The Shadow Scholars + Q&ACert-TBC

Directed by Eloise King | UK | 2024 | 1h 37m

Oxford professor Patricia Kingori delves into the hidden, multi-billion-dollar “fake essay” industry, where an estimated 40,000 highly educated Kenyans earn a living by writing academic papers for students around the world. These “shadow scholars” help students in countries like the UK secure degrees and launch lucrative careers, all without doing the work themselves. Travelling to Nairobi to meet the ghostwriters, Patricia exposes this invisible workforce and questions the true value of academic qualifications in a world where degrees can be bought.

One-off screening followed by a Q&A with Professor Patricia Kingori (University of Oxford) and Carli Coetzee (President of the African Studies Association). 

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed The Shadow Scholars + Q&A between September 16, 2025 and September 16, 2025.

Join our mailing list and we'll make sure you always know what's on and when.

What else is on?

Today (Monday 9th November)

17:45

Fatherland 12A
1h 22m | German w/ English subtitles
1949: Erika joins her father, Nobel-winning author Thomas Mann, on a literary tour of East and West Germany. Then tragedy strikes the family. From the director of Ida and Cold War, a post-war drama about guilt, love, and a divided country trying to heal.

Book here

20:00

Dead Souls Cert-TBC
+ Director Q&A
1h 28m
Arizona, 1890: a stranger named Strindler asks a small town to pay for the names of dead Mexican labourers. A meditative political Western from cult director Alex Cox (Repo Man, Moviedrome) who joins us for a Q&A after this one-off screening.

Book here

23:00

Stewart Lee Live: Pea Green Boat 16+
An owl wakes at sea in a pea green boat, with a cat, its natural predator. And some honey. Stewart Lee’s darkly comic take on Lear’s poem comes with live improvised music, a Q&A and book signing. Late-night shows raising funds for #SaveTheUPP.

Book here


Tomorrow (Tuesday 10th November)

18:00

PlayTime U
+ Intro / £6 for Members
2h 4m | French w/ English subtitles
Tati's modernist comedy sends Monsieur Hulot and a party of American tourists through a glass-and-steel Paris of offices, shops and restaurants, gently mocking bureaucratic efficiency and consumer utopia while finding real human connection amid the chaos.

Book here

20:45

Fatherland 12A
£6 for Members
1h 22m | German w/ English subtitles
1949: Erika joins her father, Nobel-winning author Thomas Mann, on a literary tour of East and West Germany. Then tragedy strikes the family. From the director of Ida and Cold War, a post-war drama about guilt, love, and a divided country trying to heal.

Book here

23:00

Stewart Lee Live: Pea Green Boat 16+
An owl wakes at sea in a pea green boat, with a cat, its natural predator. And some honey. Stewart Lee’s darkly comic take on Lear’s poem comes with live improvised music, a Q&A and book signing. Late-night shows raising funds for #SaveTheUPP.

Book here


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!