On your marks... get set...and go full-throttle (for just £5!) as we revisit the Wachowskis' kaleidoscopic, eye-popping adaptation of the beloved manga racing series. Born to race cars, Speed Racer is aggressive, instinctive and, most of all, fearless. His only real competition is the memory of the brother he idolized – the legendary Rex Racer, whose death in a race has left behind a legacy that ...

Membrana is the Latin word for film, and we are incredibly excited to bring the Membrana Film Festival to you, and to dig deep into the roots of the magic that is filmmaking. Our opening session presents a selection of short films from around the world, curated to take you on a journey. And we are honoured to present several UK Premieres within this screening session. We open with the tender a...

Cheryl is a twentysomething black lesbian, living in Philadelphia and struggling to make a documentary about Fae Richards, a beautiful and elusive 1930s black film actress popularly known as “The Watermelon Woman.” While uncovering the meaning of Fae Richards’ life, Cheryl experiences a total upheaval in her own personal life. Each answer Cheryl discovers about the Watermelon Woman evokes a flurr...

Dream of Liberation (narrative feature) and When The Tiger Roars (short) The Membrana Film Festival invites you to enjoy a narrative short film and feature film. The short When The Tiger Roars has had a strong festival run, including selection at 4 Oscar-qualifying Film Festivals. Its Director, Lam Can-zhao, won the Special Prize of the Generation Kplus International Jury at Berlinale in 2024 f...

Jamie Babbit's audacious feature debut But I'm a Cheerleader has earned its place as a bona fide LGBTQ+ cult classic. Initially dismissed by critics upon its release in 1999, the film has since been rightfully celebrated for its pioneering lesbian representation, razor-sharp satire, and gleeful dismantling of gender stereotypes and conversion therapy. Set in the candy-coloured world of True Direc...

The Membrana Film Festival is a big advocate of Experimental filmmaking, and it gives us great pleasure to present 2 short films, and a feature film from the Experimental genre. These films truly push the boundaries of the filmmaking process, and are a real credit and homage to the Experimental genre – if that’s your thing, then don’t miss the chance to see these films on the big screen. Rather t...

Leaning all the way into the bad taste accusations of melodrama, (what else would you expect from the Pope of Trash?) filth maestro John Waters took advantage of his biggest budget yet to allow his muse Divine to sink his teeth into a role unlike any he had played before: Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw, a heroine worthy of a Douglas Sirk melodrama. Blessed with a keen sense of smell and cur...

Ezequiel & Estevão + Q&A (narrative feature), and The Immigrant (short) You are in for a real treat with these selections. The Immigrant is a short animated film by Nilram Ranjbar, who made the film at the young age of 12, to make animation of this quality at any age is an achievement, to make it at that age deserves a special round of applause. Our feature film in this session is Ezequiel & Est...

The Membrana Film Festival presents a second selection of short films from around the world. Let us take you on a curated journey across narrative, documentary, and animation. These films are heavy, with deep and important messaging, and are a reflection on lived experiences from different corners of the planet. And we are honoured to present several UK Premieres within this screening session. H...

Cartapesta: Carnival of Fano - The Movie (documentary feature), and Papa Carlo Theatre (special screening short) It doesn’t get any more special than Papa Carlo Theatre, directed by Rao Heidmets. It’s an animated film made with stop-motion and puppetry that was nominated for the Cannes Palme d’Or in 1989. Rao’s film Idyll won Best Short Film and Best Animated Film at last year’s Membrana Film Fe...

Returning to the big screen for it's 10th Anniversary! Raised on hip-hop and foster care, defiant city kid Ricky gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside. He quickly finds himself at home with his new foster family: the loving Aunt Bella, the cantankerous Uncle Hec, and dog Tupac. When a tragedy strikes that threatens to ship Ricky to another home, both he and Hec go on the run in the bu...

Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of the World (2023) follows Angela, a production coordinator in Bucharest who spends much of her day driving round the city interviewing injured employees of a multinational corporation for a ‘Safety at Work’ video. Intercut with the Andrew Tate-style TikToks Angela makes to blow off steam on her long days, as well as footage from a 1981 film about a female taxi...

We are very proud to present ARROW VIDEO CLUB, a new collaboration with the almighty lords of physical media Arrow Video; where we will present some of the best titles from their back catalogue on our lovely big screen! Expect a variety of cult classics, deep cuts, Arrow Video trailers and a raffle for Arrow Video blu-rays at every event! Alongside Lars Von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg is one of Dani...

Join Speed + Strike one last time (for this cycle of Araki films) at Cultplex for the beginning and for us the finale, dubbed as teen angst in 15 random celluloid fragments, this is Gregg Araki's TOTALLY F***ED UP. Following, in true Araki style, gay and alienated teenagers, four gay men and two lesbians, who've formed in their own way a familial unit as they traverse LA. Almost episodic in ways...

Young Frankenstein, the scariest comedy of all time, come to CULTPLEX to celebrate the incomparable Mel Brooks’ 100th birthday! A young neurosurgeon (played by Gene Wilder in one of cinema’s greatest comedic performances of all time) inherits the castle of his grandfather, the famous Dr. Victor von Frankenstein. In the castle he finds a funny hunchback, a pretty lab assistant and the elderly hous...

You can't say we don't treat you! See the iconic The Mummy for just £1! A remake of the 1932 film of the same name, producers in the ‘90s were determined to update the myth for contemporary audiences – wanting to shift the image of the shambling, bandaged Mummy of the Universal Monsters franchise. The result, rather than a horror film as originally intended, is a sweeping action-adventure romance...

We are beyond exciting to present a special Northern Premiere of the newest 4K restoration of the wonderful Nadja courtesy of Arbelos Films and Radiance Films. In 1993, invited by David Lynch to come up with a low-budget genre movie, Michael Almereyda ( Tesla , Experimenter , Hamlet ) came up with a moody, postmodern reimagining of the Dracula myth which draws inspiration from Dracula’s Daughter ...

What's Up, Doc? joyously recaptures the bubbly style of 1930s screwball comedies - and firmly establishes Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal as a romantic duo uniquely endearing in screen history. Included are a daffy luggage mixup plot, dippy dialogue exchanges, a marvelous example of the art of hotel-room demolition and one of the funniest chase sequences ever, all over San Francisco. Dexterousl...

Here at CULTPLEX we've long regarded movie-going as a religious experience and the cinema as a sacred temple of worship. Week in, week out people don their best to celebrate the gods of cinema on the big screen as they intended us to. We could never quite put a name on this but recently one of our religion's patron saints Greta Gerwig talked of the Movie Church she assembled before her most recent...

A short documentary following C.O.F.F.I.N from their beginnings as teenagers on Sydney’s Northern Beaches to becoming one of Australia’s most respected contemporary rock’n’roll bands. Told through over 20 years of archival footage, interviews, unseen material and life on the road, the film explores how persistence, friendship and the surrounding culture of the Northern Beaches shaped the band’s i...