​
The Oswestry Film Society programme will appear on this site once films are scheduled. Keep checking back to find out what's being screened and when, and please come out and support us.
Thank you to our former long-term hosts in Oswestry, the Kinokulture cinema. We are now based just round the corner at the Hermon Chapel Arts Centre. You can check out their own varied range of music and arts events at their separate website, www.hermon-arts.org.uk
Wed 12th March 2025 7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
The Critic (15) 101 mins
THE CRITIC is a deliciously dark and sharp-witted thriller set in 1930s London featuring an all-star British cast including Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai and Lesley Manville.
When the most feared and vicious theatre critic in town Jimmy Erskine (McKellen), finds himself suddenly in the cross hairs of the Daily Chronicle’s new owner David Brooke (Strong), he strikes a sinister Faustian pact with struggling actress Nina Land (Arterton) who is desperate to win his favour.
Wed 19th Mar 2025, 7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel.
Journey's End (12A) - 107 mins -
Journey's End brings R.C. Sherriff's classic thought-provoking play about the futility and slaughter of the first world war to the screen with thrilling power, thanks to director Saul Dibb's hard-hitting urgency and brilliant work from a talented cast.
Set in a dugout on the Western Front in April 1918, it is the emotionally-charged story of a group of British officers, led by a mentally-disintegrating young captain, as – with a massive German attack imminent - they await their fate.
The dramatic action is opened out, whilst always conveying the cramped claustrophobia of this tragic trench-based ordeal, and the dynamic and observant camerawork helps drive the tense momentum.
The OFS is showing this film to support Oswestry’s first Wilfred Owen Festival – Owen the town’s own tragic young officer who died on the front, but whose poetry about the futility of war and the sacrifices made by so many have earned him his own artistic immortality. (Go to www.wilfredowenfestival.co.uk for more events).
This is not a gung-ho action movie. It’s a gripping and profound anti-war statement about men under ultimate stress. A century on, it's never too soon, never too late to think about that.
26th March 2025 7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Agent of Happiness (12A)
- 94 mins
How can you measure happiness? The country of Bhutan invented Gross National Happiness to do just that, and Amber is one of the agents who travels door to door to meet people and measure how happy they really are. He is still living with his elderly mother at the age of 40, but is nevertheless a hopeless romantic who dreams of finding love: a happiness agent who is in search of his own happiness. We embark with Amber on a cross-country road trip meeting citizens from all walks of life, reminding us of the fragility and beauty of our own happiness. No matter where we live. Documentary. Bhutan (subtitled)
Wed 2nd Apr 2025,
7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel.
Conclave (12A) - 120mins
The Power of God. The ambition of men.
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, cardinals from around the world are meeting in conclave to cast their votes in the world's most secretive election.
They are holy men. But they are dangerously driven. And they have rivals. Over the next 72 hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth. Who will it be?
Conclave is a thought-provoking papal drama that delivers edge-of-your-seat suspense with a venerable Ralph Fiennes exceptional as the lead, backed by powerful performances from big-hitters Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.
Top film at the recent BAFTAs – and perhaps by the time we screen it, the Oscars - Conclave is a tale of intrigue, doubt and faith delivering edge-of-your-seat suspense.
Mon 7th Apr 2025
7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Conclave (12A) - 120 mins -
BY POPULAR DEMAND: ENCORE SCREENING AFTER OUR EARLIER SELL-OUT. NB: Monday screening.
The Power of God. The ambition of men.
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, cardinals from around the world are meeting in conclave to cast their votes in the world's most secretive election.
They are holy men. But they are dangerously driven. And they have rivals. Over the next 72 hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth. Who will it be?
Conclave is a thought-provoking papal drama that delivers edge-of-your-seat suspense with a venerable Ralph Fiennes exceptional as the lead, backed by powerful performances from big-hitters Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.
