Blog

A Summer of Celebration – as the UPP turns 30

A Summer of Celebration – as the UPP turns 30

This summer, we’re celebrating not one but two major milestones in Oxford cinema history - 30 years of the Ultimate Picture Palace, and 50 years since the opening of our predecessor, the much-loved Penultimate Picture Palace. To mark the occasion, we’ve put together a...

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Ruskin School of Art students’ short films at UPP

Ruskin School of Art students’ short films at UPP

The Ultimate Picture Palace are delighted to partner with Ruskin School of Art, to exhibit a selection of their students’ short films. Last February, students were given the opportunity to showcase their films at The Ultimate Picture Palace during a two-hour...

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The New Wave: a season of French classics of the 1960s

The New Wave: a season of French classics of the 1960s

Born from rebellion, the French New Wave changed cinema forever. Inspired by the release of Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague (screening from 20th February), a new comedy-drama that recreates the shooting of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, this season revisits the...

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Gene Hackman: Everyman to Every Man and Woman

Gene Hackman: Everyman to Every Man and Woman

Like so many things that happened over 50 years ago, it’s hard to believe that someone like Gene Hackman could have ever been a successful and popular leading man (and one of my favourite actors, ever). I saw him for the first time as wayward priest Rev. Frank Scott...

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Once Upon a Time in the West – Dreaming of America

Once Upon a Time in the West – Dreaming of America

As you get older, you learn to love westerns all the more. I know there’s still them that say they can’t stand the genre. But for this grizzled, mean and melancholy son of a gun, who, to this day always sits facing the door in a bar, there’s nothing like ‘em. Any list...

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UPP Staff & Volunteers Films of the Year 2025

UPP Staff & Volunteers Films of the Year 2025

As the year draws to a close, we’ve been looking back on the films that stayed with us long after the credits rolled. From boundary-pushing debuts to bold new work from filmmakers we love, these are the movies that sparked conversations at the bar, lingered in our...

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UPP Young Critics Award Recipients & Their Reviews

UPP Young Critics Award Recipients & Their Reviews

As part of our recent Melodramarama! season, we were thrilled to launch a brand-new Young Film Critics Award, delivered in collaboration with the BFI Film Audience Network. The quality of submissions was outstanding, and we invited the award recipients to join us at...

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Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!