Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, Empire of Light is a compelling and poignant drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times, from Academy Award® winning director Sam Mendes.

Empire of Light features a stellar cast led by Academy Award winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, The Lost Daughter), BAFTA winner Micheal Ward (Blue Story, Top Boy) and Academy Award winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man). It also reunites Mendes with Academy Award winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (1917, Skyfall).

Sam Mendes is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter and is ranked by The Daily Telegraph  number 15 in their list of the “100 most powerful people in British culture”.

In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1993), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).

In film, he made his directorial debut with the drama American Beauty (1999), which earned him the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director. He has since directed the crime film Road to Perdition (2002), Jarhead (2005), the drama Revolutionary Road (2008), and the James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). For the war film 1917 (2019), he received the BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director, as well as his second Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

“It’s not saying anything new but it’s a heartwarming reminder of the joy, comfort and necessity of the big screen experience.” ~Luke Hearfield, London Evening Standard

“A well-drawn and -acted relationship between two troubled souls – the duty manager of the Empire Cinema, Hilary (Olivia Colman) and its latest employee Stephen (Micheal Ward) – turn this film into a treasure worthy of its own magnificently-crumbling Art Deco Screens 1 and 2.” ~ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

Drama

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