• The Film Festival will run from 25th June to 7th July 
• Launch party with screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show 
• The Open-Air Cinema in Cathedral grounds will be open from Weds 26th June to Sat 6th July
• Demand for Abbey Open-Air Cinema prompts organisers to increase festival from 6 days to 11 days
• Abbey Open-Air Cinema will screen family films, blockbusters and iconic films
• 2019 is St Albans sixth film festival
• The theme for 2019 is ‘CLASSICS'  

This will be the sixth film festival to be held in the city that opened one of the first cinemas in the country a century ago, and the third year of an open-air cinema in the Cathedral grounds.   

A range of food and drink stalls will once again provide refreshments so the audience can pop open a bottle of bubbly on a balmy summer night to enjoy with their movie.

Tickets are now on sale and some of the classics being screened will include Gladiator, Romeo and Juliet, Grease, Silence of the Lambs, Trainspotting and recent Oscar-winner, Bohemian Rhapsody; sure to become a classic.

The festival kicks off with a Rocky Horror Picture Show launch party at the Alban Arena on 25th June at 8pm. Guests are encouraged to dress up in cult classic style to watch this iconic movie and party – as is the tradition with Rocky Horror. Tickets for this launch event are £10 and it is for age 15 and above.

There will be other films showing at the Alban Arena, and also at other locations in the historic city, as part of the festival, and more film-themed events which will be announced shortly.

The city of St Albans has an impressive filmmaking history. It was the birthplace of Arthur Melbourne-Cooper; the pioneer of moving pictures, as well as being a second home to Stanley Kubrick. And it is this authentic film heritage that has made the festival a huge success since 2013.

Matt Bigg, Festival Director along with Leoni Kibbey, says: "We cannot wait to bring the Abbey Open-Air Cinema to St Albans once again, in the beautiful Cathedral grounds, in what's known locally as the Abbey Orchard.  

"Our theme is classics, and we will be showing something for everyone: a ‘chick flick', a family film, a teen movie, and a mother and toddler screening. 

"We think this must be the most stunning location for an outdoor cinema in the UK - and it's only 20 minutes on the train from London, so we're expecting many visitors from outside the area."

-ENDS- 
 
The St Albans Film Festival would like to thank its lead sponsors for their support this year.  They are: University of Hertfordshire (UHArts), Willmott Dixon, Oaklands College, Dylans, Stowe Family Law, The Alban Arena and St Albans Cathedral.  

Press Contacts

Sophie Banks and Angie Cronin
Loudbird PR and Communications
Tel: 07815 147073 and  07970 810302
 
Twitter: @Loudbirdpr
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About the St Albans Film Festival

• Leoni Kibbey is the festival Founder and Director. She has is a St Albans resident and works as an actress and an acting agent, running TTA Adults - A division of Top Talent Agency.  Leoni won the Mayor's Pride Award for Cultural Innovation for setting up the St Albans Film Festival.
• Matt Bigg is the festival Director. He worked in design, advertising and web design agencies in London, whilst setting up the collective (a St Albans based design agency) and committed to the business full time in 2001.

About St Albans and filmmaking:

• The cathedral city of St Albans in Hertfordshire is just 20 minutes from St Pancras International and has a strong filmmaking heritage which inspired the festival director Leoni Kibbey, actress and casting director, to create the city's first film festival in 2013.
• Arthur Melbourne-Cooper who, in 1895, developed the first British 35mm moving picture camera and was a pioneer in making moving pictures, was born in the city of St Albans, and opened one of the first ever cinemas as we know them today in 1908, in St Albans.
• The much celebrated Stanley Kubrick also came to settle in the area, in which he created and produced some of his most famous work, including The Shining.
• The city's Roman aesthetic has been used as a backdrop to many films: St Albans Cathedral was a film location in Sean Connery's 1995 film First Knight, and in Johnny English starring Rowan Atkins; the 2001 film Birthday Girl starring Nicole Kidman was also partly filmed in St Albans; several scenes from the film Incendiary, starring Williams, Ewan and Matthew Macfadyen, were filmed in St Albans, and Tom Cruise also filmed his movie All You Need is Kill, in the area.
• St Albans is in close proximity to some of the best and busiest film studios in the world, such as Pinewood and Leavesden Studios.