Films & Events

Join us at the Birks Cinema for a Film, a Feast, and Storytelling. Tuesday 28 October at 5:30pm. £10/Under 18 FreeFilm: Flight of the Swans, followed by discussion with film protagonist and producer, Sacha Dench (CEO, Ambassador for the UN’s Convention on Migratory Species, Conservation Without Borders)Feast: Northern ThemeStorytelling: Join Finnish Storyteller Anna-Maria Toivonen and Claire Hewitt as they weave Swan lore, songs, and stories from their tradit...

• Tuesday, October 28th

  • 17:30
    Book Tickets

Devi Sridhar: Health For All Mon 11 Aug 11:00 - 12:00 Live streaming from Edinburgh International Book Festival What's the key to a longer, healthier life? Is the answer in self-help books and disciplined individual optimisation, or should we be holding governments to account for their policies on everything from pandemic preparedness to water treatment? Edinburgh University's Personal Chair of Global Health Devi Sridhar (who became a household name during the pandemic), believes it's the latte...

• Monday, August 11th

  • 11:00
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Metropolitan Opera LA SONNAMBULA [New Production] AS LIVE: Tuesday 21st October 2025, 18:45 BST Running time: 195 minutes, One Interval Sung in Italian with English subtitles. Cast: Amina NADINE SIERRA Lisa SYDNEY MANCASOLA Elvino XABIER ANDUAGA Rodolfo ALEXANDER VINOGRADOV Creatives: Music VINCENZO BELLINI Conductor RICCARDO FRIZZA Director ROLANDO VILLAZÓN Set Designer JOHANNES LEIACKER Costumer Designer BRIGITTE REIFFENSTUEL Lighti...

• Tuesday, October 21st

  • 18:45
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Ballet GISELLE LIVE: Tuesday 3rd March 2026, 19:15 GMT Running time: 210 minutes (To be confirmed) Cast: To be confirmed Creatives: Choreography MARIUS PETIPA after JEAN CORALLI and JULES PERROT Music ADOLPHE ADAM Edited by LARS PAYNE Conductor VELLO PAHN Scenario THÉOPHILE GAUTIER after HEINRICH HEINE Production and Additional Choreography PETER WRIGHT Designer JOHN MACFARLANE Original Lighting JENNIFER TIPTON Re-created by DAVID...

• Tuesday, March 3rd

  • 19:15
    Book Tickets

Frida Kahlo is a phenomenon. She is arguably the world’s favourite female artist – beloved by young and old. Exhibition on Screen’s award-winning film – first released during covid to a restricted audience - is back by popular demand with an exciting new addition from the blockbuster transatlantic exhibition from Tate Britain and MFA Houston 'Frida Kahlo: the Making of an Icon'. Back in the cinemas in May 2026, one month before the Tate exhibition opens, allowing audiences to watch both the film...

• Tuesday, May 19th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets

Can't get enough Arnold? Buy a ticket for 'The Terminator' as well and get a £1 off both tickets! Discount will apply on the payment page. In this sequel set eleven years after "The Terminator," young John Connor (Edward Furlong), the key to civilization's victory over a future robot uprising, is the target of the shape-shifting T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a Terminator sent from the future to kill him. Another Terminator, the revamped T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), has been sent back to protect t...

• Saturday, September 6th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Opera SIEGFRIED LIVE: Tuesday 31st March 2026, 17:15 BST Running time: 330 minutes (to be confirmed) Sung in German with subtitles Cast: Siegfried ANDREAS SCHAGER Mime PETER HOARE Der Wanderer CHRISTOPHER MALTMAN Brünnhilde ELISABET STRID Alberich CHRISTOPHER PURVES Fafner SOLOMAN HOWARD Erda WIEBKE LEHMKUHL Woodbird SARAH DUFRESNE Creatives: Music RICHARD WAGNER Conductor ANTONIO PAPPANO Director BARRIE KOSKY Set Designer RUFUS DI...

• Tuesday, March 31st

  • 17:15
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Opera LA TRAVIATA LIVE: Wednesday 14th January 2026, 18:45 GMT Running time: 240 minutes (To be confirmed) Sung in Italian with subtitles Cast: Violetta Valéry ERMONELA JAHO Alfredo Germont GIOVANNI SALA Giorgio Germont ALEKSEI ISAEV Annina VEENA AKAMA-MAKIA Doctor Grenvil BARNABY REA Flora Bervoix ELLEN PEARSON Baron Douphol SAM HIRD Gastone de Letorières GIORGI GULIASHVILI Marquis d’Obigny OSSIAN HUSKINSON Creatives: Music GIUSE...

