Oscar-winning Moonlight heads to Buxton Film Festival

Moonlight, which won the Best Film award at the Academy Awards, has been selected to close this year’s Buxton Film Festival.

The Festival is presented by Buxton Opera House in association with Buxton Film and it runs from 10-17 April when there will be more than 20 screenings and special events.

There is a strong literary connection in the programme – the fifth running of the Festival. The opening film is the black-and-white classic Jane Eyre which is part of the Robert Stevenson celebrations that are at the heart of the Festival. Stevenson was born in Buxton in 1905 and had a long career as a film director in Britain and the United States.

Stevenson also adapted Rider Haggard’s stirring adventure story King Solomon's Mines which stars Paul Robeson. PL Travers’ stories about a magical nanny, Mary Poppins – which will be presented as a sing-along, complete the Stevenson selections.

John Hurt – who died recently – was born in Derbyshire and he is remembered in the Festival with a screening of the chilling adaptation of Orwell’s 1984 which co-stars Richard Burton.

Among the recent releases on offer are JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, A United Kingdom which tells the true story of a prince from Africa who falls in love with a white woman in post-war London, and The Light Between Oceans which is a heart-rending adaptation of the best-selling novel.

Film-maker Esther May Campbell will be attending a special screening of her film Light Years which stars singer-songwriter Beth Orton. Esther will talk about her work and answer questions.

There are also two special sessions being organised by local groups. Events management students from the University of Derby are screening The Wizard of Oz and putting on some surprises to accompany the film.  On the opening evening of the Festival there is a screening of This Is Us a short film made by a local group, Opportunity To Speak. The group members are managing learning difficulties and the film is about their lives – the hopes and challenges that are their every day.

The 2017 Buxton Film Festival has been supported by the Film Hub North West Central – which has made the Robert Stevenson project possible – and Unsworth’s Memorial have generously donated the slate plaque commemorating Stevenson’s connection with Buxton.

Tickets for screenings are available from the Opera House box office - £5 for adults, £3 for children.