The Purbeck Film Festival turns 30 with Rowan Atkinson

The Purbeck Film Festival returns from Friday 16 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, bringing its 30th anniversary season to venues across Purbeck, Poole, Bournemouth and nearby areas. For local film fans, the headline event is Rowan Atkinson’s appearance at The Mowlem Theatre in Swanage on Saturday 17 October, the first full day of the festival.

Atkinson will join cultural historian Matthew Sweet for a live conversation after a screening of Jacques Tati’s Mr Hulot’s Holiday (1953). The discussion will look at Tati’s influence on Atkinson’s creation of Mr Bean and at the French filmmaker’s wider contribution to physical comedy. Tickets go on sale on Friday 4 September 2026, so this is one to keep in mind if you would like to see Atkinson discussing one of his best-known creative influences in person.

The anniversary programme is spread across a wide mix of venues rather than being based in one cinema. Screenings are planned for The Mowlem, The Rex Cinema in Wareham, Lighthouse Arts Centre in Poole, Durlston Castle and other cinemas, halls, pubs, restaurants, hotels, arts spaces and historic buildings. The festival’s unusual settings are part of its established format, with events also taking place at locations such as Corfe Castle, secret gardens and stately homes. The programme itself brings together international arthouse films, classics, documentaries, previews, UK premieres, Cannes prize-winners and locally focused work. There will also be filmmaker conversations, special screenings, receptions and the annual Purbeck Short Film Festival competition, with prizes presented at The Mowlem on the final day.

Several events add to the 30th-anniversary line-up. BAFTA-nominated director Philippa Lowthorpe will present H Is for Hawk, her adaptation starring Claire Foy, at St Mary’s Church in Swanage. At The Etches Collection in Kimmeridge, families can watch Jurassic Park alongside a viewing of “Big Sara”, the museum’s Allosaurus. Other guests and contributors include Paddington in Peru location manager Eddy Pearce, Barbie and Ted Lasso second-unit director of photography John Sorapure, Julian Fellowes discussing Gosford Park, and actor Edward Fox. Harman’s Cross Village Hall will host a Dolly Parton tribute night.

The festival began in 1996 to mark the centenary of cinema. It has grown from 1,700 spectators across 21 screenings in its first year to more than 8,500 admissions in 2025, while remaining a not-for-profit charity run largely by volunteers. Claire Burns is Festival Director, and founder Pippa Punch remains associated with the event’s history. Previous guests have included Dame Maggie Smith, Stephen Frears and Asif Kapadia, while the festival’s patrons are Sir Mark Rylance and Sir Sam Mendes.

For Bournemouth readers, the appeal is the chance to combine a local autumn cinema trip with venues across the wider Purbeck area. The festival also runs its summer Cinema Under the Stars programme, including screenings at Corfe Castle and other Dorset locations over August, but the main 30th-anniversary season takes place in October and November. With Atkinson’s Tati conversation at its centre, the 2026 edition gives the long-running rural festival a particularly recognisable opening chapter for its next decade.