• Wednesday, January 14th

  • 18:45
    Book Tickets

Join us at the Birks Cinema on Friday 26 September at 7:30pm for 'Living Stone', a Fringe First-winning show by Mairi Campbell, created with director Kath Burlinson and co-composer Dave Gray. The journey begins with the discovery of an ancient millstone on Mairi’s great-grandmother’s croft on the Isle of Lismore, leading her to uncover the stone’s secrets and the captivating images and stories it holds.Blending live music, song and Mairi’s beautiful viola playing with striking visual a...

• Friday, September 26th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets

Back by popular demand from the 2025 Birks Wilderness Film Festival. The Road to Patagonia is a stunning, intimate and unflinching series of love letters within a documentary – firstly a love between two people, and secondly between humanity and the Earth. We follow Matty Hannon on an incredible solo adventure, to surf the west coast of the Americas by motorbike, from the top of Alaska to the tip of Patagonia. But deep in the wilderness – alone with the wolves and the bears – the journeyer’s p...

• Friday, July 4th

  • 16:45
    Book Tickets

• Saturday, July 5th

  • 19:45
    Book Tickets

• Sunday, July 6th

  • 13:20
    Book Tickets

• Monday, July 7th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets

• Tuesday, July 8th

  • 17:00
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Ballet CINDERELLA AS LIVE: Tuesday 25th November 2025, 19:15 GMT Running time: 195 minutes (To be confirmed) Filmed live at the Royal Opera House, London, in December 2024 Cast: Cinderella FUMI KANEKO The Prince WILLIAM BRACEWELL Cinderella’s Step-Sisters BENNET GARTSIDE, JAMES HAY Cinderella’s Father THOMAS WHITEHEAD The Fairy Godmother MAYARA MAGRI The Fairy Spring ISABELLA GASPARINI The Fairy Summer MARIKO SASAKI The Fairy Autumn M...

• Tuesday, November 25th

  • 19:15
    Book Tickets

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of their births, this unmissable new documentary explores Turner and Constable’s intertwined lives and legacies alongside the groundbreaking Tate exhibition. Two of Britain’s greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were also the greatest of rivals. Born within a year of each other, both used landscape painting to reflect the changing world around them. Tate Britain is bringing these two greats together for a groundbreaking exhibition, in London from...

• Sunday, March 15th

  • 16:00
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Ballet LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE LIVE: Wednesday 5th November 2025, 19:15 GMT Running time: 210 minutes (To be confirmed) Cast: To be confirmed Creatives: Choreography FREDERICK ASHTON Music FERDINAND HÉROLD Conductor JONATHAN LO Arrangement and Orchestration JOHN LANCHBERY Scenario JEAN DAUBERVAL Designer OSBERT LANCASTER Lighting Designer JOHN B. READ Synopsis: Lise, the only daughter of Widow Simone, is in love with the young far...

• Wednesday, November 5th

  • 19:15
    Book Tickets

Mystery, intrigue, beauty, passion, murder – shine a new light on Caravaggio in this dramatic biography… Five years in production, this is the most extensive film ever made about one of the greatest artists of all time – Caravaggio. Featuring masterpiece after masterpiece and with first-hand testimony from the artist himself on the eve of his mysterious disappearance, this beautiful new film reveals Caravaggio as never before. Multi-award-winning filmmakers David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky d...

• Sunday, November 16th

  • 16:00
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Ballet WOOLF WORKS LIVE: Monday 9th February 2026, 19:15 GMT Running time: 210 minutes (To be confirmed) Cast: To be confirmed Creatives: Direction and Choreography WAYNE MCGREGOR Music MAX RICHTER Conductor KOEN KESSELS Designer CIGUË, WE NOT I, WAYNE MCGREGOR Costume Designer MORITZ JUNGE Lighting Designer LUCY CARTER Film Designer RAVI DEEPRES Sound System Designer CHRIS EKERS Make-up Designer KABUKI Dramaturgy UZMA HAMEED Syn...

• Monday, February 9th

  • 19:15
    Book Tickets

Join us for a special screening of 'Out Loud'. Followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker Maureen Macleod. From the age of 16, singer Kim Carnie spent six years in a secret same-sex relationship. In the multi award-winning film, Kim Carnie Out Loud, Kim meets other members of the LGBTQ+ community from around the world, who also hid their sexuality for a variety of reasons, from being born in a country where being gay is illegal to feeling pressure from their family or community. She also meets LGBTQ...

• Tuesday, September 9th

  • 19:00
    Book Tickets

The July quiz will be held in the Birks Cinema Cafe! While the first floor is going through a few more upgrades, we will be in the freshly painted ground floor with Quizmaster Charlie. Gather your friends and family to win the top prize. Each team is allowed a maximum of 4 members, £10 per team. Add a bowl of nachos to share for an additional £5!...

