Plymouth Arts Cinema has screened 149 films in 2019, since moving to our new location at Plymouth College of Art in January. Unsurprisingly, cinema was one of the main topics of conversation at our Staff and Volunteers’ Christmas Party, and we took the chance to look back over the year and pick our favourite films.
We all voted for our top three films of the year. We obviously have a broad variety of tastes, or perhaps it reflects the wide range of films we have screened, as there was very little consensus!
Here are the results
19 participants chose 3 films each.
Only 6 films got more than 1 or 2 mentions:
Legendary British Director Ken Loach’s incendiary follow up to I, Daniel Blake. Rigorously researched via off-the-record interviews, Loach’s furious, vital and heart-breaking film shines a light on the gig economy that unscrupulously exploits the vulnerable, robbing them of dignity, agency and hope for change.
The first film ever screened at Plymouth Arts Cinema, at our opening event, Green Book is an uplifting true story that demands to be told on the big screen and succeeds in making its crucial subject of racial division in the 1960s America into a smart, affecting and also charming film.
A huge surprise hit with our audience this year, we welcomed the Director Mark Jenkin to introduce our first screening of Bait in September, and ended up bringing the film back for a second run in November due to popular demand! Stunningly shot on a vintage 16mm camera using monochrome Kodak stock, this remarkable film is a timely and funny, yet poignant tale that gets right to the heart of a Cornish community facing an unwelcome change.
Suspiria, Yesterday and Pain and Glory also got 3 mentions.
Charlotte McGuinness
