Bridport Film Society

06/09/2026

We are now fully subscribed for our 2026/27 season.
To be added to our waiting list, please email your name and phone number to [email protected] so we can contact you if a vacancy arises.

01/09/2026

Memberships are selling fast.
Limited to 210.
Don't delay!

Become a member of Bridport Film Society and join like-minded individuals in our fortnightly film screenings.

04/08/2026

We will publish our programme and open enrolment for next season's membership at the end of August.

Current members can still book to see films being screened by the Arts Centre during the summer at a discount - just select the ticket type FILM SOC MEMBER after selecting your seat.

18/03/2026

Audience reaction to "My Favourite Cake" on March 17
Average rating 89% (106 responses)

Comments:
• So enjoyable & meaningful. Loved it!
• This film had everything!
• The sexiest shower scene I have ever seen. Just fabulous.
• Loved the shower scene
• Delightful! - and hilarious
• Unusual and unexpected film - really good end to the season
• Lovely film, a shame about the sad ending
• Sad and beautiful ending. Hope it's not connected to current times in Iran.
• A bitter sweet film which I really enjoyed in spite of the ending. Thank you.
• An unexpected film of delight, joy and sadness.
• Moving, important, full of life and loneliness - a little predictable.
• Interesting film - a bit clunky in parts but good overall. Crazy it was considered obscene but not surprising! Let's hope there's a better future for Iran.

04/03/2026

Audience reaction to "Julie Keeps Quiet" on March 3
Average rating 65% (107 responses)

Comments:
• Excellent: fully depicted the anxiety and reticence of talking about abuse.
• Important topic well portrayed by Julie but overly drab coloration and fuzzy focus - very uncomfortable to watch. Pretty humourless too.
• Very gentle understated yet powerful portrayal of peer pressure & how, if Julie spoke, her whole world would fall apart - in her eyes. They want her to speak - but no-one wants anything to change. How many young people in these situations? Also we "help" here to see "everything" to understand why she kept quiet. Very engaging, you could see all perspectives.
• Excellent acting. You could read her thoughts
• absorbing study but lacking in sharp dialogue and incident
• Generally disturbing and complex
• Strangely I like the slow of it. Gripped.
• Slow, frustrating and unresolved - and made, written, directed, edited by men!
• I didn't feel the Jeremy issue was fully resolved
• Too many unanswered questions at the end
• A painful watch with few redeeming moments
• A slow burn in serious need of ignition...which never came
• Who would be a teenager again?
• Speak up Julie X
• Confusing ending!
• Tedious though thought provoking
• BORING. Watching paint dry would have been a great improvement.
• Really missed the point of this film with me.
• didn't engage at all :(

17/02/2026

Audience reaction to "Santosh" on February 17
Average rating 80% (104 responses)

Comments:
• Excellent choice! Captivating story.
• Very uncomfortable viewing but important to see. Great performances. Thank you
• What a dismal depiction of Indian life
• Beautifully made, but way too depressing for me!
• Excellent lead but brutal.
• Why did Santosh's character resort to such brutality?
• Very moving tale of corruption
• Good lead actor. Brutal insights into a system rife with corruption, caste & religious prejudice handing out random justice and getting nowhere better fast
• A bit too depressing
• Complex and brutally honest about some of the worst aspects of Indian society & institutions.
• Very complex, quite hard to watch the torture of Saleem. Layers of prejudice - women, untouchables, muslims, and how when women get to a position of power in a male dominated society they can survive by going along with prevailing social norms while slowly trying to change this. Women teaching men may not be the best way to redress the power imbalance. Much food for thought.
• Powerful film. A long way to go on our planet.
• Took us to the messy heart of village India
• A hidden world of hierarchical privilege
• Mesmerising portrait of Northern India and its culture. Great portraits of two women.
• Loved the Soviet bus stops [the short]

03/02/2026

Audience reaction to "Solo" on February 3
Average rating 69% (109 responses)