• Friday, July 4th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Metropolitan Opera EUGENE ONEGIN AS LIVE: Tuesday 5th May 2026, 18:00 BST Running time: 245 minutes, Two Intervals Sung in Russian with English subtitles Cast: Tatiana ASMIK GRIGORIAN Olga MARIA BARAKOVA Filippyevna STEPHANIE BLYTHE Lenski STANISLAS DE BARBEYRAC Eugene Onegin IGOR GOLOVATENKO Prince Gremin ALEXANDER TSYMBALYUK Creatives: Music PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Conductor TIMUR ZANGIEV Director DEBORAH WARNER Set Designer TOM PYE...

• Tuesday, May 5th

  • 18:00
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Opera TOSCA [New Production] AS LIVE: Wednesday 1st October 2025, 18:45 BST Running time: 210 minutes (To be confirmed) Sung in Italian with subtitles Cast: Floria Tosca ANNA NETREBKO Mario Cavaradossi FREDDIE DE TOMMASO Baron Scarpia GERALD FINLEY Spoletta CARLO BOSI Cesare Angelotti OSSIAN HUSKINSON Sacristan ALESSANDRO CORBELLI Sciarrone SIPHE KWANI Creatives: Music GIACOMO PUCCINI Conductor JAKUB HRŮŠA Director OLIVER MEARS...

• Wednesday, October 1st

  • 18:45
    Book Tickets

Part of the monthly Heartland Film Society series. Hilmar Oddsson’s delightful 1980-set darkly comedic road movie is an oddball odyssey of self-discovery and acceptance across the beautifully photographed landscapes of Iceland. Middle-aged and disappointed, Jón (Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson) spends his days knitting and listening to the radio with his domineering elderly mother (Kristbjörg Kjeld) on their rural Icelandic farmstead. With his life overtaken with looking after his home and his mother’...

• Sunday, September 21st

  • 18:30
    Book Tickets

Join us at the Birks Cinema for a A Wolf Devours the Sun on Sunday 9 November at 6:30pm. Respected by ancient cultures yet cast as archetypal villain in European fairy tales, wolves were hunted to extinction in Scotland and beyond. Dougie Mackay takes a deep dive into the history of our troubled relations with our oldest ally, musing the impact its absence on our environment and psyche. Jemima Thewes provides shadow puppet animation and original, dreamlike soundscape. This show weaves ancient...

• Sunday, November 9th

  • 18:30
    Book Tickets

Can't get enough Arnold? Buy a ticket for 'Terminator 2' as well and get a £1 off both tickets! Discount will apply on the payment page. In 2029, the war between man and machine has desolated the Earth, leaving humanity all but wiped out. Pockets of survivors remain - either living as slaves serving their technological overlords, or as resistance fighters attempting to overthrow the sentient defence network that controls the machines. From this wasteland, two soldiers are sent back in time to...

• Saturday, September 6th

  • 16:00
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Opera THE MAGIC FLUTE AS LIVE: Tuesday 21st April 2026, 18:45 BST Running time: 210 minutes (To be confirmed) Sung in German with subtitles. Cast: Pamina JULIA BULLOCK Tamino AMITAI PATI Papageno HUW MONTAGUE RENDALL Queen of the Night KATHRYN LEWEK Sarastro SOLOMAN HOWARD Monostatos GERHARD SIEGEL Creatives: Music WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Conductor MARIE JACQUOT Director DAVID MCVICAR Designer JOHN MACFARLANE Lighting Designer PAU...

• Tuesday, April 21st

  • 18:45
    Book Tickets

THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND follows Charles, an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island and dreams of getting his favourite musicians, Mortimer-McGwyer back together. His fantasy quickly turns into reality when the bandmates and former lovers accept his invitation to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Old tensions resurface as Charles desperately tries to salvage his dream gig. Featuring the comedic genius of Tim Key and Tom Basden with the ever-luminous Carey...

• Friday, July 11th

  • 19:45
    Book Tickets

• Saturday, July 12th

  • 17:00
    Book Tickets

• Sunday, July 13th

  • 19:00
    Book Tickets

• Monday, July 14th

  • 19:30

    CC
    Book Tickets

• Tuesday, July 15th

  • 13:15
    Book Tickets

Join us for an exciting evening where we deliver our Criminal Law Series: The Guilty Act event!Taking place on Friday 12th September 2025 at 19:00 GMT, this in-person event is a must-attend for anyone interested or curious in understanding criminal law in Scotland.In this talk, we promise Real Cases, Real Crimes, Real Scotland. But what is a guilty act? What h...

• Friday, September 12th

  • 19:00
    Book Tickets

ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA CINEMA SEASON 2025/26 The Royal Ballet THE NUTCRACKER LIVE: Wednesday 10th December 2025, 19:15 GMT Running time: 210 minutes, One Interval (To be confirmed) Cast: To be confirmed Creatives: Choreography PETER WRIGHT after LEV IVANOV Music PYOTR IL’YICH TCHAIKOVSKY Conductor KOEN KESSELS Original Scenario MARIUS PETIPA after E.T.A. HOFFMANN Production and Scenario PETER WRIGHT Designer JULIA TREVELYAN OMAN Lighting Designer MARK HENDERSON Production Consultant...

