We caught up with The Chiswick Cinema’s Chris Parker, to tell us all about the Chiswick in Film Festival and other exciting Chiswick news!

“What a pleasure to organise and host the first ever Chiswick in Film Festival at the start of this month. We opened the event with four-time BAFTA and one-time Academy Award-nominee Sarah Miles as our surprise special guest, introducing her film The Servant to a rapturous audience.

“Presenting a handpicked programme of films either made in the local area or by local film-makers, our team and The Chiswick Calendar collaborated to deliver a community festival with profits donated to our chosen charities the Hogarth Charitable Trust Company Limited and West London Welcome. It was also great to host a local area quiz in support of Filmmakers for Ukraine and hear Assistant Director Olga Kozhema speak on the support that was still needed.

“We’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you all our guests, audience members and the wider community for sharing and supporting. We are profoundly lucky enough that these stories we’ve screened have been dreamed of on our doorstep. This event was a programme of films made by our neighbours, by our friends. Rest assured, Chiswick in Film Festival will return!”

“In other exciting news, we’re pleased to announce that our upcoming seasons include a live Q&A with the producer of Alien (1979), a live Q&A with Mark Gatiss and other cast and crew for the exclusive premiere of A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story as well as a possible retrospective season of work by Karel Reisz; continuing on the new found community support and engagement from the festival. Three more headline Q&A’s with some household names attached are also in the works!

“We’ve also announced Charlotte Berridge, a local designer and illustrator to put together our Founder Members’ Installation, with the kind support of Emily O’Dell to deliver a community art piece for the local area to enjoy.

“Cocktail specials have also accompanied our Halloween seasons, which are tapping into classic films celebrating anniversaries (such as The Lost Boys above) as well as early Pre-Code (in collaboration with Movies on Weekends) films like Dracula and Mystery of the Wax Museum, many of which haven’t been seen in cinemas since release.

“All these events have seen overwhelming local and industry support which are building to cement The Chiswick Cinema as a unique, dynamic boutique cinema with diverse programming and unmissable events.”