Top film at the recent BAFTAs – and perhaps by the time we screen it, the Oscars - Conclave is a tale of intrigue, doubt and faith delivering edge-of-your-seat suspense.
Wed Apr 16th 2025, 7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Risen (15) - 107 mins
“I have seen two things which cannot reconcile: a man dead without question, and that same man alive again. I pursue him, the Nazarene, to ferret the truth.”
Roman military tribune and army veteran Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) remains set in his ways, but arrives at a crossroads when tasked to investigate the mystery of what happened to Jesus after the crucifixion.
As his journey takes him to places never dreamed of, his quest to disprove rumours of a risen Messiah and prevent an uprising in Jerusalem make him question his own beliefs and spirituality.
Rotten Tomatoes critics’ site: "Risen benefits from a lighter tone than many faith-based productions, as well as a unique take on the Greatest Story Ever Told and a terrific turn from star Joseph Fiennes."
23rd April 2025
7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Small Things Like These (12A) - 98 mins
Oscar® winner Cillian Murphy delivers a stunning performance as devoted father Bill Furlong in this film based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Claire Keegan. While working as a coal merchant to support his family, he discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent — and uncovers truths of his own — forcing him to confront his past and the complicit silence of a small Irish town controlled by the Catholic Church.
Wed 30th April 2025 7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
A Complete Unknown (15) - 140 mins
Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician BOB DYLAN's (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his ground breaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
AWAITING LICENCE 2025 tbc, at Hermon Chapel
Stay Awake (15)
- 94 mins - AWAITING SCREENING LICENCE
With a take on what might just be happening around us in Shropshire that we're blissfully unaware of, Stay Awake is a quietly powerful look at the ripple effects on family life of addiction to prescription drugs. It explores addiction from the lesser-seen viewpoint of the carers - in this case two teenage brothers. Their mother is loving and well-meaning, but powerless to pull herself out of the destructive cycle of her disease. The boys must put their dreams on hold as they're constantly discovering their mum passed out, dragging her to hospital, and encouraging her to go to rehab - with the possibility of relapse always lingering. Anchored by three superb performances, Stay Awake finds surprising humour and humanity amid the tragedy of parental addiction.
Wed Mar 5th, 2025
7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (15) - 101 mins - THIS IS A PAST EVENT
​Based on a true story, this is a fascinating black comedy about failed biographer and 1990s serial literary forger Lee Israel.
Her career as an author had bombed and, desperate for money as all her contemporaries seemed to be getting huge advances, Israel found a new vocation: forging letters from stars and celebrities. She sold about 400 to credulous or cynical dealers before getting her collar felt by the authorities.
Melissa McCarthy is magnificent as the rude and bad-tempered main character, abetted by Richard E Grant as her lounge-lizard drinking buddy.
Adapted from Israel's own memoir, this Oscar and BAFTA nominated film is a witty and literate story of desperation and crooked creativity!
Wed 8th Jan 2025,
7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Wilding (PG), ENCORE SCREENING - 78min film, + 26 min recorded Q&A
*THIS IS A PAST EVENT*
AFTER SELLING OUT 'WILDING' LATE LAST YEAR, WE'RE DELIGHTED TO START THE OSWESTRY FILM SOCIETY'S 2025 PROGRAMME WITH A MUCH-REQUESTED SECOND SCREENING.
Based on Isabella Tree's best selling book of the same title, Wilding tells the incredible story of a couple who bet on nature for the future of their failing 400 year old estate.
The film follows them as they set to work with a ground breaking vision, battling entrenched tradition and major forces along the way, daring to place the fate of their farm into the hands of nature.
Ripping down fences, they set the land back to the wild and entrust its recovery to a motley mix of animals both tame and wild.
It is the beginning of a grand project that will become one of the most significant experiments in Europe.
​
Director David Allen.
Run time 78 minutes.
Post-film: Recorded Q&A with Isabella Tree and Craig Bennett (CEO, Wildlife Trust) - courtesy of Met Film.