The 2023 British Film Festival is touring the nation in November, touching down at Palace Cinemas in every capital city. And while great British exports are many – powered flight, vaccines, the toothbrush – one of the nation’s most enduring is its contributions to popular music. So it makes sense the British Film Festival has programmed a series of great UK films worth seeing and listening to.
In light of such sensory delights, the festival has teamed up with eminent British audio company Bowers and Wilkins to give away two sets of headphones. Founded over 50 years ago on the premise of being dedicated to faithfully recreating sound as per the artist’s intent, Bowers and Wilkins headphones are some of the finest in the world. Two lucky winners will receive either the Pi5 S2 earbuds (valued at $499) or the newly released Px7 S2e over-ear headphones (valued at $599), to keep the tunes going long after the screenings.
There are also four double-passes to the festival to be won. There also happens to be four excellent music movies on the program. Coincidence?
Chief among them is Squaring the Circle, director Anton Corbijn’s love letter to Hipgnosis, the design duo of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey "Po" Powell, who in the 1970s become rock royalty for creating some of the most recognisable album covers of all time, including Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and albums of the era for Wings, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.
Being Corbjin (ie: the director of the Ian Curtis biopic Control and U2’s favourite photographer), he gets access to some of the biggest names in music, including Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Noel Gallagher and Peter Gabriel. They each pontificate about the durability of both the duo’s work and the album cover as an art form in its own right, while dropping some excellent rock lore gossip along the way.
Also on the program is Tommy, the 1975 rock opera inspired by legendary British band The Who and their 1969 album of the same name; a love letter to teenage fandom in Greatest Days, a musical featuring the songs of pop boyband Take That set to a tale of friends reuniting after winning a competition to see the group reunite in Greece; and Mad About the Boy, a doco on the incredibly successful British playwright, composer, singer, writer and most anything else he put his hand to, Noël Coward.
To enter, all you need to do is fill out your details here
The Cunard British Film Festival runs November 1-29, 2023 across all capital cities. See the full program and screening times.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Palace Cinemas.
