2015 Widescreen Weekend - first details announced
60th birthday celebration of Oklahoma! and Todd-AO widescreen technology
Passes on sale from 20th May
The 2015 Widescreen Weekend will screen the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! (1955, dir. Fred Zinneman), celebrating of the 60th anniversary of both the film and the Todd-AO* 70mm widescreen technology it featured.
This autumn, Widescreen Weekend’s international fan base, and those new to the spectacle of large-format cinema, will be treated to an array of classics and rarities at the National Media Museum - one of only three venues in the world capable of screening 70mm widescreen, 3-strip Cinerama and 35mm film formats under one roof.
Passes go on sale today (Wednesday 20th May) for the four-day cinematic extravaganza held at the Museum, from 15 – 18 October.
Duncan McGregor, Widescreen Weekend Curator, said: “This is the 19th Widescreen Weekend at the National Media Museum, and we continue to celebrate and enjoy some of the most remarkable cinematic experiences ever filmed. The weekend mixes cast-iron classics, modern day widescreen films, and a few lesser-known but no less interesting titles. It demonstrates that throughout the history of the movies, cinema technology has constantly pushed the boundaries to provide the most exciting spectacle possible.”
Highlights include a 70mm screening of director Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) on Pictureville Cinema’s immersive curved screen – the only cinema outside the USA capable of showing the seminal sci-fi epic in this format - and the European premiere of the digitally restored The Best of Cinerama (1963), which is the only Cinerama film yet to be shown at the Museum.
The Weekend also hosts the second Student Widescreen Film of the Year award, following last year’s inaugural event. This continues the Museum’s collaboration with BKSTS, The International Moving Image Society, in the society’s promotion of widescreen aesthetics and production values in UK film schools, with competition screenings of new short films.
In addition, arguably the most popular of all the Cinerama films returns in a dynamic three-projector screening of How the West Was Won(1962) from an authentic Technicolor print.
Full Widescreen Weekend passes are on sale from Wednesday 20 May and can be booked by visiting www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/widescreen Prices start from £65.
The deadline for buying passes is 30 September 2015. Individual tickets go on sale in August.
* Todd-AO began as a high resolution widescreen film format, developed in the early 1950s by Broadway producer Mike Todd and the American Optical Company. It was designed as a high definition, single camera process, intended to simplify and compete with the Cinerama system which involved three separate strips of film running through three synchronised cameras. Mike Todd was quoted as saying it was: “Cinerama out of one hole.”
Films made using the Todd-AO widescreen process include: Around the World in 80 Days (1956) Cleopatra (1963), The Sound of Music (1965), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Doctor Dolittle (1967), Hello, Dolly! (1969) & Airport (1970).
Todd-AO first appeared publicly in 1955, following other major widescreen systems – Cinerama (1952), CinemaScope (1953) & VistaVision (1954).