Empire Of Light
2022 • 115m • English With Subtitles • 15
Sam Mendes’s luminous love letter to cinema unfolds in 1980s Margate, where Olivia Colman’s troubled duty manager discovers solace with a new colleague in a fading picture palace.
Dreamland’s remodelled façade becomes the fictional Empire, framing a story of connection, everyday oppression and the magic of moviegoing. Shot across Margate, Cliftonville and the Kent coast, the film captures the town’s melancholy beauty in Roger Deakins’s glowing cinematography.
Rating: Contains strong language and mental health themes.
Screened with A Room By The Sea (5m)
18:00, Saturday 21 March 2026
Screen 4, The Ashford Cinema
Screened with A Room By The Sea (5m)
Doors 17:50
Credits
Director(s)
Sam Mendes
Writer(s)
Sam Mendes
Producer(s)
Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris
Director of Photography
Roger Deakins
Composer
Trent Reznor
Atticus Ross
Editor
Lee Smith
Production Designer
Mark Tildesley
Costume Designer
Alexandra Byrne
Casting
Nina Gold
Principle Cast
Colin Firth
Toby Jones
Tanya Moodie
Micheal Ward
Olivia Colman
Crystal Clarke
Meet The Artist
Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE was born on August 1, 1965, in Reading, Berkshire, England, to a Trinidadian father and English Jewish mother.
He studied English at Cambridge University, where he became involved in theatre. Mendes gained prominence as artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse, directing acclaimed productions like Cabaret and The Glass Menagerie. Transitioning to film, his debut, American Beauty, earned him the Academy Award for Best Director. He also directed Road to Perdition, Skyfall, Spectre, and 1917, winning multiple BAFTAs and Golden Globes. Mendes has received a knighthood for services to drama.
