Bristol Film Festival launches new rock concert film strand

This March, the Bristol Film Festival tries something new with its first concert film screening. And It’s not just any old concert film, but the ever-magnificent Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii. Filmed in 1972, this great concert film was mostly shot without an audience over four days in the ancient Roman amphitheatre at Pompeii, Italy. One of the all-time most definitive concert films, it includes such early Floyd staples as Echoes, Careful with That Axe, Eugene and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, and remains as popular today as it was on release. When the definitive Steven Wilson remix was released on multiple formats last May, it topped the UK official album chart for the first time, becoming the seventh Floyd album to do so. And it’s this remix that the Bristol Film Festival will be screening twice at the Planetarium on Friday 6 March.

2026 marks the Festival’s tenth anniversary, which will see the return of plenty of old favourites. At the Planetarium in March and April, for example, you can see science fiction classics Total Recall, Terminator 2, Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (restored 60th anniversary screening), Highlander, Gravity, Interstellar, Dragonheart and Reign of Fire. The Festival’s renowned Vintage Screenings with wine tastings in Averys Wine Cellar include a 75th anniversary outing for The Lavender Hill Mob, plus classic Mel Brooks comedy The Producers, The Godfather with wine and pasta and a 20th anniversary screening of the great Pan’s Labyrinth. There’s also a Mother’s Day screening of Pride & Prejudice in the Avon Gorge Hotel’s event suite and a beery St. Patrick’s Day screening of The Bamshees of Inisherin at the Wiper & True brewery.

We took the opportunity to quiz founder and director Owen Franklin about the festival’s history and future plans – as well as those Pink Floyd screenings.

The great Pink Floyd at Pompeii is your first concert film. Why did you choose this one and what next on your hitlist if it’s a success? Woodstock? The Song Remains the Same?

Funny you should mention The Song Remains The Same, as I’ve literally been enquiring into the rights just this week – great minds think alike clearly!

Apart from being a big Pink Floyd fan myself, I remember going to an album play-through of Dark Side Of The Moon years ago at the Planetarium; it’s got fantastic audio as a venue as well as screen setup, and the otherworldly music seemed like an apt fit for the first concert film (and a step away from the usual sci-fi programming we host there).

The response has been fantastic and we’d definitely like to bring more classic concerts to the big screen – if anyone has the rights to Kate Bush’s 1979 Tour Of Life footage, please get in touch…!

Ten years is quite a milestone. Did you ever expect the festival to last this long?

I was trying to think back to this time a decade ago, in the final weeks before the inaugural weekend, and I think that the sole goal was to get through those three days and 55 events in one piece – it was hard to think beyond that looming launch date! While we wouldn’t ever pack our schedule so densely these days, the objective was to go big for the first event, see if it worked and see what worked too. Fortunately, the response was very encouraging, and we’ve not really looked back. We still have regular audience members who came to that opening weekend and have supported us ever since, which means more than I can say.

What have you learned about the tastes of local audiences in that time?

There is no easily definable demographic – Bristolians have a wonderfully eclectic taste, and aren’t afraid to take a chance on something new. While we usually stick to the classics and cult favourites, it’s wonderful to see (for example) people packing out the Planetarium on a January school night to watch some headache-inducing indie sci-fi thriller made for less than £10,000.

What have been your most successful events?

Some of the biggest hits from the inaugural weekend have become a major part of our calendar, like Horror In The Caves (as the name suggests, horror films screened deep within Redcliffe Caves) and Vintage Screenings (films paired with themed wine tasting flights in Averys’ cellars). Locations like Aerospace Bristol always draw a big crowd too – after all, watching films like Top Gun and Airplane! underneath Concorde is a pretty unique experience!

Screening a aeronautical classic under the wings of Concorde

A standalone highlight was a 30th anniversary screening of Withnail & I where we were lucky enough to be joined by Paul McGann. He was exceptionally generous with his time, and his fondness for the film still shines through, even though he must have the same lines quoted back at him on a daily basis.

And has anything not lived up to expectations?

Damien Chazelle’s masterful psychological thriller Whiplash was a flop when we screened it. Maybe the drum solos put people off?

You’ve also pioneered the use of novel screening locations. Which have been the most successful and is there anywhere you’ve wanted to use but haven’t been able to?

Apart from the three mentioned above – Redcliffe Caves, Averys, Aerospace Bristol – there are numerous venues that we keep coming back to, like Arnos Vale, St Mary Redcliffe and The Mount Without to name a few. The setting/overall experience is as important to us as the film itself, and we aim to have the two complement each other.

A screening at The Mount Without

The pragmatic, level-headed, event management veteran in me keeps telling me that it’s just too much of an uphill battle logistically, but the dreamer in me circles back at least once a year to the idea of leading an audience deep into the woods for an open-air screening of The Blair Witch Project, or some similarly nightmarish forest-set horror film, after dusk. Never say never…

What other innovations are you planning?

For our 10th anniversary year, we’re introducing some exciting new venues alongside the classics, and bringing back some of our most popular screenings from over the years alongside films that we’ve always wanted to screen but haven’t had the opportunity until now – so a healthy mix.

We’d like to explore some film-themed events that don’t necessarily involve sitting down to watch a full feature film. For example, last year we teamed up with The Theatre Cabaret for a night of movie musical performances, and I’m working on a concept further exploring the links between classic films and wine (a match made in heaven!).

Where do you see the festival in ten years’ time?

Hopefully still doing what we love, albeit on an even bigger scale and attracting some special guest speakers for some events too. Probably wincing every time an iconic film from our childhood passes another sobering milestone anniversary (what do you mean Jurassic Park came out in 1993?!). And maybe even doing pop-up cinema called ‘Horror In The Woods’…

To book, visit www.bristolfilmfestival.com.

Main image: Horror in the Caves – one the the Festival’s most successful strands. All images supplied by Bristol Film Festival.