Our news
With the latest news, blog posts, videos and interviews, our news channel is the best place to keep up to date with all things UPP
Classic Season Announcement: “Antifa On Screen” Putting Fascism in the Frame
This spring, The Ultimate Picture Palace presents ‘Antifa On Screen: Anti-Fascist Cinema Classics’, a new film season running throughout May and early June. In a time of renewed global tensions and rising authoritarianism, we’re revisiting a ... Read more
April–May 2025 Programme Announcement
Spring is here and so is our brand-new programme for April and May 2025, featuring everything from epic marathon screenings and director Q&As to live music, powerful short films, and a landmark season of anti-fascist classics. Tickets ... Read more
Kumba: A Celebration of African Short Films
Exploring Identity, Culture, and Home through Cinema We’re excited to partner with Maona Art to bring you Kumba, a dynamic short film programme that celebrates the richness of African cinema. Curated by Tatenda Jamera of Maona Art, this ... Read more
Getting Under Jonathan Glazer’s Skin
Jonathan Glazer has thus far directed four feature films, all wildly different in terms of genre, style, tone and thematic concern. According to the influential Film critic Andrew Sarris that means he would be best described as a metteur en ... Read more
Shirley MacLaine: Hollywood’s Last Great Star Re-evaluated
Shirley MacLaine, who appears alongside Jack Lemmon and Double Indemnity’s Fred MacMurray in Billy Wilder’s brilliant 1960 bleak comedy The Apartment, which is screening at the UPP this month in a restored print, might well be Hollywood’s last ... Read more
The Evolution of Horror Podcast presents: David Lynch Weekender
Painter, filmmaker, surrealist, and one of the great American artists of the 20th Century. We’ve teamed up with The Evolution of Horror Podcast to honour one of the most influential artistic voices of American cinema, the late great David ... Read more
Kino Kids Cinema Club
Join us for our brand new fortnightly strand of family-friendly classics (old and new), the Kino Kids Cinema Club! Every other Sunday (with extra screenings during the school holidays), we will be screening some of the very best kids films for ... Read more
Master of Light – Victim of Racist American Laws: James Wong Howe
Directed by a drunken perfectionist, American born Scott, Alexander Mackendrick, who had previously made a number of much loved Ealing comedies (including The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers) The Sweet Smell of Success from 1957, ... Read more
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: Real Cinema and Sweet Dreams
It might surprise you to learn that, contrary to popular belief, the western genre didn’t fall into abeyance in the 1970s, following the successes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, True Grit, The Wild Bunch and the films of Sergio Leone in ... Read more
UPP Films of the Year 2024
As 2024 comes to a close, it’s time to celebrate the standout films that defined the year. From visionary directors such as Yorgos Lanthimos and Jonthan Glazer to unforgettable performances from the likes of Andrew Scott and Emma Stone, these ... Read more
Magnolia: All Life’s Rich Tapestry is Here
Paul Thomas Anderson is, arguably, the finest American film director, currently working. Yes, he’s had his misfires (Inherent Vice and The Master most definitely have their longeurs) and he regularly fluffs his endings (the otherwise perfect ... Read more
Fight Nights At The UPP
The gloves are off this November! Get ready for a knockout season of action movie classics, from Akira Kurosawa's epic rain-soaked samurai battles to the jaw-dropping martial arts of kung-fu king Bruce Lee. "Fight Nights at The UPP" ... Read more
Gilda Lights a Mighty Fire
Charles Vidor’s 1946 Gilda, which is screening in a new 75th anniversary print at the UPP this month, with its eponymous femme fatale central character; brooding atmosphere (courtesy of Carl Dreyer’s cinematographer Rudolph Matte) and dark ... Read more
The “Other” Great Gene: Gene Wilder Re-evaluated
I have already written elsewhere about the work of Gene Hackman, one of the finest actors to emerge from Hollywood in the late 1960s and early 70s, but, lest we forget, there was also another great Gene to be found on our screens around the ... Read more
Kafka On Film Season – October 2024
This October, we have programmed a season of screenings and events linked with Oxford University’s city-wide project 'Kafka’s Transformative Communities' marking the centenary of Franz Kafka’s death. The season includes a rare outing for Hidden ... Read more
The End of the World as We Know It: Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove at 60
Whilst it was released 60 years ago, at the height of the cold war, with the Cuban Missile crisis a very recent memory for audiences at the time and with the similarly themed Sidney Lumet drama Fail Safe (which starred Henry Fonda and Walther ... Read more
Down in the Sewer: The Third Man at 75
Carol Reed is certainly one of the great British film makers. Up there with Powell and Pressburger, David Lean and Alfred Hitchcock although he is, arguably, less well-known. It was a trilogy of films in the mid 1940s which made him a force to ... Read more
National Cinema Day at the UPP (Sat 31st Aug)
On Saturday 31st August 2024, The Ultimate Picture Palace is celebrating National Cinema Day by offering audiences £4 tickets to all screenings that day. We have scheduled four screenings for Saturday, including: animated adventure Kensuke's ... Read more
