film centres on the upheaval caused in a traditional fishing community by the unexpected arrival of a young woman.

To authentically depict the community, Amber Films purchased and operated a 63-foot anchor seine netter, integrating themselves into the daily routines of the fishermen. Actors auditioning for roles found themselves at sea for days, gutting fish alongside seasoned fishermen. When the story required a storm sequence, cast, crew, and fishermen set sail into a force 9 gale, with tripods anchored to the deck.

The outcome is an authentic blend of drama and documentary of epic human proportions. A beautiful visual record of a once true time and place, and a vital lasting piece of independent British social-realist cinema.

Please note this screening takes place at Hexham Library, please arrive prior to the ticketed time.

From the team behind 'Finding Your Feet' and 'Fisherman's Friends' comes Mother's Pride, a story about the Harley family who after losing their matriarch, must come together to save their pub and village through the art of beer-brewing.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening at Queens Hall Studio. See our full programme here.

Child poverty at 30%. Youth services cuts at 80%. The UK’s highest crime rate committed by 10–17-year-olds. The highest suicide rate in men aged under 45 in the UK. The stark realities of life in the council estates of Sunderland, North East England.

Steven France, community activist and mixed martial arts coach (MMA), haunted by the suicide of step-father Mickey, found MMA as his saviour from the trappings of these very estates. Determined to force change from within. His objective; to do the same with a group of troubled youngsters, each facing their own unique challenges. Be it battles with drugs, unemployment and poverty, the weight of terminal illness or the trials of immigration and having to abandon family, thousands of miles away.

‘Poised’ is a high stakes, human interest tale set over a year in the lives of Steven and the four youngsters, as they battle their demons in a search for hope and to not become yet another statistic blighted by their environment.

Filmmaker Toby Robson will join us for an in person post film Q&A.

Please note this screening takes place at Queens Hall, Studio. Please arrive to the venue in good time.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening. See our full programme here.

Legendary filmmaker Gus Van Sant returns from a 7-year hiatus with this true crime thriller that dramatises the events of a 1977 hostage crisis with “black-comic flair and cool, cruel unsentimentality.”

Starring Bill Skarsgard, Cary Elwes, Al Pacino, Myha'la, Colman Domingo and Dacre Montgomery.

The morning of February 8, 1977, Anthony G. “Tony” Kiritsis, 44, entered the office of Richard O. Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun wired with a “dead man’s wire” from the trigger to Hall’s head. This is the true story of the stand-off that took the world by storm as Tony demanded $5 million, no charges or prosecution, and a personal apology from the Halls for cheating him out of what he was “owed.”

This is a preview screening, meaning you get to watch this film before its general release!

Please note that Forum Cinema memberships are not valid across Tyne Valley Film Festival screenings.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening presented by Hexham Town Twinning Association. See our full programme here.

Keith Jarrett’s iconic January 1975 performance nearly never happened. Based on a true story, Koln 75 follows the young, driven concert promoter Vera Brandes as she conceived and organises the event against all odds.

From securing the venue and selling tickets to persuading Jarrett to perform when the promised Bosendofer Imperial Grand piano is missing, Vera’s determination is tested at every turn. The film reveals the compelling and little-known story behind Jarrett’s one-hour, entirely improvised concert, which went to become the best-selling solo jazz album in history.

This is a preview screening, meaning you get to watch this film before its general release!

Please note that Forum Cinema memberships are not valid across Tyne Valley Film Festival screenings.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening. See our full programme here.

The best-reviewed film of the 2025 Berlinale, The Blue Trail is a transfixing late in life coming of age tale where the unfamiliar river bends to new routes of freedom.

In near future Brazil, elderly citizens are forced to relocate to remote retirement colonies to avoid hindering their offspring’s productivity. Having reached the fateful age, defiant Tereza instead embarks on an illegal but life-changing journey through the Amazon.

"A boisterous anti-ageism parable."

 - The Guardian

This is a preview screening, meaning you get to watch this film before its general release!

Please note that Forum Cinema memberships are not valid across Tyne Valley Film Festival screenings.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening presented by Hexham Book Festival. See our full programme here.

A sublime adaptation of Albert Camus’ landmark novella from multi-award winning writer/director François Ozon.

In 1930s Algeria, apathetic Frenchman Meursault shows total indifference to life. His emotional detachment leads to a murder, followed by a trial that scrutinizes both the crime and his character.

A gripping account of human absurdity elegantly captured in crisp black and white photography. Ozon has said: ‘‘The themes in the book could hardly be more topical: an emotionally absent hero detached from the world, confronting our mortality, the individual’s quest for meaning in an increasingly alienating world.”

This is a preview screening, meaning you get to watch this film before its general release!

Please note that Forum Cinema memberships are not valid across Tyne Valley Film Festival screenings.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival screening. See our full programme here.

35 years ago, the ancient and idyllic local nature spot, The Sycamore Gap was forever immortalised in Hollywood frame. See it again on our big screen in this special screening of the adventure classic, that is followed by the new short film Hinter: An Apocalypse. A film rooted in the history, both recent and ancient, of the area surrounding Hadrian’s Wall.

Purchasing a ticket to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves entitles you to a free ticket to Hinter: An Apocalypse. Automatically applied at checkout when booked together.

Please note that Forum Cinema memberships are not valid across Tyne Valley Film Festival screenings.

Considered by most film critics as the last great comedy of the silent era, Buster Keaton’s The General celebrates its landmark 100 year anniversary in this Tyne Valley Film Festival screening, with all tickets just £3.

Taking inspiration from a real Civil War incident when Union soldiers hijacked a Confederate train, The General is silent comedian Buster Keaton’s most grandly conceived project.

See our full festival programme here.

This sweet and uplifting Irish road movie from filmmaker Michael Head packs in the laughs as it follows Dermot and Elvis, two music lovers who run a struggling record shop in Omagh, Northern Ireland.

Facing an unpaid rent bill and their vicious landlord Sadie (Derry Girls’ Tara Lynne O’Neill), who’s eager to get them out of her building, the pair stumble across a deal too good to be true: rare, vintage records of blues legend Robert Johnson for sale in Cork at a knock-down price. If they can make it to the other end of Ireland in time, then maybe they could get the rare vinyl, and save the shop.

A Tyne Valley Film Festival relaxed screening presented by Daydream Cinema. See our full festival programme here.

David Lynch’s The Straight Story stands out amongst his impressive filmography as being perhaps his most spiritual and straightforward film.

A gentle and assured, slow moving road movie inspired by the true story of Alvin Straight. An elderly war veteran who in 1994 journeyed across America’s heartland on a lawn mower to visit his estranged brother after learning of his poor health conditions.

Daydream Cinema creates and supports accessible opportunities for neurodivergent and disabled people to enjoy films in their communities and in cinema venues. To see more about what to expect from our relaxed screenings, visit here.