We’re excited for our 80th Anniversary Film Festival on the weekend of 5-7 June! The festival is a special one-off bonus event for members, so we’re going to run it slightly differently than our normal screenings. Half the seats will be bookable in advance, starting from 13 May.
These screenings are for members only – three film samplers will be accepted but holders cannot book in advance. Members cannot ‘Bring a buddy’ to any of the screenings in the film festival. We are not selling one-off tickets.
We’re running all screenings in the same way, apart from our Sunday morning screening of Fantastic Mr Fox, which we are enabling members to bring children along to.
Our membership desk will have limited availability during the film festival. Make sure your membership is valid and you have your card well in advance.
More details on each of these points are below:
- Half the seats for each screening will be bookable in advance, and the rest will be available on the day on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
The Embassy seats 750, and we’re going to make half the seats bookable through Humanitix in advance. You can book from 13 May. We will email members the links to make their booking and these links will then be accessible via our website.
We are doing this because we know from experience that if we made all the seats bookable, many people would book and then be unable to attend on the day, leaving lots of empty seats. We want to maximise the number of people who can attend the screenings.
To book, you must have a valid full year membership to the Wellington Film Society. Your membership must be valid at the time of booking, and also at the time of the screening in June. If you need to renew during this time, make sure you do!
You must book through Humanitix using the same name and email as your Wellington Film Society membership, in order to enable cross-referencing.
Places are bookable per film rather than for the whole festival, so you can pick what selection of films you want to see. We’ll be clearing and cleaning the theatre between films so you’ll need to exit to the lobby after each film, just like between our usual Monday 6 and 8:30 screenings. Seating will be unallocated for all screenings, as normal.
On the day of the screening, we will check both your Humanitix booking via a QR code, and your Film Society membership.
If you have a three film sampler, you cannot book in advance. You can attend screenings on the ‘first come, first served’ basis for the remaining seats. We will clip your card for each screening you attend.
- Be on time if you have booked
If you are not on time, we may give your booking away to members who are waiting. Please be seated in the cinema five minutes before the screening time. After that point we do not guarantee your booking is valid. Our priority is to have as many people see the film as possible.
We will open the cinema half an hour before all screenings. We’ll share more details about how we will be running the screenings closer to the time. We intend to use both cinema doors, with one for those who have booked and the other who haven’t.
- Members can book to bring guests to Fantastic Mr Fox
We will make all seats bookable for Fantastic Mr Fox because we’re enabling members to bring guests. Again, bookings must be made by members of the Wellington Film Society, but you can bring guests who are not members. The point of this is to enable children to have a fun film experience so please act in this spirit. Members will be able to book up to five seats as part of their booking, but we ask that they don’t book more seats than they need.
- The membership desk will have limited availability during the film festival.
It is best to make sure in advance that your membership is current. We are not running a membership desk for all screenings; it will open twice a day at the times listed below.
All purchases during the festival must be done online: the desk will be for making and collecting cards only. We will not be taking payments at the desk with cash or card. If you need your membership card laminated, this will not be done at the desk during the festival; you must bring your card to one of our regular Monday screenings instead.
TIMETABLE
FRIDAY 5 JUNE
5.00pm – Membership Desk – card pick-up only
6pm – Notorious (101 mins) – ends @ 7.45pm
8.15pm – Membership Desk – card pick-up only
8.30pm – Boogie Nights (154 mins) – ends @ 11.05pm
SATURDAY 6 JUNE
9.00am – Membership Desk – card pick-up only
10am– Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (201 mins) – ends @ 1.20pm
5.00pm – Membership Desk – card pick-up only
6.00pm – Peking Opera Blues (106 mins) – ends @ 7.50pm
8.30pm – The Lure (92 mins) – ends @ 10.05pm
SUNDAY 7 JUNE
9.30am – Membership Desk – card pick-up only
10.00am – Fantastic Mr Fox (87 mins) – ends @ 11.30am
2.30pm – Membership Desk – card pick-up only
3pm – Imitation of Life (125 mins) – ends @ 5.05pm
6pm – 8 ½ (138 mins) – ends @ 8.20pm