PREVIEWS, PREMIERES AND ON DAY OF RELEASE FILMS

Alongside its regular programme, this year’s festival brings audiences a run of films ahead of their UK release, together with a British premiere, a regional premiere and a screening on its actual day of release.

The festival opens on Friday 16 October with the British theatrical premiere of Tinā, Miki Magasiva’s New Zealand drama starring Anapela Polataivao as a grieving substitute teacher who starts a school choir. The screening takes place at The Mowlem as this year’s Opening Gala.

On Friday 23 October, the festival’s Rex Opener brings the regional premiere of Calle Málaga, Maryam Touzani’s drama starring Carmen Maura as a Spanish widow in present-day Tangiers fighting to keep her home. The screening takes place at The Rex Cinema, Wareham.

Three films screen ahead of their UK release as festival previews –

Fatherland, Paweł Pawlikowski’s drama about the life of author Thomas Mann starring Sandra Hüller, screens at The Mowlem on Tuesday 20 October, having won Best Director at this year’s Cannes.

Minotaur, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s drama of an extramarital affair set against the war in Ukraine, winner of the Grand Prix and the Soundtrack Award, screens at The Rex Cinema on Tuesday 27 October.

Whispers in the Woods, Vincent Munier’s documentary following three generations of a family in the Vosges forests of eastern France, has its preview at the Electric Palace, Bridport, on Sunday 25 October, ahead of a further screening at The Rex Cinema the same evening.

Wicker, the darkly comic, folksy fantasy starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård, screens at The Mowlem on Friday 30 October on its actual day of release.

Three films screen as part of the festival’s 2026 Cannes Highlights strand, bringing this year’s top Cannes prize-winners to Purbeck. Fatherland, Minotaur, and Fjord – Cristian Mungiu’s social drama starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, winner of this year’s Palme d’Or, screens at The Mowlem on Wednesday 28 October.