Comments:
• As a study of the effect of toxic relationships it was effective but by God was I desperate for some redemption at the end.
• Bitter-sweet study of difficult emotions
• Well shot. Told the story of toxic relationships and deprivation of maternal love
• Conclusion?
• Pellerin was superb. Complex movie.
• Very interesting glimpse into another area of life - at heart we are all just looking for love, acceptance and a chance to be who we are. Beautiful, truthful and very tenderly filmed.
• Superb photography. New take on the abusive journey & redemption.
• Good drama, good drag. What more could you possibly want?
• Great, deep, thought provoking. Loved it!
• Loved the drag scene - the loneliness and toxic love was hard to watch.
• Amazing.
• Sensual, exciting, and heartbreaking. Wonderful.
• Beautiful image of life.
• I came for the music, but there wasn't enough.
• Bit tedious and predictable
• Dull & predictable.
• What a drag! Too ho******ic and seedy. Some atmospheric lighting effects though.
• Accomplished portrait of repellent world with terrible music. Dragged rather.
• Superficial. Tedious.

20/01/2026

Audience reaction to "I'm Still Here" on January 20
Average rating 92% (93 responses)

Comments:
• Excellent. All the more powerful for sparing any scenes of atrocities,
• Achingly beautiful. Achingly painful. A masterpiece.
• Beautiful, cruel, terrifying and nheart warming in equal measure.
• A sense of pain and beauty all in one.
• Intense and harrowing and finally a directorial and acting feat.
• Powerful, uncomfortable, brilliant.
• A very canny account of a brutal regime.
• Courage and self belief, what an example to her children.
• Very powerful, tender, yet compelling - contrasting family life against the backdrop of the "disappeared", brutality and complete disregard for human life. Enice Parva is a true heroine.

07/01/2026

Audience reaction to "Perfect Days" on January 6
Average rating 84% (128 responses)

Comments:
• Perfect Days, perfect film - a moving meditation on a simpler life and a beautiful portrait of Tokyo
• Charming film; kind, gentle man living a simple life, with a love of nature, music and literature. Loved the music.
• Loved seeing Tokyo through a different perspective. Wish our bus station toilets were kept that clean.
• Enjoyable, relaxing, thought provoking. Make the most of your life.
• Beautifully observed. Be more Hiroyama!
• Lovely film, slightly too long
• A long time to wait for no ending!
• Lovely film, stunning cheekbones, could have been 30 mins shorter
• Take your time and you will see the beauty.
• Thought provoking! Fabulously simple.
• It takes a perfect person
• A beautiful contemplative film. Could have been 30 mins shorter
• I could almost get behind the idea of mindfulness.
• A bit slow to get going but well worth seeing. Very uplifting.
• Beautiful film, many layered. I loved this character looking up to meet each day, expanding to encompass the people & situations he encounters. Everyone benefited from him, including me.
• Good to see a man take pride in his work. Hypnotic and beautiful. A profound film with real soul. Loved it.
• Nice toilets and bonsai - but the sandwiches were a bit dodgy.
• It rains a lot in Tokyo. Boring!

09/12/2025

Audience reaction to "The Marching Band" on December 9
Average rating 93% (129 responses)

Comments:
• Touching, heartwarming & perfect for a stormy December evening!
• Made me cry. Well acted and engrossing. Heartful.
• Formidable! Un vrai coup de film xx
• You saved the best till the end of the year. Fabulous film, music too.
• A fabulous soundtrack; great cast; warm and full of heart.
• So powerful, Wonderful acting - particularly Jimmy.
• Exceptional character direction - total consistency
• One of the best films I have seen lately. Good way to end the first half of the season.
• Learnt more about music. Really moving, not mawkish. Full of heart.
• Beautiful, moving & good story, sad but real story of community & connections.
• FANTASTIC FILM - showed the power of music & community in standing together
• Joyful & heartbreaking. Even impure blood is thicker than water.
• Worth it for the brilliant ending.
• Humourous, touching covering complicated family history and class warfare. Excellent evening's entertainment plus wide range of wonderful music. Joyful. Happy Christmas to all!