Tickets go on general sale on Tuesday 17 September; however, make sure you plan and book early as some screenings and events sell out very quickly. BFI Members have access to priority booking from Tuesday 10th September.
Dates 9 Sep 10:00: Priority booking for BFI Patrons 10 Sep 10:00: Priority booking for BFI Members (join here) 17 Sep 10:00: Tickets on sale 3 Oct 10:00: Extra tickets released for some screenings and events 9-20 Oct: The Festival takes place
Screenings are taking place in London but also around the country at differnet cinemas.
That’s right last week marked 60 years since the release of Mary Poppins in cinemas and it has stayed around and delighted many generations from that moment forward. This is one of those films that I find strange if someone has not seen it, I think I exhausted my VHS tape (yes, I am that old) from watching and rewinding and watching again. Julie Andrews is practically perfect in every way as Mary Poppins and you cannot help but love the character. This was Julie Andrews big break after the controvesary of her not being cast in My Fair Lady having played the role to perfection on stage, and she started filming Poppins in 1963 ahead of the 1964 release date, I mean I guess it all worked out nicely in the end though given that she walked away with an Oscar for her efforts on the film.
Over the years we have had many different additions and further adaptations from Mary Poppins. It took all the way to 2004 for the stage musical version to be first performed and since then it has not only played on Broadway and in London’s West End but on tours around the world. I caught it in Newcastle on a UK tour in 2016 and it certainly manages to capture so much magic and transfer to the stage, but for me the special nature of the original film will always be difficult to beat.
In 2013 we had Saving Mr Banks which was loosely based around Walt Disney attempting to get the rights to the film from P.L. Travers who managed to resist for many years and often claimed that she did not like the film due to it being so different from her books. As a huge Mary Poppins fan I did enjoy that film though as it was just more to learn around the film being made. In 2018 we eventually got an always wanted sequel in Mary Poppins Returns with Emily Blunt taking over from Julie Andrews in the title role of Mary.
Virtual reality has been a mixed bag in reaching the potential it’s so broadly advertised. Some uses have constantly failed to deliver, but there are others where the technology offers hugely impressive solutions. Home cinema is one of these positive examples, providing an experience beyond what traditional at-home solutions can impart. There could be a real future here, and it might be closer than you think.
The VR Advantage
The biggest advantage of VR is also the most obvious one – it can completely fake anything in front of you. While these don’t cover your complete field of view, they have been expanding viewable areas as the generations advance. For reference, the original breakout VR device, the Oculus Rift, featured horizontal and vertical fields of views of 110 and 90 respectively. More modern systems like the Pimax Vision 5K Super, as noted at Tom’s Hardware, manage to hit 200 and 150 respective FOVs.
Though anything outside of this area might as well be blindered, anything within this space then emulated real space. This could start with simply browsing the internet on an enormous monitor, like checking out what’s available from an NJ casino app. Here your display could be the size of an entire wall, as you collect bonuses and promotions, play slots and table games, and otherwise enjoy what you would on a smaller screen on an enormous display.
In movies and TV, the advantages come from emulating screens of any size. This means your VR screen could dwarf anything measured in real life by the Guinness World Records, even if you have a wall three meters in front of you. From classic films in the Criterion Collection to the newest hits on digital, combining VR with quality headphones will be as close as many of us will come to owning a cinema of our own.
Not for Everyone
As great as this tech is, it’s still not a perfect solution for all users. Firstly, a VR headset is a personal system that is only good for one user at a time. This isn’t a problem if you love to watch alone, but it doesn’t exactly make for a great communal experience. VR can also be complicated to set up if you’re not technologically inclined.
Some users might also feel discomfort with VR, as it causes eye strain or nausea if used over long periods. These issues are being addressed with newer technology, but some might find the problems inescapable, especially if you suffer from poor eyesight. There’s also the immense challenge of eating popcorn while not being able to see what’s on your lap, an unforgivable roadblock for some enthusiasts.
For the right person with the right need (and the money to spend), VR headsets will become a perfect home cinema solution. The rest of us should also pay attention here, even if we’re not interested in other uses for VR systems. VR doesn’t just represent a small step in home entertainment, it’s an enormous leap that could fundamentally reshape how we engage with what we love.
Have you ever wondered what the Hollywood elite do once the cameras stop rolling? While some of them may retire to their mansions in Beverley Hills, others like to relax by hitting the casino. Plenty of movie stars are also poker players. In this article, we discuss six of the most famous actors who also play poker.