Lone Star: Dead in the Heart of Texas
“Lefty” filmmaker John Sayles wrote and directed an extraordinary run of intelligent, small-scale independent American movies in the 1990s and early 2000s. Not bad for a guy I first got to know as the scriptwriter of several low budget shockers ... Read more
Cinema closed for maintenance (Fri 2 – Thu 8 Aug)
The cinema will be closed for our annual summertime period of maintenance between Friday 2nd and Thursday 8th August. We will be open again as usual from Friday 9th August with a brand new programme of new releases, special events, and ... Read more
Will Heaven Fall Upon Us? Béla Tarr Retrospective
The undisputed master of European "slow cinema", and one of the greatest filmmakers of the 21st century. Join us this August as we celebrate the work of renowned Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr with this retrospective of his work, including brand ... Read more
The 1970s – Hollywood’s Second Golden Age
They don’t call the 1970s, Hollywood’s “second” Golden Age, for nothing. Looking back upon the decade, it’s an extraordinarily rich period and one of the most interesting films from those golden years is playing in a re-mastered copy at the UPP ... Read more
I Am Cuba – An Intro by Ally Pitts
Mikhail Kalatozov is an intriguing figure. He confounds the oversimplification that in the USSR after the brief period in the 1920s when avant garde filmmakers like Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov made masterpieces, you could either be a compliant, ... Read more
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Tobe Hooper’s 1974 Bloodbath
“We are living in a land where sex and horror are the new Gods.” So pronounced Holly Johnson, lead singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, on the song Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, somewhere back in 1984 (an appropriate year for such a prophesy). ... Read more
SAFAR Film Festival 2024
The SAFAR Film Festival is the largest festival in the UK dedicated to cinema from the Arab world. Founded in 2012, SAFAR showcases the broad spectrum of film from the region by working with curators on themed programmes and inviting filmmakers ... Read more
The Cook, the Thief….an Acquired Taste
I was wondering if everything you can think of, is better up on the big screen, in, you know, a movie? Sex, for sure. Sport, definitely. Landscapes? Perhaps. Faces? Maybe. Beauty? Absolutely. Food? Now, there’s an interesting one. The ... Read more
Magic Hour: Days of Heaven Returns
My students are often surprised to hear me say that there are a number of films I have seen well over 10 times at the cinema, in a lifetime devoted to the medium. And that’s not taking into account the numbers of viewings in a classroom, on ... Read more
New and Improved Annual Membership
We're revamping our Annual Membership to offer you an array of brand new perks to choose from. Starting this Friday (22nd March) you'll have the opportunity to select from three tiers of membership, tailored to suit your preferences and ... Read more
Maona presents African Cinema at the UPP
Maona is an organization founded by Tatenda Jamera, a filmmaker and curator, in response to the lack of authentic African stories being exhibited on the big screen. The name "Maona," meaning "you have seen" in the Shona language from Zimbabwe, ... Read more
Orson Welles Bows Out in Style
1941’s masterful Citizen Kane, unsurprisingly turned out to be a tough act to follow. Orson Welles, a child prodigy and star of theatre and radio was already well known to audiences across the world when he first arrived in Hollywood and was ... Read more
Elaine May’s A New Leaf
Now 91 (and long may she last), Elaine May is a fascinating 1970s Hollywood figure and one of the few (only?) mainstream women directors from the period – 1971’s A New Leaf (which is screening at the UPP in March, as part of the Oxford ... Read more
The Man Who Ate His Shoe
Cinema lovers will continue to celebrate 2024 in style when the UPP screens a selection of films directed by the “none more maverick” German film director Werner Herzog in February. The season, which ties in with Radical Dreamer, the new BFI ... Read more
Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2024
The UK’s largest festival of Japanese cinema, the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme (JFTFP24), returns with its biggest showcase ever and, this year, is coming to The Ultimate Picture Palace. Since 2004, the Japan Foundation, London ... Read more
The Rise and Fall of the Coolest of the Cool
Few other actors crashed and burned quite as spectacularly as 80s homme du jour Mickey Rourke who, lest we forget, was not only one of the most exciting actors to emerge in that decade but was also, for a while, the coolest (and probably ... Read more
UPP Staff and Volunteers Films of 2023
Every year we poll our team to find out which new releases screened at the UPP that they enjoyed the most. In a year in which we’ve seen symphonic scandals, Alpine mysteries, and the arrival of a tiny walking, talking sea shell – let’s take a ... Read more
Powell & Pressburger: Paying for the Truth
There is a generally held assumption about British cinema that, in this country, we are very good at making gritty, realist and naturalistic cinema (which we are). Think Ken Loach (whose uncharacteristically disappointing swansong The Old Oak ... Read more
Our December 2023 programme is now on sale!
