Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh is set to be honoured at a film festival hosted at the former Bristol IMAX cinema. Forbidden Worlds festival is returning this May to the giant 18m x 15m screen hidden inside Bristol Aquarium in the city centre.
Launched by 20th Century Flicks last year, Forbidden Worlds is Bristol’s first genre film festival dedicated to screening repertory fantasy, action, science-fiction and horror films from around the world and celebrating the people that made them. The film festival has helped contribute to the resurgence of the former IMAX, which had been largely unused as a cinema prior to 2022 for some time.
In 2022, the festival saw over 1,100 attendees enjoy genre classics and cult curios, giving viewers the chance to see films on a screen this size for the first time ever or in decades. This year will be no different and will celebrate some of cinema’s most iconic stop-motion pioneers and world-class puppeteers and their cinematic creations from May 18-21, 2023.
Read more: The story behind Bristol's IMAX cinema hidden inside Bristol Aquarium
It will mark the 90th anniversary of when King Kong (1933) was unleashed onto screens across the world, which transformed how we perceived ‘monsters’ through the use of stop-motion animation and puppetry work. Legendary stop-motion pioneers Willis H. O'Brien (King Kong) and Ray Harryhausen (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, 1958) will be honoured, and both films will be introduced by Harryhausen’s daughter Vanessa and Connor Heaney, Collections Manager for The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation.
Fresh from her Best Actress Oscar win for her stunning performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, Michelle Yeoh will be celebrated in the Forbidden Worlds programme. Best known for her roles in Tomorrow Never Dies and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, It will be showing three Hong Kong action films from earlier in the action legend’s career with special screenings of Royal Warriors (1986), The Heroic Trio (1993), and Police Story 3: Supercop (1992).
Tessa Williams, lead programmer, said: “We have all seen Michelle Yeoh being celebrated this awards season and rightfully so, and we can’t wait to bring back some of her earliest and greatest work to the former Bristol IMAX. Michelle Yeoh is one of the most brilliant, multi-faceted actors of all time, and I am so excited to be able to spend much of the Forbidden Worlds Film Festival in May celebrating her work."
There will also be special screenings of James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) to honour special effects legend, Stan Winston. The festival poster was designed by the famous Internet artist, Jim'll Paint It, who became well known for his drawings through Microsoft Paint.
Hosted from May 18-21, day tickets are available for £40 (£15 for Thursday's shorter programme) with individual screening passes available soon. With early bird festival passes already sold out, you can buy to have all-access for £120 or £100 for a weekend pass (Friday to Sunday). You can see the line-up at a glance below.
Thursday, May 18, 2023
- 6PM: THE TERMINATOR (1984) + The Creatures of Stan Winston
- 9PM: PUMPKINHEAD (1988)
Friday, May 19, 2023
- 12PM: PREY (1977)
- 2PM: ROYAL WARRIORS (1986)
- 4PM: GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990)
- 7PM: THE WAY OF THE DRAGON (1972)
- 9PM: DOLLS (1987)
Saturday, May 20, 2023
- 10.30AM: RETURN TO OZ (1985)
- 1PM: KING KONG (1933) + King Kong at 90: the legacy of Willis O’Brien
- 4PM: THE HEROIC TRIO (1993)
- 6.30PM: CLIFFHANGER (1993)
- 9PM: AMSTERDAMNED (1988)
Sunday, May 21, 2023
- 11AM: THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958) + A celebration of Ray Harryhausen
- 1.30PM: INVADERS FROM MARS (1953)
- 3.15PM: POLICE STORY 3: SUPERCOP (1992)
- 6PM: ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)
- 8PM: STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997)
Forbidden Worlds is at the former Bristol IMAX, Anchor Rd, Bristol BS1 5TT. May 18-21, 2023. Tickets on sale now at https://www.forbiddenworldsfilmfestival.co.uk/
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