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck has pretty much ticked all the cinematic boxes possible. He has been an actor, screenwriter, and director, managing to do them all to perfection. He rose to prominence as a poker player in the mid-2000s, taking lessons from professional players such as Amir Vahedi.
Even before his career at the poker table, he was doing well in casinos. In 2001, he won $800,000 at a game of blackjack. By 2004 he had moved to poker, winning $356,400 at the California State Poker Championships. He is also known to be one of the celebrities who would take part in high-stakes poker games at the Viper Rooms in Los Angeles.
Tobey Maguire
The aforementioned poker games at the Viper Rooms were organised by arguably the most fanatical of Hollywood’s poker players, Tobey Maguire. He also started his career around the same time as Affleck, circa 2004 at the height of the poker boom. Like Affleck, he was trained by the very best, hiring Canadian six-time World Series of Poker winner Daniel Negreanu to train him.
Jennifer Tilly
Jennifer Tilly is a Hollywood actress, who has featured in movies such as Bullets Over Broadway, Bound, and even horror thrillers like Bride of Chucky. One of her early movies was Let It Ride, a movie about gambling on horse racing.
Her early life was spent in Harbour City, Los Angeles, where she has said she was given a poker video game by her father. This sparked her interest in the pursuit and this move paid off. She has been coached by player Phil Laak, who she has also been romantically involved with.
To date, her achievements include a World Series Poker winners bracelet and she has won the Ladies No-Limit Texas Hold’em competition. This has seen her net over $1 million in winnings. Despite a few breaks where she has returned to acting, she continues to play to this day.
Shannon Elizabeth
Shannon Elizabeth was almost a professional tennis player, before becoming a teen idol in Hollywood during the late nineties and early noughties. Her acting break came when she was cast in the American Pie trilogy.
However, it could be said her poker career has been more successful than that of her acting. She once described it as her second career. Between 2006 and 2010, she played in the main event of the World Series of Poker. She then won a tournament celebrating the opening of a new room at Caesar’s Palace. With a few more accolades under her belt, she retired in 2010 without saying why and has now made a return to acting.
Kevin Hart
Kevin Hart has had quite a career as a poker player. A lot of his income has come from brand associations, being sponsored by some of the biggest online sites for poker players in the US and beyond. They provide a range of games and are part of the reason the popularity of poker has spread so far. Many of these poker sites are ranked on a range of criteria, including the quality of the user experience, and the range of buy-ins catering to all levels of player.
With his “everyman”, funny guy-next-door attitude, Kevin Hart is a great choice as an ambassador who shows that poker can be enjoyed by everyone.
This has meant his tournaments have had some huge buy-ins, including a 2017 super high roller event which had a $100,000 buy-in. After this, he went to another in Las Vegas with a $300,000 buy-in. However, his style is extremely aggressive and sporadic, meaning he either wins gloriously or fails in the same fashion.
Matt Damon
Matt Damon is another veteran of the Viper Room games. Despite being known for this, and even featuring in the movie Rounders which is a classic poker-themed game, Damon shies away from the cameras. Most of his poker playing is done in secret, ensuring only the inside circle knows how good he is and how much he has managed to win.
There are plenty of other celebrity poker players, from game show hosts to sports stars. However, Hollywood provides some of the most interesting characters at the table, with money to spend and the urge to take risks. It can’t be long before a new crop arrives on the poker scene.
A group of young space colonists come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe when they are scavenging in the deep of a derelict space station. The chance of a better life is all they wanted.
Mike McKenna is a down to earth construction worker who lives in a small town in New Jersey. One night his high school sweetheart Roxanne Hall turns up at the bar and everything is about to get rather crazy!
Willa and Bill are ex-lovers who see each other for the first time in many years when they are both snowed in at an airport overnight with delays and cancellations for all flights.
JJ a veteran CIA agent is about to reunite with his protege Sophie and they must work together depsite her rebelling teenage moments to prevent a nuclear scheme in Vatican City, where they just happen to be on a high school choir trip in Italy.
Lily is still very much haunted by her traumatic childhood, which is sparked with the death of her father. Attempting to move forward with her life she by chance meetings the rather charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid.
A father, Cooper and his teenage daughter Riley attend a pop concert of Lady Raven only all is not as it seems when a trap had been set to find a most wanted serial killer.
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