A gothic ghost story, deadpan comedy from Finland, an epic historical drama, and a season of classics celebrating the work of two of Britain’s greatest ever filmmakers. Our December programme is now on sale! You can download a PDF version by ... Read more
The Wicker Man: A Modern Idyll With Ancient Roots
The darkest days of December might not be the obvious time to visit a mythical Scottish island called Summerisle but any chance to see the 1973 cult British folk horror masterpiece The Wicker Man up on the big screen is not an opportunity to be ... Read more
Lars But Not Least
Before he fell from grace so spectacularly, there was a time when Danish auteur and enfant terrible Lars Von Trier was turning out some of the most exciting movies to ever be made in Europe and now, guess what? He’s back (time tends to be a ... Read more
Demme & Byrne Makes Total Sense
Although he won an Oscar for his 1991 hit The Silence of the Lambs, American director Jonathan Demme, who died at 73 in 2017, never quite made the movie brat list, even though he began his career like so many others of the American New Wave ... Read more
Serpico: Adult Entertainment
Whilst Hollywood’s second Golden Age (the 1970s) may well be rightfully derided for its politics (especially its attitude towards gender and ethnicity) it is also, arguably, a period of American cinema when the acting was about as good as it ... Read more
Vertigo: Pure Cinema
Regular readers will know that I took umbrage when the most recent BFI list of the greatest films proclaimed that Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce was now “officially” the “best film” of all time. Obviously there is no such ... Read more
On the Road…again!
With its memorable tagline “A man went looking for America...and couldn’t find it anywhere,” Dennis Hopper’s 1969’s “head classic” Easy Rider has a lot to answer for and is often considered to be the defining example of what has subsequently ... Read more
They’re Here! Robots, AI and Sci-fi
Whilst society has a habit of “catching up with” Science Fiction it rarely heeds the genre’s warnings. The forthcoming short season of films chosen to reflect the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence which have been dominating the ... Read more
Soundtracks: Built to Last
The recent acclaim meted out to Hauschka (AKA Volker Bertelmann) for his Academy Award winning, incongruous but effectively doomy soundtrack to Edward Berger’s Netflix funded All Quiet on the Western Front in 2022, would suggest that there’s ... Read more
The Three Colours Trilogy and other missing pieces
As regular readers will know, I have been a Film and Media teacher for nearly 40 years and was, in fact, one of the very first students in the country to gain a Degree in the subject in the early 1980s. As you can imagine, this means that in a ... Read more
Scorsese: Cinema’s Last Man Standing
There are not many film directors who have shaped my life since the early 1970s and still continue to do so to this day. Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, Ken Loach and Martin Scorsese are about the only ones who spring to mind, so it is an absolute ... Read more
Best International Feature Nominees – Oscars 2023
Throughout February and March, we’re showing all five films nominated for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. From Jerzy Skolimowski’s Polish drama about a lone donkey’s journey across Europe, to Belgian filmmaker ... Read more
UPP Ticket Price Update
As an independent, community-owned business we are always mindful of the need to carefully balance the requirements of the business and those of our customers. Over the past year, due to the rising costs of utilities as well as increased fees ... Read more
Outlaw Lovers on the Run: Badlands
The famous Bonnie and Clyde tagline: “They’re young. They’re in love. They kill people.” could have easily been applied to Terrence Malick’s 1973 unforgettable debut Badlands which is, like every other movie released that year, now celebrating ... Read more
Bringin’ in the 2023 Cheer
One of the longer lasting effects of the Covid lockdowns is the fact that increasing numbers of people are choosing to stay at home and watch movies on streaming “platforms” rather than go to the cinema and increasing numbers of films (to ... Read more
The UPP’s Top Ten Films of 2022
Welcome to the UPP’s Top Ten Films of the 2022! A couple of weeks ago, we asked our staff and volunteers to vote for their favourite new releases from the past twelve months. Whether you’re a fan of documentaries, romantic dramas, action-packed ... Read more
