Square Chapel Arts Centre film offer is back from Friday 22 April. The centre is delighted to be bringing their film programme back to Halifax post pandemic. The much-loved arts have teamed up with film experts Bill Lawrence from Reel Solutions (Calderdale, Yorkshire) and Jonny Tull from Tull Stories (North East).

Film fans can expect to enjoy recent blockbusters, Oscar winning films, a selection of arthouse films, subtitled films, look out for the Silver Screenings aimed at older audiences and where tickets are priced at just £5, films shot locally in the region, events with some of our stage and screen patrons, and Q&A’s to accompany some screenings.

Audiences can expect to see the recently talked about love story filmed in Bradford and directed by the award-winning Clio Barnard, Ali & Ava. Clio Barnard continues her stories from Bradford films with her a latest set around two lonely people who meet despite their different communities. When they do they find more to enjoy with each other than they could have imagined.

The programme opens with a screening of Ali & Ava followed by a questions and answers session with two of the films cast members. Audiences can watch the film and then meet Kamal Kaan and Natalie Gavin who is from Bradford and a proud patron and supporter of the arts centre in the heart of the town. Fans can see this critically acclaimed and award-winning film on Friday 22 April.

Film goers and fans of Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren will want to see The Duke, directed by Roger Michell. This thoroughly entertaining crime caper, largely shot in Bradford, centres on a strong performance from Jim Broadbent as 60-year-old Kempton Bunton who steals Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery. Sadly, director Roger Michell, died soon after completion.

For those wanting to see the must-see Oscar winning favourites, the arts centre will be screening the film Coda directed by Sian Heder. The winner of the Best Film Oscar this year has been given a limited re-issue in cinemas this month and is a delightful story of Ruby growing up in in a fishing family where her parents and brother are deaf. They depend on her to help with the business, but her great singing voice is pulling her in other directions. A remake of the French La Famille Belier, that had a limited UK release, Coda is blessed with some tremendous performances and a delight and a must for the avid film fans in your families and circle of friends.

Drive My Car directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi is a Japanese film with English subtitles. It won the Oscar winner for Best International Feature Film, is based on a Haruki Murakami short story that focuses on the relationship between a grieving theatre actor and the driver who is assigned to him while on a residency in Hiroshima. Both have their secrets.

The Worst Person in the World is a Norwegian film with English subtitles. Nominated for Best International Feature Film at this year’s Oscars, and now a box-office hit in the UK. The Worst Person in the World, follows Julie who is about to turn 30. Over four years, through various relationships, she struggles to find a career and figure out what to do with her life.

Other highlights include THE OUTFIT starring acting powerhouse Mark Rylance who delivers a stunning performance in US screenwriter Graham Moore’s (The Imitation Game) beautifully constructed 1956-set thriller. Rylance is Leonard, an insular, calm and brilliant tailor who has relocated from Savile Row to Chicago.  Over time, Leonard’s small shop has somehow become a money-drop for the Mafia, and having turned a blind eye to this, over one dark night mob war erupts and double-cross after double cross threatens his world.

Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast delivers both Death on the Nile and Belfast to cinemas in 2022 and very different films they are. Belfast is based on Branagh’s childhood, growing up in the city in the 1960s. With ‘the troubles’ in the background, young Buddy struggles to make sense of his life.

Paris, 13^th District is a French, Mandarin film with English subtitles. It’s a love story set in and about Paris. Jacques Audiard lovingly shows the Les Olympiades district of Paris in stunning black and white photography with the Taiwanese Emilie, a free spirit enjoying a casual love life until she meets Camille.

OPERATION MINCEMEAT directed by John Madden (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Mrs Brown) assembles the cream of British acting talent (including Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen and Kelly Macdonald) for this bizarre, funny (and slightly macabre) tale of a real-life World War 2 military deception that wrong-footed Hitler’s forces.

Compartment No. 6 is in Finnish and Russian with English subtitles. This is a real charmer from Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, this brilliant film will have you bouncing out of the cinema. Young Finnish archaeology student Laura (Seidi Haarla) is travelling from Moscow to Murmansk to view ancient rock carvings. Stuck on rickety train in the dark winter cold, Laura must share her tiny space with a boorish drunk Russian miner Vadim (Yuri Borislov). Initially frosty with him, and he her, the tension soon begins to melt.

Finally, The Phantom of the Open starring the superb Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins I based on the true-life story of Maurice Flitcroft, redundant shipyard crane operator decides to turn his hand to golf. He submits an entry for the British Open and is accepted. A thoroughly entertaining underdog movie in a classic British style. Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins hold the centre while a range characters spiral around them. A crowd pleaser in more ways than one.