We very much enjoyed First Thursday on 5th February when Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice was the most popular choice of the evening.
We will be meeting again on Thursday March 5th when we will aim to be in the bar between the early and later evening screenings from 7.30pm. Lots and lots of choice this month “Wuthering Heights”,If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Sirat and as ever you can just come along to chat about these or any films you’ve seen recently without necessarily seeing them on the night.
Our first event of our 2026 calendar will be First Thursday on 5th February. We will aim to meet in the bar around 7:30pm between the screenings of Nouvelle Vague at 17:40 and No Other Choice at 20:10 and some of us will stay to watch No Other Choice.
We’re just coming back to bleary–eyed reality after spending the eighteen days of Leeds International Film Festival dashing in and out of darkened rooms seeing fabulous films. Now we have December’s First Thursday and our Christmas screening just around the corner.
For our December meet up on Thursday 4th we will be getting together in the bar area from about 8pm between the 17.20 screening of Wake up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and the 20.45 screening of Pillion. We hope to see some of you there for a drink and chat.
Our Christmas Screening this year is Tokyo Godfathers on Wednesday 17th December, doors will be open from 5:30pm and you may want to come along early for some extra festive treats. We’ll have more news on that soon
Sunday 10th August from 2pm Hyde Park Picture House Screen 2
Our Annual General Meeting covering the financial year from April 2024-25 will be taking place in Screen 2 at the Picture House on Sunday 10th August after a screening of Gianni Di Gregorio’s modern Italian classic Mid-August Lunch, “a wonderfully patient, delicately observed film; warm, generous, never for a moment sentimental or patronising, never exploiting dottiness and eccentricity” (The Observer).
“Mid-August Lunch is a film of rare benevolence that treats its subjects with dignity and playfulness.” Catherine Shoard, The Guardian
2pm – Film: Mid-August Lunch (U, 2008, 71mins) introduced by the Friends
3:20pm – Break for refreshments and membership payments
3:50pm – AGM
5pm – AGM concludes
We would be glad to see as many of you as possible there but you will need to be signed up to our Pay What You Decide membership scheme in order to vote at the AGM. You can join online now or there should be opportunity to join in person during the refreshment break.
For June’s First Thursday we’ll be meeting this Thursday 5th around 8pm in the cinema bar to chat about films we’ve seen recently, films we want to see, films we’re sad we’ve missed!
Please join us on May 1st at 9pm onwards in the cinema bar to discuss all things film including but not exclusively Licorice Pizza which HPPH is screening as part of its Philosophy and Film strand that evening from 6pm.
Licorice Pizza has been selected by Dr. Colette Olive and will be followed by a short talk from Colette exploring the philosophical themes raised.
Tickets are already selling fast for this screening so we recommend booking if you want to join us.
‘First Thursday’ is our monthly meet up to give members and anyone interested in the Friends, or cinema in general, a chance to get together.
Please note: due to a licensing issue the screening will no longer be from 35mm and will be projected digitally.
Please join us on April 3rd at 8pm onwards in the cinema bar to discuss all things film. Some of us will be watching The End at 5:10pm and if you already have your tickets there should be time to say hello before the 8:20pm screening of La Cocina. Both of these films are screening all week along with more chances to see I’m Still Here, Santosh and Anora.
‘First Thursday’ is our monthly meet up to give members and anyone interested in the Friends, or cinema in general, a chance to get together.
After a successful Festive Screening of Perfect Days in December our next ‘First Thursday’ Film Club meet up is on February 6th after the 5:00pm screening of A Complete Unknown. Come along and watch the film with us, or see it anytime from the 31st January, and then join us in the bar around 7.45pm on the 6th to discuss it.
“Even a skeptic can be swept away by its heady mix of laidback assessment and genuine awe.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“The wonder of A Complete Unknown isn’t just that it manages to be good anyway but that it finds an angle on Dylan as unexpectedly electric as that amplified Newport set.” – Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture
For November’s ‘First Thursday’ Film Club on the 7th November we’ll be meeting in the bar after the 5pm showing of Anora in screen 2. Anora is the latest film from Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project) and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival. It’s screening at the Picture House from Friday 1st November and is also one of the many films showing at the Leeds International Film Festival. If you can’t make the screening on the 7th and want to see the film some other time you’d still be welcome to join us around 7:30pm. Meeting at the end of the first week of the Festival should also mean we have plenty of other great films to talk about.
“Watching Anora is like riding shotgun alongside a reckless driver. Sean Baker is one of the brightest and most original filmmakers of his generation. He is one of a kind, and so is Anora.” – Leonard Maltin
“A wildly entertaining, modern-day screwball comedy set in 2018 that barrels through New York and Las Vegas. Mikey Madison is a revelation.” – Wendy Ide, Screen International
The film is showing every day from Friday so we hope you will get chance to see it and then join us on Thursday to talk about it.
For October’s First Thursday Film Club we’ll be watching The Outrun at 5pm on Thursday 3rd and then gathering in the bar for a chat to share our feelings on the film, or about film in general, from around 7:30pm. First Thursdays are a new meet-up organised by the Friends of Hyde Park Picture House but open to everyone.
Starring and produced by Saoirse Ronan, and adapted from the bestselling memoir by Amy Liptrot, The Outrun is a life-affirming story about living on the edge, healing and what it means to return home.
“This is beautiful filmmaking. This is cinema where everything matters, where every little detail adds up to create something seriously exhilarating to experience in the theater.” – Alex Billington, FirstShowing.net
“The Outrun’s true tether, however, is Ronan, and here she works to all her greatest strengths. The film wraps entirely around her, yet she’s far too honest an actor to ever play up to the audience’s expectations of a woman in crisis.” – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
The film is showing every day this week so we hope you will get chance to see it and then join us on Thursday to talk about it.
Friends of Hyde Park Picture House 