Why We Love These Christmas Classics
With the Christmas season well and truly here, it's natural for us to find solace in mince pies, mulled wine, and a feast of festive films to indulge in at the cinema! Our season of Christmas classics is now on sale – running between Saturday ... Read more
Enigmas and Ellipsis – Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract
If loving going to the cinema has taught us anything (and in my case that’s probably a great deal) then one thing is obvious: movies, like all other art forms, can alter their meaning to audiences over time. Some films (like most westerns, for ... Read more
Arvo Pärt Festival Screenings at the Ultimate Picture Palace
Originally conceived to celebrate the composer’s 85th birthday in 2020, Music At Oxford are this year hosting the largest UK festival of his music to date, right here in Oxford, in collaboration with the Estonian Embassy in London, Arvo Pärt ... Read more
Pre-Code Hollywood: the Rules are Made to be Broken
Listen up, all you dirty rats and hot dames. Let us transport you back to Hollywood’s savage years, when the restrictive censorship of the Hays Code wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Before the Hollywood censors decided to enforce the ... Read more
Gliding Across the Screen: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
There have been a lot of great horror movies but rarely do these films appear in lists of great films. In fact, if you don’t include Psycho or David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, which hardly count as “horror” films anyway, then the BFI greatest ... Read more
Blood & Celluloid: Vampire Film Festival (Sat 15 Oct)
Join us on Saturday 15th October 2022, between midday and midnight, for an all-day celebration of classic vampire films. Supported by the BFI, Blood and Celluloid: Vampire Film Festival features five films exploring different themes within the ... Read more
Celebrate National Cinema Day with £3 tickets (Sat 3rd Sept)
On Saturday 3rd September, we are thrilled to participate in this year's National Cinema Day. Launched by the UK Cinema Association (UKCA), National Cinema Day unites cinemas across the country, from multiplexes to independent venues, to offer ... Read more
Cronenberg: Something Wicked This Way Comes
It is highly unlikely that many of us, emerging slightly soiled and perturbed from a double bill of Shivers and Rabid, back in 1977, would have predicted that over 40 years later, as he approached 80, Canadian film maker David Cronenberg would ... Read more
Job Vacancy: Cleaner (P/T Morning)
We are now accepting applications for a part-time morning Cleaner at Oxford’s oldest and only independent cinema. The successful applicant will join our small team of staff and volunteers to help maintain the functionality and cleanliness of ... Read more
Lights, Community, Action! Campaign Is A Success
Everyone who’s had a part in securing the future for The Ultimate Picture Palace – including its new community owners – can celebrate the exciting news that their beloved cinema will now be community-owned cinema and are looking forward to an ... Read more
Seven Days Left to #OwnTheUPP
Our campaign to become a community-owned cinema has entered its final week, and there’s still time for you to buy community shares and become a co-owner of the Ultimate Picture Palace. Last week was an extraordinary week as we smashed ... Read more
Richard Curtis Supports #OwnTheUPP Campaign
BAFTA Award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Richard Curtis is the latest among the ranks of notable names, as well as more than 950 investors, to join in the campaign to secure the future of The Ultimate Picture Palace. Our campaign, ... Read more
Lights, Community, Action! Special Events
With our "Lights, Community, Action!" campaign to become community-owned cinema underway, we have partnered up with various Oxford organisations to bring you a series of special events, including classics, special-guest Q&As, and even some ... Read more
May-June 2022 Classics
With our new programme now online (full listings here), take a look at some of the classic films we’ll be showing throughout May and June 2022, including a couple of Westerns with legendary musical scores, family-friendly films for half-term, ... Read more
UPP Membership Screening Days – May 2022
