Stroud Film Festival begins this month

The Stroud Film Festival will run from 27th February to 14th March bringing 48 events to 12 venues over 16 days.

The broad range of films on offer is illustrated by a snapshot: Somali Kitchen Bristol return to the festival to introduce Brides at the Trinity Rooms and lead a panel discussion around the topics raised by the film. Our Land, exploring the right to roam movement, is at Vue, programmed by Lansdown Film Club while Blue Has No Borders brings together the experiences of Folkestone residents and refugees and will be introduced at Lansdown by director Jessi Gutch.

This year the festival continues its aim to connect film makers with audiences, bringing directors, writers and actors to Stroud. Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror comes to The Electric Picture House with producer Loe Fahie while director Barbara Santi will be here to introduce Gentle, Angry Women at St Laurence church. Artist and director Simon Poulter returns to Stroud with his new film We are Making a Film about Mark Fisher. Events are typically more than a film screening, often including an introduction, panel discussion. music or food. Films will be found this year at arts venues, youth groups, community hubs, film societies, a brewery, a pub, two charities and two cinemas!

This year’s festival; features a 90 Second Film Challenge which invites everyone to make a short film in just five days, on a given theme. It’s free to enter and the films are on the big screen at Lansdown Hall. Stroud on 14th March. www.stroudfilmfestival.org/90second2026

Two Film School sessions (28th Feb and 1st March) run at a subsidised rate to give people the skills to use their phone to make a film rather than just ‘shooting video’

Classic films in the programme include Roman Holiday and The Philadelphia Story screened at Cotswold Playhouse as a Hepburn mini season while Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard’s debut, is at the Electric Cinema Wotton and Le Quai des Brumes is the Lansdown matinee screening.

And there’s much more including a programme of workshops, short film screenings and for the first time, an immersive event!