• Wednesday, December 10th

  • 19:15
    Book Tickets

What if the thing you were searching for found you first? For centuries, people have called out to the universe looking for answers, and in Disney and Pixar’s all-new feature ELIO, the universe calls back! This cosmic misadventure introduces Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession. When he’s beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organisation with representatives from galaxies far and wide, Elio’s all in for the epic undertaking. Mistakenly identifi...

• Saturday, July 19th

  • 11:00

    RS
    Book Tickets

• Monday, July 21st

  • 13:15
    Book Tickets

A rare chance to see Emma Davie's presumed-lost documentary 'Flight', a road movie exploring Scottish folk traditions from Cape Breton to Nova Scotia. An important document of Scottish diaspora, 'Flight' explores how Scottish traditions continue to be expressed in Canada, long after families have left Scotland. Piping expert, Hamish Moore, will be joining us for a mini-concert and discussion. This event kindly brought to the Birks Cinema by Transgressive North, a Scottish arts collective....

• Friday, August 15th

  • 15:30
    Book Tickets

In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote a sexually frank debut novel, The Country Girls. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays. Her success enraged her writer husband and made her a pariah in her native Ireland, where her books were banned and burned. She would make her home in London, where she conducted numerous love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune. In July 2024,...

• Sunday, August 3rd

  • 16:00
    Book Tickets

Reverend Richard Coles Murder in the Parish Sat 9 Aug 11:45 - 12:45 Live streaming from Edinburgh International Book Festival Reverend Richard Coles has lived many lives: pop star, priest, public figure, and now bestselling author of the Canon Clement Mysteries. In A Death on Location, the arrival of a glamorous movie set causes a stir around town, not least when a murder takes place during filming. Join Coles to find out what makes a former man of the cloth want to write about murder, and whet...

• Saturday, August 9th

  • 11:45
    Book Tickets

THE SALT PATH is the profound true story of husband and wife, Raynor and Moth Winn’s 630-mile trek along the beautiful but rugged Cornish, Devon and Dorset coastline. After being forcibly removed from their home, they make the desperate decision to walk in the hope that, in nature, they will find solace and a sense of acceptance. With depleted resources, only a tent and some essentials between them, every step along the path is a testament to their growing strength and determination. THE SALT PA...

• Friday, July 4th

  • 19:15
    Book Tickets

• Saturday, July 5th

  • 16:45
    Book Tickets

• Sunday, July 6th

  • 15:45
    Book Tickets

• Monday, July 7th

  • 16:35
    Book Tickets

• Tuesday, July 8th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets

Quo Vadis, Aida? In 1995, the single worst atrocity of the Bosnian War happened in Srebrenica. Over 8,000 Bosnian Muslin man and boys were slaughtered by Serb forces. And yet there remain people who deny that this atrocity took place in this community where neighbour turned against neighbour. 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' is a dramatisation of the events leading up to and after the genocide. This film is sponsored by a local supporter of Beyond Srebrenica, a Scottish Charity that promotes awareness of t...

• Tuesday, September 30th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets

National Theatre Live: Inter Alia a new play by Suzie Miller Oscar-nominated Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn) is Jessica in the much-anticipated next play from the team behind Prima Facie. Jessica Parks is a smart Crown Court Judge at the top of her career. Behind the robe, she is a karaoke fiend, a loving wife and a supportive parent. When an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance, can she hold her family upright? Writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin reunite fol...

• Thursday, September 25th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets

From three-time Oscar® nominee and Golden Globe winner Dean DeBlois, the creative visionary behind DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, comes a stunning live-action reimagining of the film that launched the beloved franchise. On the rugged isle of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been bitter enemies for generations, Hiccup (Mason Thames; The Black Phone, For All Mankind) stands apart. The inventive yet overlooked son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler, re...

• Friday, July 4th

  • 10:30
    Book Tickets
  • 13:40
    Book Tickets

• Saturday, July 5th

  • 10:45

    RS
    Book Tickets
  • 13:30
    Book Tickets

• Sunday, July 6th

  • 10:20
    Book Tickets
  • 18:30
    Book Tickets

• Monday, July 7th

  • 10:30
    Book Tickets
  • 13:30
    Book Tickets

• Tuesday, July 8th

  • 10:45
    Book Tickets
  • 13:50
    Book Tickets

Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award-nominated writer Alex Garland reunite for 28 Years Later, a terrifying new story set in the world created by 28 Days Later. It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. W...

• Friday, July 18th

  • 19:30
    Book Tickets