With everything from immersive murder mystery screenings to classic cinema under the stars, Flatpack Festival’s nineteenth edition promises nine days of cinematic adventures in venues across Birmingham.
The BAFTA-qualifying short film programme returns with a new animation award, a musical focus pairs new commissions with rare archival finds and special guests include Texan film composer Graham Reynolds and Midlands musical legend Noddy Holder.
Programme highlights
Immersive screenings
Murder Mystery fans can take part in an immersive ‘whodunnit’-style screening of cult comedy crime caper Clue.
Flatpack returns to Birmingham’s Botanical Gardens for two helpings of immersive horror, kicking off with Alfred Hitchcock’s Technicolour masterpiece The Birds on Thursday, followed by iconic sci-fi horror Alien on Friday evening.
Brand new
Opening the festival, an immersive audiovisual experience sees visual artist Guri Bosh and experimental electronic jazz trio un.procedure come together for a performance inspired by the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts.
Co-commissioned film The Dark Mirror by artist Moira Salt uses archive footage to explore the displacement of people caused by construction of canals, accompanied by a new soundtrack by Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman.
María Trénor’s new animated feature Rock Bottom gets its UK premiere at Flatpack, marking the 50th anniversary of Robert Wyatt’s iconic album of the same name.
From the archive
Fifty years after it bewildered many of Slade’s teenage fans, the wonderfully grubby, offbeat snapshot of British rock‘n’roll Slade in Flame is back on the big screen thanks to a new BFI restoration. Flatpack audiences will get to mark the occasion with one of the film’s stars: musical legend, Mr Noddy Holder.
Other archive gems will screen with new live scores – soviet-era gothic fantasy film Viy will have its soundscape reimagined by UK multi-instrumentalist Rusty Sheriff.
And some will appear in front of audiences for the first time in decades, with ‘lost’ surrealist film Time Flower by zoologist and surrealist artist Desmond Morris to be shown for the first time since 1955.
Drawing on an archive of films, television, books, magazines, music, video games and other forms of horror-related culture and media from 1970-2000, exhibition Fear in the Bedroom examines how horror shapes young people’s understanding of the world, while challenging the notion of its harmful influence.
Live cinema
Multitalented musician and composer Graham Reynolds returns to Flatpack to accompany a masterpiece of silent cinema, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger.
Evoking the gilded nights of 1960s Paris, Polish audiovisual artist Ela Orleans‘ La Nuit Dorée is a nostalgic, audiovisual exploration of haute couture.
Steven McInerney’s A Monster with Its Mouth Agape is a cinematic exploration of Butoh, a 16mm performance with striking visuals – high contrast, exaggerated grain, and abstract colours, depicting the chaotic climate of post-war Japan.
Natalia Kozieł-Kalliomäki’s live cinema performance Warm Data is a celebration of a bustling and vibrant Toronto. The city symphony combines 16mm footage via two projectors with colourful kaleidoscopic silhouettes performed almost as a puppet show using an oldskool overhead projector.
“We’re incredibly excited to share the 2025 programme with Birmingham and the world,” says Sam Groves, Head of Programme. “This year’s festival is a true reflection of Flatpack’s spirit – playful, surprising, and always pushing the boundaries of what cinema can be. We invite audiences to join us for nine days of unforgettable experiences.”
Features, docs & shorts
Spanning all kinds of genres and styles, the BAFTA-qualifying Short Film Competition showcases boundary-pushing films that represent the best in contemporary filmmaking.
Mark Silcox, in a brilliantly awkward performance, stars as a man desperately seeking a second date with Katherine Parkinson in Joe Lycett’s latest short film.
Gripping documentary The Flats peels back the layers of Belfast’s New Lodge estate, revealing the lingering shadows of the Troubles.
Alt rock icons Pavement get the tongue-in-cheek tribute they deserve from Alex Ross Perry, who describes Pavements as ‘not a Pavement documentary, but a Pavement movie.’
Flatpack Festival returns to Birmingham 9-17 May with 80+ events in venues across the city.
Check out the full programme here: https://flatpackfestival.org.uk/