Thursday 5th May & Wednesday 11th May As part of our “Lights, Community, Action!” share offer campaign to make the Ultimate Picture Palace a community-owned cinema (more information on that here: uppcinema.com/owntheupp) we wanted to ... Read more
Lights, Community, Action! Launch Weekend
Friday 29th April – Sunday 1st May Celebrate the launch of our "Lights, Community, Action!" campaign to become a community-owned and community-run cinema this weekend. From Friday 29th April, join us for drop-in sessions, free screenings, ... Read more
Love Like Blood – Cries and Whispers 50th Anniversary
The main reason why you need to catch Bergman’s fifty year old but beautifully restored (by the BFI) melodrama Cries and Whispers is to experience the genius of its Oscar winning cinematography by Sven Nykvist on the big screen. This is a ... Read more
Charity Screening of Olga in Support of Ukraine
UK cinemas have united in support of Ukraine with a series of preview charity screenings of Olga. From each ticket sold, a donation will be made to support Ukraine via the British Red Cross Disasters Emergency Committee. Read more
Oxford International Women’s Festival 2022
This year we have teamed up with The Oxford International Women’s Festival to bring you a special season of classic films written and directed by women. Read more
In the Mood for Wong Kar-Wai
With our World of Wong Kar-Wai season taking place throughout February, UPP Duty Manager & Projectionist Martina Bani writes about why we fall in love with his movies. Read more
Our Top Ten Films of 2021
We've only been able to open for six months this year, but those six months were crammed with excellent films! Check out our top ten films of 2021 as voted by our staff and volunteers. Read more
Directorial Debuts Classics Season
Join us in January for a classic season of stunning directorial debuts, from genre-defining crime-noirs to incredible visionary tales of youth by some of cinemas greatest filmmakers. Read more
Christmas Classics Season 2021
Join us throughout December for a season of festive classics to help you get in the mood for Christmas. Read more
Next Steps Towards Recovery
Just as we have taken a careful and cautious approach to building our business back up we've seen you take a similar careful approach to returning to cinemas like ours and we want to share what our next steps are. Read more
UPP Presents: Japan 2021
This November we will be taking part in the BFI’s extensive Japan 2021 Season. We are incredibly excited to be showing 12 classic films across four consecutive weekends this November, each weekend focussing on a theme celebrating the brilliance of Japanese cinema. Read more
Monday 19th July: Covid-19 Update
Thinking of each other – some changes at The Ultimate Picture Palace. As you probably know, the Government have confirmed that England will move to the final stage of easing lockdown restrictions on Mon 19 July. We wanted to let you know what ... Read more
Artist Callout: Film Poster Project
Are you a local artist/designer with a passion for cinema? If so, we want to work with you on an upcoming project linked to our re-opening in May and beyond! We are looking to commission 6 artists/graphic designers to each design an original, ... Read more
UPP Re-opening in May 2021
It’s been a while since we’ve all been able to sit inside an auditorium and lose ourselves in the magic cinema, but - fingers crossed - that day isn’t too far away. Closed since December, cinemas have been eagerly looking ahead to the date ... Read more
Dispatches from the Glasgow Film Festival and ICO Screen Days
Cinemas may still be in lockdown, but the film industry is slowly beginning to wake up again. With Monday 17th May earmarked as the day in which cinemas in the UK could possibly return, it’s good to see studios and distributors starting to ... Read more
Happy 110th Birthday Ultimate Picture Palace
The Ultimate Picture Palace opened in 1911 as the Oxford Picture Palace, the city’s first purpose-built cinema, at a time when this was a hugely exciting and popular new form of entertainment. In this blog cinema volunteer and local historian Liz Woolley writes about that fateful year in which the UPP opened it's doors to the public. Read more
What's on
Today (Wednesday 23rd April)
20:30
The End 12A
2h 29mTomorrow (Thursday 24th April)
15:15
The End 12A
18:15
Rave on for the Avon 12A
1h 26m
20:45
Black Bag 15
1h 34mBecome a member
Our community of UPP members get exclusive discounts including 2 free tickets, a free drink at our cosy bar and £2 off the price of tickets.